FORE!

Mick Garvey’s managed to putt in a good pitch and hole another shooting permission

- MICK GARVEY

Once more, my beloved Lake District has paid me great service and provided me with another permission, this time on a golf course. It all started with a round of ‘footgolf’ with the family, which incidentally left me in proper ‘clip’ to quote my forces mates. Years of working on my knees as an electrician, combined with a few serious motorcycle accidents has left me with dodgy knees and 18 holes of booting the football round left me limping for a couple of days, not to mention having my ass handed to me by a pair of pre-teenage lads, which I will never live down. Some practice might be called for before the return match methinks. In my defence I had completed the Go Ape treetop challenge the day before, and this entailed spending too much time on my knees again, climbing rope ladders to the dizzying heights of 50ft, then jumping off on zip lines that were clearly designed for the vertically challenged, but the certificate was issued and is now proudly displayed well out of sight in my war room.

The damage from the rabbit population was quite noticeable around the greens and we spotted quite a few of the culprits in the hedgerows surrounding the course, totally unconcerned by the presence of the many golfers and foot-golfers who shared the acreage. I now propose this as my official excuse for doing so badly in the game … I was studying every hole for the presence of rabbits and possible vantage points from where I would carry out pest control!

WIDE OPEN SPACES