You may by chance encounter a strapping, if follicly challenged, figure striding purposefully down the fairways, wearing a golf sweater sporting the twinned flags of Wales and France, and the logo “The Glamorganshire Golf Club Tour de France”, underlined by three gold stars. Or you may observe him holding court in The Henry Howell Men’s Bar proudly wearing the three star pullover.
In either case, do NOT, I repeat NOT, ask him about the three gold stars, unless that is you don’t mind a visit to the A & E Department.
The background is as follows: for some years now, members of my regular, informal golfing group, the CHIPS, here at The Glamorganshire Golf Club in Penarth, near to Cardiff, have been enjoying an annual week’s golf tour in France. The competition to be the leading Stableford points scorer over the week is always hotly contested. The twin flag sweater is the official tour jersey.
The gentleman referred to above (shall we call him “Nixxy”, to preserve his true identity), up until this year, had been the overall tour winner for three years in a row. “Nixxy”, unbeknown to the other tourists, decided to add three gold stars beneath the logo on his own sweater to denote this achievement. For some weeks before this year’s tour he could be seen around the Club unashamedly flaunting his three-star pullover.
The first day of this year’s tour went well although, in retrospect, it may have seemed strange that only “Nixxy” wore his tour jersey. It was only after golf on the second day that all of the tourists donned their tour outfits. Imagine “Nixxy”’s surprise (and, no doubt, delight) when he noticed that every other person’s tour logo was underlined with, not three, but five stars!
Play fast, swing slow.
Sandy Parr
* “Sic Itur Ad Astra”. Latin motto: “Thus we go to the stars"