Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club

The above picture is of our 17 Century English Society class with our teacher, Dr. Ian Archer. Dr. Archer is the sub-warden of Keble College and acts as the liaison between UGA and Keble/Oxford in addition to being quite a character. It has nothing to do with the following but is a neat picture.

This past Monday and Tuesday, I undertook another solo mission to an Open rotation golf course, this time to Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club. Royal Lytham & St. Annes has hosted ten opens, going back to 1926 when Bobby Jones won his first open. It will also host the open again in 2012. The clubhouse is full of Bobby Jones memorabilia including all four of his 1926 scorecards. Also, on the course, there is a plaque commemorating Jones’s miraculous shot that sealed the open for him (both the cards and the plaque are pictured below). Other champions at the club include Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Lheman, and David Duval.

The distinct thing about this club is that they have a dormy house (see the bottom two pictures below), similar to the crow’s nest at Augusta National, that is open to visiting golfers on the weekdays. I was lucky enough to get a good deal and stay at the club for Monday night. The package included formal dinner (coat and tie), breakfast and lunch in the clubhouse as well as my round of golf, each of which were incredible. Again, it was a solo-mission, as William bailed on me, so the meals were a bit lonely, but the views of the course form my table more than made up for it. Unfortunately, I had to write a paper on Monday night, so I was not able to mingle in the clubhouse and poker room with the other dormy house guests. It was a late night and an early morning, but I would certainly do it again. Below are a few shots of the dining room and clubhouse. You can see the portraits of Jones, arguably the greatest golfer ever who also co-founded Augusta National, in the upper right, Player, in the lower left, Seve, in the bottom/middle left, and Lheman and Duval in the Lower right.

I woke up early Tuesday morning to the sight shown below. The weather was beyond perfect by English standards, 55, sunny, and most importantly, no wind. I had a 8:20 tee time, so after a very long night’s work it was a quick turn around, but again, it was worth it. I met my caddy a bit before the round, he watched me hit a few balls and we were off. Gary, my caddy, much like the one at Royal St. Georges was awesome; he really helped my game and showed me many famous places on the course like where Tiger nearly drove the green on a down-wind 470 yard par 4 and where he made a triple bogey after going bunker to bunker.

Again, I played decent, but not as well as at Royal St. Georges, as I shot the same score but in much more favorable conditions. I hacked it around pretty good on the front shooting 47 and three putting several times but shot a respectable, by my standards, 43 on the back for an unimpressive total of 90. I played much better on the back so I am hoping to parlay that into an impressive score at Turnberry this weekend, where William and I will face off in what is shaping up to be a Watson and Nicklausesque battle. Here is a video I stumbled across that has really been getting my blood flowing for Monday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsjJ2dJaQlo

New Classes and the Keble College Ball

Now onto the school aspect, school has gotten much more relaxed now that we are in normal Oxford tutorials. William and I are coincidentally in the same tutorials, International Law and International Business. We have each class once a week, one on Wednesday and one on Friday, with just the teacher and us. We have essays due pretty much every class and have to defend them in front of the teacher, especially in our International Business class. It is not that the tutorials are any easier than the seminars (because they are arguably harder grades wise), it is just that the seminars were eight week courses condensed into four, whereas now, we have the appropriate time to prepare well for class. Our classes are in Brasenose College (pictured below) and in the Law Faculty building (which is nothing to write home about).

Last Saturday, we also had the Keble College Ball, which was quite the event. Keble is apparently known throughout Oxford for having one of the best balls in the University. Those rumblings are correct. There was unlimited food and drink galore, with five or six restaurants catering. There were also two stages with four or five bands on them throughout the night. Additionally there was a live Karaoke band in the college bar and stand up comics, a hypnotist, and a huka lounge. It was extravagant and also one of the best nights so far in Oxford.

Royal St. George's Golf Club

I have been pretty bad about posting, as I have only posted once in seven weeks; I knew that would happen, but today I am trying to make up for it. Our tutor cancelled our meeting today because she is sick, so today is the blog catch-up/ prepare for the trip to Turnberry tomorrow day.

The first thing we need to discuss is my trip to Royal St. George’s Golf Club. The club is located in Sandwich, England on the southeast coast of the country. It has hosted 13 Open Championships with winners including Ben Curtis, Greg Norman, Sandy Lyle, and Walter Hagan. It will additionally host the 2011 Open next year.

As Evidenced from the photos of the course, it was beautiful with rolling sand dunes and views of the ocean throughout the course. Several of the holes have out of bounds to the right because the beach is right there. The day I played, it was about 50 degrees outside with a steady 25 mph wind. It was brutal, but luckily I had booked a caddy who helped me navigate the wind and taught me some of the important links shots for days when the wind is that bad.

I played decently well considering the brutal conditions, hitting some good shots and staying away from anything worse than a double. It was a success on the whole. One thing that I was rather surprised about was how welcoming the club was to me, especially given how it is one of the most exclusive and prestigious in the world. The moment I arrived I had people greeting me and making me feel welcome. The best example of this was when I was tying my shoe before hitting balls, a man came up to me and introduced himself and asked me a bit about where I came from and a bit about Oxford; he then proceeded to invite me to join his match for the morning, but I had to decline, as I had booked a caddy for an hour or so later. My caddy later informed me that I had made a big mistake in turning him down, as he is the captain of the club and a former executive at Lloyds in London. New rule: always say yes in situations like that.

Another instance of their hospitality was my caddy giving me a ride over to the train station from the course, which he certainly did not have to do. I was so excited that I declined taking a shower in the locker room and forgot about both the lunch I was supposed to have in the clubhouse, which is supposed to be amazing, and getting any souvenirs. I now am going to have to call over there and see if they will ship me a flag and a yardage book. Furthermore, missing the lunch in the historic clubhouse is a bit of a sore spot with me still, but the day on the whole was still excellent.

