Advent 17

 I'm not generally a fan of opening holes. This is entirely down to my own inadequacy. I'm a comically slow starter - this is not confined to golf, I was the same on the rugby field. My imagination goes into overdrive and all I can conceive is disaster.

All of which creates a dilemma when it comes to consideration of 1st holes. Do I like an easy start? Well, in theory yes but all that an easy opener does is to exaggerate my uselessness when I struggle. So we can delete from consideration the openers at, say, Faithlegg or at Pype Hayes, both of which are seemingly generous appetisers. No, instead I go for what for me has proved the most testing (technically and intestinally) 1st hole in my narrow experience. 

I have only ever played Waterford Golf Club in competition and thus from the back tees - twenty years of tournament suffering. Always with a hangover. The 1st presents you with an uphill drive, the practice ground to your left (OB naturally), the car park to your right (OB naturally). In truth there is plenty of room but you try it with the world (well a few other competitors) and his dog looking on. I think that the scruffy low hook that I kept in bounds on my first ever visit may still be one of the best golf shots I have ever hit - now that was a hangover.

Once you have crested the hill you topple down to the green through a tunnel of gorse and trees. 420 yards. This is a prelude to a course cunningly crammed into what feels a small site. Having started with that belter, the round finishes at the comically difficult 18th. If nothing else, by that time your hangover will have abated. Nice clubhouse. Good Guinness.