It was a beautiful morning on Friday and the sun was high in the sky when I came in at lunchtime for a snack and a happy birthday call to Connor. By the time I was ready to get on with the grass again the sky had darkened and a prolonged downpour got going. It kept going so I turned to some indoor tasks.

By Saturday morning it had relented sufficiently for me to believe that a dry day’s golf was in prospect. That turned out to be a false hope but golf must go on.

This was a charity competition organised by a student body. To draw a large number of entrants they had provided a breakfast feast to be consumed before starting, an “eat and drink as much as you like” buffet lunch for later and a wealth of prizes.

The prize to participant ratio was so high that even my disastrous round was rewarded with three bottles of wine, two bags of sweets and a sleeve of 3 golf balls. In fact no-one went away empty handed.

Of course the food and prizes had been donated by various sponsors, not paid for out of the students’ pockets but they must have been disappointed by the very poor turnout after the considerable effort they had put into organising the event. Bernard, our president and a very smooth off the cuff speaker, recognised as much in his remarks and promised to add a cheque from club funds to the miserly amount that our 20 euro entry fees had added up to.

It was nice to go home laden with prizes but it was even nicer to go home with 99% dry feet thanks to the new golf shoes that I bought before leaving Edinburgh. They were twice as expensive as any I had bought before but a zillion times more waterproof, and comfy too.