Spotlight on the Golf at Birkdale

Another month passes and a rather quiet one for a change in the Sarson household. Not a lot of decorating or gardening went on and this was mainly due to the mini-heatwave we have had which made it very difficult to do anything for a few days.

The Election came and went, and as predicted the Lib Dems were ousted from their precarious seat in Southport. It went to the Tories with a fast closing Labour in second place. Our new MP is Damien Moore who managed to conjure up a 2,900 majority. He's from Preston and used to work for Asda which is quite funny as a certain Mrs Sarson helps them out on a daily basis too! You never know what's down the line do you! Asda to Westminster.

Lots of stuff going on in Southport this month, as you would expect from a holiday destination I hear you say. Well we have the 2017 Open Golf Championship taking place just down the road at Royal Birkdale, it supposed to come here every 7 years on rota with the likes of St Andrews and Troon among others but was last played here in 2008 when it was won by Padraig Harrington.

We have seen some of the top names in Golf win here and the great-late Arnold Palmer took the claret jug back in 1961. Also back in the 1960's 'we' hosted the Ryder Cup a couple of times so the course is steeped in history and actually dates back to the Victorian times and was opened in 1889.

In those days the old Birkdale Palace Hotel was in full swing and was 'the' place to stay for the celebrities and sports stars of the time. All that is left of the building now is the coach house which is now a pub called the Fishermans Rest.

I went down to the course the other day to see how they were getting on with organising such a big event, I couldn't quite believe the change in the place and how much was actually needed to stage this thing. I would love to know the final bill for holding the tournament.

Its safe to say its going to be chaos for a week for anyone living close to the course, we have lots of road closures planned and all sorts of added attractions are being held in and around Southport. Just yesterday we saw a sign for an interactive Golf centre being set up in front of the Town Hall. The estimate is that 200,000 spectators will visit the area during the week and accommodation is very sought after. Every hotel is supposed to be booked up despite the prices being hiked to ridiculous amounts. One hotel is charging over £2,000 for five nights and even the grubby Pontins holiday centre is cashing in on the gig by sticking a 5-night price of £595 on their spacious chalets. I visited one site on the web where houses were being rented out for up to £500 a night, and not big posh houses either! We did consider putting up a tent in the back garden for a few days but the Dogs weren't keen so we gave it a miss. Victoria Park is being converted into one big camp site for the under 25's, lets guess what trouble that may cause! Another bright idea by Sefton Council, we are not Glastonbury.

I'm all for supporting local events so plan to go on one of the practise days. If you know anything about me then you will know I don't go anywhere without one of my cameras and they are banned form Golf tournaments unfortunately. However although 'Pro' cameras are banned you can take point and shoot versions to any practice days so i'm going to take advantage of that with my little Canon. Its £25 to get in on Tuesday compared to £75 for a championship day so decent value I reckon.

Parking is going to be a pain, you can use the Park N Ride but its a tenner and I only live a couple of miles way from the course so I plan to go on my bike, apparently there will be a spot for cycles to be tethered so I've read the instructions on the website and will be heading for the 'Orange' car park. Mind you the website says Southport is in Lancashire so that doesn't bode well for other locations does it?

Elsewhere the veggy garden is coming along nicely, tomatoes are appearing and so are some early raspberries. The spuds are flowering well and in another few weeks we should be picking like crazy.