Golf With Des

Well, here we are two weeks in on the Thursday Evening golfing season and what a start it’s been.  Last week was a massive early victory for me beating both The Mighty Alan Allen and Stan by 7 (or 8, but there’s the controversy) strokes!

I didn’t play my best, but I did play consistently which meant I finished on 40 (or 39 if the truth be known) whilst Stan and The Mighty Alan Allen(Grrrrr!) both finished on 47.

Stan wears jeans and trainers but looks nothing like this

But, the main issue was the fact that Stan (who is a member no less) turned up and played in jeans and trainers!

I did try to report him to the staff to have him removed, but they chose to ignore me for some reason unknown.  Anyway, we’ve made a short film about the 1st week’s game, which should be online at some point this week.

This week was a different kettle of fish completely, with Stan managing to bring it all together whilst The Mighty Alan Allen and I languished behind.  Stan started well and kept his lead all through the game and even though I pulled back a few shots, he made sure that he was always out of reach, so fair play to him, the little shit.

Stan loves Thursday night golf

The title says it all!

Tonight’s tee-time is 18:10 and although Stan and I are both playing even though we are both injured, we’ve not had confirmation as yet if The Mighty Alan Allen is playing or not, so anything could happen!

Sadly I’m afraid another season is about to start without Elly playing…

Oh dear, well it had to happen at some point didn’t it?  After not playing for more than a month, Stan and I played the Pine Valley course this Saturday morning and although it pains me to admit it, Stan beat me very convincingly by 11 shots.

The conditions were tough and infact, I don’t think I’ve ever played a course that was as muddy and as wet - Every time your club hit the ground through the swing, it caused a great “gloop” of mud and water to spray up onto your face(I resisted putting a link on that one…:-))

Stan took an early lead, but after the 1st 8 or 9 holes I’d managed to draw level and then Stan somehow drew on some freaky inner strength and no matter what I did, he managed to play a better shot.

By the time we’d reached the 14th, I’d pretty much given up, but Stan was on top form and really deserved to win this time.

Little Shit

“But where is the Mighty Alan Allen(TMAA)?” I hear you all ask.  Well TMAA is currently “on the bench” due to a skiing injury that happened last week at Xscape at Castleford.  He tried to jump off a kicker that really wasn’t a kicker and ended up catching a ski and landing badly fracturing his shoulder in a couple of places as well as tearing a tendon.

Ouch.  He’s far too mighty for us normal folk, but hopefully, he’ll be back in a few weeks.

OOOOOOOOHHHHH!

You can’t have Queen without Freddie!

Well, to be fair, I would have been inclined to have agreed with you a few years ago.  Freddie was pretty good and all that.

But…. one problem.  He died.  Which was unfortunate.

HOWEVER

The story does not end there….

Yes, it’s QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS - LIVE AT THE 02

After a pleasant build-up of darkness, thundercracks and flashing lights….. Queen + Paul Rodgers finally took to the stage and lauched straight into the classic ‘Hammer to Fall’… much to the delight of the capacity crowd.

More Queen anthems soon followed, including ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ and ‘I Want It All’

Soon it was time to bring the tempo down a little, so Brian sang ‘Love of My Life’ before Roger decided to do a little drum solo after first hitting the notes to ‘Under Pressure’ and ‘Another one Bites the Dust’ on a double bass…

And then all hell broke loose.

Brian and Roger - I'm in Love With My Car

Brian's Guitar Solo

Many more classics ensued, namely…

• Bohemian Rhapsody
• Radio GaGa
• We will Rock you
• We are the Champions
• Alright Now
• The Show Must Go On
• AND MANY MORE

Freddie would have been proud.

So I had my wisdom teeth out at the weekend and it was a thoroughly pleasant experience.

Having opted for sedation (because I am a big chicken) I don’t remember a whole lot about it - however I was told afterwards that I’d spent a few minutes, between extractions, arguing with the dentist that I would be OK to drink some wine when I got home and I’d also be fine to smoke because I “only smoke silk cut.”

