We got the rub of the green on fantastic trip
FORGET the Duel in the Sun, this was the Scrap in the Storm.
Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus may have shared an epic Open battle at Turnberry in 1977 but on its 40th anniversary, my cousin Thomas and I produced a worthy sequel – without the low scoring, that is.
Our setting was Mottram Hall in Cheshire, where we played a round of 18 either side of an overnight stay.
The imposing Georgian red-brick mansion, just 15 minutes off the M60, reveals itself at the end of two columns of ancient oak trees that run the length of the par-five 18th.
Within half an hour of arriving, we were on the first tee, two of only nine people to take to the course that Monday after dark clouds followed us down the M6. Yet the 7006-yard course lived up to itsXcXhXaXmXpXioxnxsxhxipxxstatus with the pond at the pXaxrx-xthree 3rd the only major puddle I spent time in.
The course, with a flat first nine that doesn’t pose too many dangers if you don’t have my duck hook before calling for some smarts on a much hillier back nine, can be both fruitful and frustrating. Which one depends on your iron play with little to no break in putts as long as you land the ball inside 20 feet.
With three of its four par-threes playing 190 yards or more off the yellow tees and two monster par-fours – especially if the wind is up – on the back nine, there will be time to go sports star watching.
With his own space in the car park – and some extra time on his hands now Everton have given him the boot – Ronald Koeman is among the potential sightings.
We also saw the Qatari Under-19s football team – Mottram Hall has an FA-approved pitch opened by Sir Alex Ferguson and is just seven miles from Manchester Airport – who fancied go-kart racing on the golf buggies 50 yards down the 10th fairway.
Around £30 will cover a three-course meal, including an impressive dessert menu that boasts six options plus a cheese board, in the Carrington Grill after your round.
A more laidback setting can be found in the Claret Jug, which has sprawling sofas, widescreen TVs and serves food throughout the day, while our room’s patio doors meant we could enjoy the picturesque gardens.
Little touches made the stay. The fact, for instance, that a member of cleaning staff asked where we were from on the way to our room. On telling him one of us hailed from Glasgow, the other from Airdrie, he revealed his Edinburgh roots. On how he knew to ask, he told us: “Two, big strong boys carrying heavy bags, I could tell.”
Or that despite still lying on a lounger by the pool as staff tidied up a few minutes before closing time, I wasn’t hurried out but instead left to relax.
With an “alfresco thermospace” – the first of its kind in the UK – the spa’s thermal rooms are in outdoor log cabins with floor-to-ceiling windows. It was a much more relaxing way to take in the hotel’s gardens than searching for my wayward drives.