Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The Greater Gunnersbury Open

Last year he competed in the Greater Gunnersbury Open. Technically he competed in several years of the tournament at once. The rather confusing report of the tournament is re-produced (with the kind permisson of Mr Sills-Jones) below

"Whilst the rest of the world looked on aghast at the tragic events in New York, the Greater Gunnersbury open took place in a time warp. With the alignment of the planets clearly out of kilter, the 2001 Greater Gunnersbury Open took place on 11 September 2005. I know a combination of lawyers and Americans is always likely to delay matters, but this was going a little far. The rules of this competition were also clearly drafted by lawyers and Americans (did Dubya have a hand in this?) as they made no sense to any vaguely normal, or British, person. A fine, sunny Sunday was taken up with a whirlwind of missed putts and expletives, Ben Hogan replaced Bin Laden as the topic of conversation.

"The winner of the 2001 event was Mr Robert Morgan (above right, ginger), playing in a threeball with Mr Dafydd Jones, winner in 2006 (naturally only a year later than Mr Morgan's victory), and Mr Owen 'Bogun' Williams. These twin towers to the eventual winner (in Mr Williams case, more of a squatter's residence than a tower) played some fine shots on the way, not least Mr Jones' excellent opening drive which nearly claimed a hole in one. The ability of Mr Williams to stand, let alone play golf, was a testament to stamina and powers of recuperation of this resilient competitor. Vertical drinking may be a concern in the pubs and restaurants of Ealing; vertical sleeping would appear a worrying development and undoubtedly played a part in Mr Williams' somewhat erratic round which left him some way out of contention.

"Mr Morgan played with an arrogance rarely seen in West London and wholly inappropriate given the date and number of missed greens in regulation. The competition was nip-and-tuck, and would surely have gone the way of one of our cousins from over the pond had it not been for a curtailment as Mr Jones had to catch a flight for his honeymoon. Professional journalism prohibits your correspondent from commenting about Mr Jones needing to play around, "Fore" play, sinking a long one, plenty of shouts of "Get in the Hole" and worrying about the stiffness of the shaft. The curtailment of the round due to the impending flight of Mr Jones (unaffected by the tragic events of 9/11) led to a scrambled last hole - a Texas Scramble replaced by a San Diego Scramble. The final holeshoot out was played to par by Mr Morgan and this proved sufficient for victory in the 2001 tournament. Dr Emmett Brown (Who?) allowed the competitors to rush four years forward and allow the presentation to take place a mere couple of hours before Mr & Mrs Jones departed for Heathrow."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would like to distance myself from the authorship of the above account, and some of its rather anti-American sentiments. It was indeed the work of Robert [big]M[small]organ.