In Sandwich, I stayed at a little pub called the Kings Arms that was more than hospitable. The pub was over 400 years old and served some solid pub food, but the main reason it got the thumbs up was that I had a little TV in my room on which I watched Phil capture his third Masters Championship. It was a great weekend overall.

Introduction and the First Few Weeks

Since the unparalleled success of Shredlife (www.powder2thepeople.blogspot.com), there has been much clamoring among our loyal readers for a Euro version of shreddlife, which would no doubt chronicle what we do best: taking the sport to the next level.

And take the sport to new levels we will; only this version of Shreddlife will feature a more refined tone that reflects the type of shredding that One Plank and I are undertaking here in Oxford. Take heed though, it is shredding nonetheless.

On a personal note, I'm doing this bog for a couple of reasons. 1. Steve and Elizabeth want some more info 2. I always strive to please the readers of Shredlife and 3. I always tell myself that I am going to write things down whenever I go on trips so that I can remember what I have done, and until now, I never have. After that doozie of a sentence, I will also point out that I will not be worrying too much about grammar and syntax, as I get to do that plenty each day. Also, don't look for any over-dramatized stories of how I'm becoming enlightened and finding myself in Europe. Honestly, in addition to trying to experience life as an Oxford student and take a few trips, my main goal is to just to try to keep it respectable in the classroom and play golf, which is pretty similar to my normal life wherever I may be.

Now that we have that out of the way, lets get started. Our trip started on March 25th after a four month layoff from school where I worked and lived in Memphis (shout out to Granny, Ford and Jarred). Our arrival went off without a hitch, and the next day, we were inducted as Oxford students into the Bodlean Library (http://web2.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/conferences/TPHOLs2005/bodleian-library-large.jpg). We had to take an oath that students for hundreds of years have taken in which we had to swear to neither steal nor set fire to any books; another cool tidbit is that the king held parliament in that room where we took the oath during the English Civil war. Me taking the oath below.

The next day we were forced to go to Stratford-Upon-Avon (I'm not sure of the spelling), Bill Shakespeare's birthplace. The trip was not what I would call fun so we will leave it at that; furthermore, I personally believe that Ole Bill was a drunk.

The following Monday, class started for us. Until Next week, the full time Oxford students are on break, so the town is much like any college town when there are no kids there, kind of slow. Some have asked about the academic calendar and how our time here will work. Well, the typical load for an Oxford student is two tutorials per term. Tutorials are basically one on one classes where you meet with your tutor (teacher) once a week. Typiclly you have a bunch of reading and an essay due each week for each tutorial, and in your meeting, you read your essay aloud to your teacher and he critiques your ideas. For us, in order to get this to count as a semester we have to take two classes before the term and two during it to make a total of twelve credit hours. So right now we are taking two classes that meet twice a week and have one essay per class per week. It has been a lot of work, which some nights is a bit of a drag, but I'm telling myself its worth it. My seminars are in Keble College, the college we are members of, and Worcester College. Both teachers are brilliant and pretty demanding, but they are good; however, honestly, I'm looking forward to next week when our Trinity Term tutorials will begin so I can stop writing history papers and get back to stuff that is more in my wheelhouse. Worcester College is pictured below. Those houses on the right date to the 12th century and the newer ones are only from 1776.

There's a lot to explain, but now I think I will start with how Oxford works. Oxford is made up of 38 independent colleges that make up the University of Oxford. The colleges serve as the social hubs of the university, and each has their own dorms, dining room, sports teams, and bars. While the social life of the university is organized this way, an Oxford student takes classes all over the town at different colleges, not just in their own college. So a good way to describe it would be to say that they are like Fraternities and Sororities at a University in America, although they are much more than that. As I said above, we are members of Keble College (http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/keble/). Its pretty a pretty neat place and most of the people seem pretty cool. Keble is pictured below.

Many have asked about the dining hall. Apparently Keble has the largest dining hall in Oxford, and was approached by the makers of Harry Potter about using it for the Great hall. The directors apparently wanted to take down some of the portrats that grace the dining hall to do some measurements, and the powers that be at Keble apparently told Harry Potter "thanks, but no thanks." The Great Hall in the movies was then filmed in Christ Church, which looks cooler to me anyways. But I digress. We have not gotten to wear our academic gowns yet to dinner because the term has not started yet, but apparently undergrad gowns are more like really fancy vests. I'll keep you posted.

My typical day doesn't sound too exciting, but I'm loving the routine. I wake up around 8, eat a full English breakfast in the dining hall at nine. Go to the Radcliffe Camera to study until lunch and then classes in the afternoon. Followed either studying or relaxing after a full meal which is served to us back in the dining hall. Its not all that different from a typical day in Knoxville, other than the fact that its taking places in one of the coolest places in the world. The Radcliffe Camera, where I study each morning and the Keble dining hall are pictured below.

I have gotten to take two trips since we have been here. The first one was last weekend when we went into london to take in the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat race, which over 200,000 people attend on the banks of the Thames each year. We went to a famous pub, the Dove, early saturday and spent the rest of the day there until the boats went by. We lost to Cambridge and were then trash talked to by some Cambridge students. (check out the video, it was on the BBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI2M8diGBCA). It was a great day.

The second one, from which I returned yesterday, was a trip to Sandwich, Kent and the Royal

St George's Golf Club, home to thirteen Open Championships. Additionally, the Open will

be held there next year. It was incredible, and I played decently. It was one of the coolest

things I have ever done. Greats like Walter Hagan and Sandy Lyle have both won opens

there.If you want to know more just ask, and I would love to tell you. If you want to see

more pics, then look at facebook. This thing isnt easy to put pics on. Sorry.

-Steven