Short stuff… O Canada!
The
DICK NEAL REPORTS FROM THE ROYAL MONTREAL CENTENNIAL CHALLENGE TROPHY
A TEAM OF THREE GOLFERS from Hoylake, namely Jamie Uren (Captain), Patrick Booth and myself, went over to Canada and the Royal Montreal Golf Club on the 26th of July last year to compete in the high spot of the Club’s calendar. It’s the Centennial Challenge Trophy,
which garnered even more prestige by coinciding with the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. The
Challenge was accepted by a
remarkable 90 teams of 4 players from Royal Montreal, and Royal Liverpool was one of 6 foreign teams invited to take part. It was Jamie’s father, Dick, who sowed
the seed of the relationship between RLGC and RMGC. While selling Scottish raspberries in North America he would take his golf clubs for company and seek out the finest courses wherever he happened to be. One of them was Royal Montreal where he made many friends and is still remembered with great affection. The weather for the whole event was
absolutely fantastic, and on the Thursday we played a practice round and got to know the fourth man in our team, Gary Dunn, a member of RMGC, who helped us find our way round. It soon became apparent that different skills were needed to cope with the very different type of grass, shallow fine bunkers and very fast greens. We were welcomed warmly by all at
Royal Montreal, and there were many lovely details, including our own lockers marked VIP Guest! (Shurely shome
32 ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2018–2019 mishtake. Ed.) What made our trip so special was
the fact that Jamie also has many very good friends at Montreal, having hosted a team at a Hoylake two years ago. He must have set the bar very high with his hospitality, as the generosity of our Canadian hosts was phenomenal. The next day was the first round of the
Tournament and we played on the Red Course. Our result was a round of 135, the two best nett scores of our four ball. On the second day we played the more
difficult Blue Course which has hosted The Canadian Open many times, and has the added challenge of plenty of water. Captain Jamie gave us a pre match talk and managed to build my bunker shot confidence, which worked wonders. Despite the Blue Course’s stern test, our
score came in at 129, being 21 under par, meaning we recorded a combination of 264 shots for the two days. We then settled down for a few beers to await the presentation of prizes, again in glorious weather. The final result was that, out of the
six foreign Clubs, Hoylake came second to Royal Toronto by 4 shots. This is the
result we choose to remember,
because our final position in the whole competition was - how shall I put it? - not quite so elevated.
Jamie and myself were able to spend another two days
Above: The Royal Liverpool team. Below: In the zone
in Montreal where
again his connections enabled us to have an excellent sail on Lake St Louis with friends from Pointe-Claire Yacht Club. We also visited downtown Montreal to see The Montreal Comedy Festival with the organiser of the Challenge Trophy, Philip Doucet, and his wife, Heather, who again were brilliant hosts. What came across to me from this
visit was just how pleased the members of Royal Montreal were that we had come over to support
their event, and
with what high regard they hold Hoylake and the many friends they have at Royal Liverpool.
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