I set off early on Monday morning for Droitwich for the pre - birthday visit to my sister. I took her out for lunch at a local pub restaurant and then spent a while going through boxes of my Dad's stuff. I took as little as I felt I could decently do but it still filled a large carrier bag. I also filled the car with Christmas presents, having just emptied hers out!!. Then it was off to the Belfry Hotel to meet up with my Financial Adviser. The Belfry is absolutely huge, with THREE golf courses, a nightclub, a driving range and tennis courts and much more besides. The exterior of the hotel is lovely looking and the golf shop is magnificent. In the public areas they have got signed photos of all the superstars who have played in the three Ryder Cup matches that were played there in the 1980s and 1990s. The bedrooms though are a bit faded and the buffet dinner was minging !! All that was quickly forgotten this morning, though, as Ian and I and two other business associates of Ian's made our way to the first tee of the Championship Brabazon course, where the Ryder Cup matches had been played. Ian had managed to negotiate a slot for us on the course,using his connections at Zurich Assurance, who have a Corporate membership there. The course is stupendously hard but it was just fantastic following in the footsteps of the Nick Faldo's and Bernhard Langer's of this world, even if our galleries were somewhat more sparse. Every hole is different and there are two signature holes, the 10th, a dogleg right over water where the brave hit over the water direct to the green 300 yards away ( I didn't!) , and the 18th where you have to drive a long way over water and then carry over water again as you approach the green. I played the 10th badly but was very happy with my 6 on the last, which reduced to a 4 with the two shots that my handicap gave me. I ended up on the winning side in the team match and on a personal level scored 28 Stableford points which was also the best score of the day. To just have the chance to play the course though was a dream come true and an unforgettable experience. I was knackered at the end but very happy with the lovely day. Even the weather stayed dry . The drive home was very busy but not too problematic and it was only when I got home that I discovered that James had crashed his car on the way home from Edinburgh. I gather that the car is a real mess but mercifully he seems perfectly OK. No doubt more will emerge on that in the days ahead but let's all be very grateful that he got out without a scratch