You may have read lately about a proposal to stage the 2035 Ryder Cup at Hulton Park in Bolton. Granted the course does not yet exist; its development would only go ahead if the project was awarded the match, a decision about which is not expected for at least a couple of years. The prospective bid has the enthusiastic support of at least one eminent Ryder Cupper in Tommy Fleetwood – “to do it in the northwest of England, where I’m from, would be amazing” – as well as that of the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.
“We’ve had promising conversations with organisers about bringing the tournament to a bespoke world-class course at Hulton Park,” Burnham said. “But it will only be possible with the right infrastructure. We’re doing our bit to make it happen.”
That infrastructure bit, hey? I think it’s fair to say that water companies have lately received their share of bad publicity, not least when it comes to the discharging of untreated effluent into the rivers and other waterways of our green and pleasant land. But of course everything they do is not always their fault. Among other matters is the repair of old and therefore now faulty pipes through which water is intended to be transported to wherever it’s supposed to go. They are worn out and need to be replaced. Which has led to the immediate neighbourhood of my local golf being declared ground under repair.
We have been assured that the access difficulties will be only a temporary issue. (Call me a sceptic but for sure we’ve all heard that sort of thing before.) There is only one entrance to the club, via a short road of approximately 30 yards which runs off a more major road. The new piping has to be supplied to the 30-yard bit, which means that road needs to be dug up, too. The contractors have agreed to co-operate with the club and to some extent stagger the works but one of the unavoidable consequences is that for an estimated ten days there will be several periods of time each day when it will not be possible to enter or leave the club by car. I know, it has all the makings of a spoof excuse: “Sorry, I’m going to be late home. I’m trapped at the golf club!”
This situation is not dissimilar, although dramatically less romantic, than the one that on occasion has to be confronted by the members at the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club at Brancaster, which is quite routinely inaccessible by car during high tides, especially in the spring. Then the road to the club is flooded by sea water. In those circumstances, members (and visitors) need check the tide times before attempting to venture to the course. And indeed to venture home after the round.
I am sure that, should his concept come to fruition, Andy Burnham will have all this sort of stuff under control. But I couldn’t, for example, see the authorities at Augusta National permitting such a hassle to affect their members getting to the club. They would surely have bought an adjoining property, knocked it down and created an alternative point of entry/exit. The whole process would likely have taken something under 48 hours. But then they do have bigger budgets.