A round at Royal Duki

"You always win because you have home advantage and your own clubs!". One of Uncle Martin's theories on why he doesn't seem to get the better of me on Spanish soil. Well, the tables were turned. I was back in the UK at his home club with a borrowed set of sticks. How would I fare?


Martin and Shane on the opening Tee.

The borrowed set came from Shane, who joined us for a knock. It was a Thursday evening tee off at Dukinfield Golf Club. The weather was more like Spain than Manchester. That could work out to my advantage.

"Royal Duki" is going through a facelift at the moment. Phase one is complete in the form of the spanking new 1.2 million pound club house. Very posh! However, the changes to the course have not been completed meaning that only 17 holes are playable. Some of these are temporary holes where it's obvious you are playing from a tee that belonged to a different hole. Work is going on at the Hyde side to make 4 new holes. It's probably another year off completion.


A par-3 in the quarries.

My game started off confidently with a decent tee shot on the opening par-3 hole. I took an instant like to the spare clubs. They are now officially my UK set, although Shane doesn't know it yet. Some of Martin's comments seemed to ring true though on the next few holes. Not knowing the clubs I tended to over hit them. Not knowing the course I left myself with tricky inbetween shots. The result was a shaky start.


Club selection time.

When I settled down I started to hit some good shots. However, the old problem of playing a terrible shot after scoring well on the previous hole kept wrecking my confidence. There are some tricky holes on the course, not least in the dreaded "Quarries" section. Extremely narrow fairways and tricky elevated greens making shot selection difficult.


What will be the 18th Green.

At the end of the round I had done just enough to win the day. The new theory advanced was that Shane's spare set are "Better than the crap ones you've got in Spain". Lets hope the run continues when we play Herons Reach at the end of the month!


At least the 19th hole is complete.