Fore!

Today I played Golf... at The Grove, Watford.

The Grove is described as London's Country Estate - Luxury hotel, golf and spa resort.

The golf course is open for anyone to play, considering its location adjacent to the M25 and gravel works, it is a stunning setting, hugging the banks of the river Gade and the Grand Union Canal.

The course is interesting, challenging and long, but the fairways are wide and the rough is not too handicapping. There is an abundance of bird life - but today there were no Albatrosses, Eagles or Birdies to be enjoyed.

We played from a buggy today, which I don't really enjoy, but my golf partner has dodgy knees. When you walk a course, you get the feel of the fairways, notice the contours, look at the approach to the green and size up each shot as you approach the ball. With a buggy - which at this time of year is restricted to a track to the side of each fairway, you arrive parallel to your ball, jump out, select a club and then walk sideways across the fairway to your ball. If you decide you've chosen the wrong club, you either have to return to the buggy, or compromise and use the club in your hand - not always successfully.

The buggies at The Grove have been fitted with new 'state of the art' GPS systems, (as shown in today's blip) with an onboard screen that shows the layout of each hole, a voice over that tells you how to play your shots, the yardage from the buggy to the pin, an on-screen score card that you can email to yourself etc etc. You can even order food from the half way house or summonds the help of the staff, should you need to.

I have to let you blippers know that none of it helped the way either of us played.

It won't be long before the ball and the hole have automatic homing devices connected to the clubs, so you don't actually need any skill.
Or an on screen game so you can play without leaving the buggy - or even one you can play on your laptop at home, so you don't actually have to go to golf course - Hang on hasn't that been done already? ;p

I'm not sure it can replicate the strong, cold wind and blustery showers we endured, unless you take your laptop outside, possibly onto a golf course?

Hang on, we could invent a game where you have a small ball, lots of metal sticks that you actually hold in your hands, so you can hit the ball - for real....