Got an interesting call on my mobile last week

Now bearing in mind that hardly anyone knows my mobile number I was immediately suspicious!!

The guy on the other end tells me that I did some work for him 2 years ago. He says he is arranging a golf day at Royal Birkdale next week with Jack Nicklaus and Luke Donald and could I join them to do some coaching for RBS.

The land line he was calling from wasn’t local, so whoever was trying to wind me up was going to a lot of trouble.

After questioning him, he reminded me of the work I had done for RBS. He had me on file and indeed it was a genuine offer.

The deal was, an evening session (in the golf simulator) at Formby Hall Hotel, dinner with Jack and the lads and on to Birkdale the following morning, having been put up at their expense. The morning was to be spent on the practice ground helping Jack and Luke before wending our way home either to sunny Manchester or in the case of Jack, the good old U.S. of A.

Oh and not only would I be fed and made to stay in a posh hotel, I would be paid as well.

The only fly in the ointment were my various my commitments here at Sale Golf Club. On Tuesday our Seniors has an important match and several of them would need a long sit down in my shop to recover from the strenuous journey from the car park, accompanied by a generous dose of caffeine. On Wednesday evening I was due to be playing in the Mersey League match with our Captain against Chorlton.

Now as you can imagine being the only one in the Pro shop qualified to use the kettle and not wanting to let our Captain down, I sacrificed my opportunity and duly made arrangements for my assistant Peter to take my place at Birkdale.

As it turned out this proved to be a good decision, despite breaking the only chair in the Pro shop and using all the milk, our seniors soundly thrashed Davyhulme. In the Mersey League, with my guidance the Captain played out of his boots and if his partner had been any use at all victory would have been his.

I understand Tiger is due to play in some competition at Birkdale later this summer. I’ll be waiting for the call to accompany him on his practice rounds, but only if I’m not too busy trying to mend one of the ladies electric trolleys, or trying to explain the benefits of a ProV1 to a gentleman who has never hit more than 3 shots with any ball before losing it !!!!!

Mike.