Since then, I’ve been a little sore as you might expect after having 3 wisdom teeth out and this morning I woke up with a bad case of lockjaw.   Initially unable to eat, I cunningly bought a packet of discos and ‘posted’ them through the narrow gap i could open and then sucked them until they were soft enough break up with my tongue.

Clever stuff.

Luckily, the dentist has promised me that this is only temporary and I should be back to normal in a few days.  Which, tbf, I’m pretty pleased about.

I do have a full review and pictures of Queen @ O2 to post, but that involves a lot of messing about and I can’t be bothered tonight.

Watch this space.

Never ones to shy away from controversy, here at Golf With Des, we ask the questions that matter most to all of us and in a new(ish) feature, we’ll be asking those questions that lesser websites shy away from.

Make sure you cast your vote and tell the nation what you think about peas…

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Not Freddie

Although Stan wasn’t well enough to go to work due to his tooth ache (Ouch, Awwww), he is well enough to travel all the way London to go and see Queen!

And its not even the proper Queen, HRH Liz, it’s the band Queen, which if we’re honest, shouldn’t really be allowed to call themselves Queen as Freddie’s dead and the others are so old they shouldn’t be on a stage playing loud rock music, they should be going to bed early so they can get up at pensioner-o-clock.  Disgraceful.

Thanks to my current teeth issues, sloppy food is the order of the day.

So I didn’t need any further encouragement to make a lovely Shepherd’s Pie.

Now, I was tempted to post this over on Scampi and Chips but as it isn’t really Scampi or Chip related I didn’t feel it appropriate. Of course, it isn’t striclty golf related either so do watch out for yet another new publication coming soon where we can really tackle the world of food.

But for now, it can go here….

Finely chop some carrots, onions and garlic

Sweat them off gently, whilst simultaneously boiling some potatoes

Remove the soften vegetables and add mince to the pan

....and brown it off nicely

and then reintroduce the vegetables

Then add oxo cubes and some gravy. It

Mash the potatoes with milk, butter and plenty of salt and pepper. Allow to cool, as this will make construction of the pie easier....

Add the meat to the bottom of an ovenproof dish, then evenly top with the cooled mashed potato

Top with cheese. I used red leicester, but it does stink a bit. Cheddar would be fine.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or so

Serve....

...and enjoy!

I recently visited Southport to visit former non-celebrity Chris Fossey and enjoy some lager and golf, seperately of course.

David was unable to attend but, whilst enjoying some drinks in one of Southport’s many bars on Friday evening, he did telephone me to tell me what nice time he was having drinking at home and playing on his computer.

So after a necessary Full English Breakfast we headed for the course.

Set on the West Coast of England, Southport Municipal is a classic links golf course. I’m sure on many a day, the strong coastal breeze would play a big part in the round, however today was a very calm day with clear blue skies. It really was lovely.

The course itself is a mixed bag. Half of the course features lush wide fairways and huge greens in exemplary condition. The other half features small greens, comprised of more sand than grass. But, given that the course is slap bang next to the coast then this is not surprising and for £13.50 it certainly represents great value for money.

As for the round itself, I’m afraid I have lost the scorecard. It started poorly for both myself and Chris, and the second 9 was certainly better. Chris struggled with long irons but pulled himself back together and reverted back to using a 7iron. I hit some nice approach shots courtesy of my lovely 7 wood but putting again was a let down today.

My favourite hole was named “The Wall” and features a huge bunker which aptly acts as a wall and makes it impossible to see the green on your second shot. Whilst my shot did clear the wall, I fell about 20 yards short of the green due to misjuding the length. I finished the hole with a 5. Here’s Chris quite obviously intimidated by the bunker…

Look at the size of it!

Chris wasn’t as scared of this bunker, and he plays a lovely shot to get out….

well out!

Here’s a few more random pictures i took:

I finished with a disappointing 105, and Chris was about 25 behind. The course, while long, does not offer too many difficulties so I would like to play it again and would expect to be able to knock 15 shots off with some better putting and a couple less hooks off the tee.

For this link about bad experiences at the dentist

However, the kindly dentist will be giving me sedation for my extractions so I am not expecting to know much about it and therefore am not too worried. I am quite concerned about paying £120 for drugs though. Oh, no, wait a minute….