Royal Ivinghoe

Posted by Michael on 29 October 2010 | 0 Comments | Tags: Ivinghoe, London,

After our whirlwind journey on the continent, a couple of nights in a township North West of London called Tring, playing the local course called Ivinghoe beckoned as an appealing note on our excel spreadsheet.  It signaled the chance to spend two nights in one place, relax and play a local short course with good people who were eagerly awaiting our arrival.  Two nights in Tring also meant we periodically had escaped the wrath of the M25. Perfect.

Brian & Dominique Haworth were our hosts.  They welcomed us into their quaint cottage, which once used to be part of the local granary and still features a 17^th century well inside the house!  Brian has been a very enthusiastic supporter of puregolf throughout the year and so we were very much looking forward to staying with him, talking some golf and having a whirl at his local course that weâ??d heard so much about in previous email correspondence.   

For two nights in Tring we were made to feel very much at home and we even had the chance to catch up on the odd blog post (we havenâ??t had much time for this recently).  One thing that stood out in residence was the sheer quantity of golf stuff dotted around the house â?? from books to instructional videos to beautiful photographs and even the odd traning club.  Brian has come to golf late in life but has caught the bug hard!  With some success might I add as he is the current senior club champion at Ivinghoe.   The three of us lads enjoyed his collection as JP and I both buried our heads in a book or two (particularly of the top 500 golf holes in the world â?? and signed the page of our favourites (6 Royal Melbourne (JP) and 6 NSW for myself).  Bart sat for hours taking advice from Tom Watson on the big screen how he could improve his short game. Brian and Dominique, thank you very much for having the three of us stay it was a great couple of nights.

Now Brian had a cunning plan about  how to make our day at Ivinghoe extra special. We were to play with the local course record holder, Matt Culley, and members were challenged to donate to The First Tee for every hole that either JP or I beat Matt.   Brian, an advertising executive, also coined our visit a â??course record attemptâ?? which was, in a word, optimistic.

So when we hit off on the downhill 250m par four first hole there were a crowd of local punters watching and Iâ??ll admit to a few nerves.  Think the others were about the same as we all (except for Bart) hit some self conscious shots well away from the out of bounds on the right.

Matt Culley is a 20 year old lad who currently holds the Ivinghoe course record of 59.  Before you get too excited about us playing with the next Justin Rose (which Matt may well yet become) the par around Ivinghoe is 62.  It is a short course built on a small plot of land which is pitched at quite a slope away from the clubhouse and has 9 holes, 5 of which are par threes with four par 3â??s thrown into the mixer as well.   It is a workingmanâ??s course where you can pay and play 9 holes for a mere 6 quid, and today was doing a roaring trade â?? it is good to see golf is alive and well in England.

The Culley family own the course â?? a dream of Mattâ??s grandfather some decades ago.   Now there is a solid membership playing here, a course that is in good condition and a bar that has a real buzz and quite possibly the best golf club chef weâ??ve encountered this year.

First Iâ??ll mention the golf and how it took all of 5 minutes for Brian to realise that his course record was safely intact.  Ivinghoe is a tricky course and what it lacks in length it makes up for around the greens.  Each of the 9 greens is small, undulating and if you possess a short game like mine youâ??re better off sticking to the pool table in the bar.   I had Brian on the bag giving me a few local pointers but as we all know even with the best of intentions itâ??s not always that easy to follow the instructions!  JP on the other hand was in his element getting up and down from all over Ivinghoe and carrying the match so that we had 9 wins over Matt and JP beat him overall by a couple of strokes.   In all over 100 pounds was raised which was a very generous. 

As for the course record â?? JP wasnâ??t too far away shooting +1 â?? a Top Effort considering there are three incredibly difficult par threes which, played twice, have ruined many a round according to Matt & brother Tom (a very good punter).   Bart made up the four.  After the round he was back to Brians and watching instructional videos from Tom Watson and Seve on how to improve your short game. Need I say more.  He also brought his first set of ironsâ?¦

From the course we were straight into the clubhouse playing pool with the locals and enjoying a pint of Cornwall Ale.    I steered clear of the pool table preferring to chat with some local members down enjoying a quiet beer on their Friday afternoon.  

Now to Bob the chef who looked like a chef and boy could cook like a chef.  I asked him â??what do you recommend?â??. He scowled and said â??itâ??s all good and cooked freshâ??.  I thought, hmm that doesnâ??t help.  Needless to say when my Cajun Chicken came out I was taken aback by how damn good it was.  Bartâ??s steak looked perfect and JP was waxing lyrical about his bangers and mash.    We got some snaps with Bob behind his bar, and I may have even sneakily topped up my Guinness as we were all smiling for the cameras. Crafty.

 

We thanked the Culleys and headed back to Brians where a special guest was coming round to visit â?? Jamie Lyle, the Son Of.   So we sat and heard a few golfing stories about life growing up with the Scottish Champion.   After another cracking dinner we were off to the local watering hole in Tring where we met up with Matt & Tom Culley for a debrief and Jamie Lyle had a couple of pints with us too.  Although it was a different story for the lads who had been targeted by a dozen cougars and were doing their utmost to escapeâ?¦

So much happens in our worlds that on days like this it is impossible to encapsulate it.  But the day at Ivinghoe was a goodie thanks to the cunning plan of Brian Haworth, Brian & Dominique were cracking hosts and the Culley lads good craic and we hope to have a hit with them again one day in NZ.  Until next time..