From the rough: Going Live

Having grown rather weary of sitting at home with a glass of red wine in my hand watching golf on television, I thought I would do something entirely different at the weekend. So I crawled around the M25 all the way to Wentworth and watched golf live at the BMW Championship.

Did you know that there?s a special BMW car park reserved solely for BMWs at the BMW Championship? Sadly I, or rather my car, wasn?t eligible to use it. However, we may gain revenge when Fiat take over the sponsorship. However, they had better be quick because I?m not sure my ?W? reg. Ulysse can hold out much longer.

From the non-BMW car park, I sauntered over to behind the second green. Par threes are the best places to be because you can see the tee-shots, occasional bunker shots, chips and putts. With my eyesight no longer as good as it was, I find trying to follow a ball smashed with a driver off the tee marginally more difficult than actually smashing a ball with a driver off the tee myself.

After three groups had gone through it started to rain and so I sneaked into a hospitality suite, grabbed a glass of red wine and watched the remainder of the day?s action on television. Believe me, there really is no substitute to being there.

Even now I can hear you asking, why bother? For a start, the wine was much better than the cheap plonk that I normally drink. Not only that but I was also sitting right behind the grandstands next to the 18th green and could clearly hear the authentic crowd noises, which had a richness of tone that the television somehow can?t properly capture.

Frankly, I can hardly wait for next year when I?m hoping to persuade my neighbour ? who just happens to own a BMW ? to come with. Failing that, I could always speak to my local BMW dealer and arrange a test drive.