Drive for Show

The Montgomerie Course at Carton House is in the grounds of an 1,100 acre estate that for centuries had belonged to the Earls of Kildare. The 20th Earl's wife, Lady Emily, had been largely responsible for laying out the grounds. How she found time to do that in between producing 23 children heaven only knows! David Howell's wife, also named Emily, found out that week that the child she thought she was carrying was in fact two. Not quite in Lady Emily's league, but apparently disconcerting nonetheless.

Having missed the cut in Ireland, McDowell continued his extraordinary record by winning in France. Eight tournaments played, five cuts missed, three tournaments won. He did it by dropping only four shots on a brutally tough National course, where many players scorecards were littered with double bogeys and worse. The championship director, our own Hong Kong resident Jean Van de Velde, must take huge credit for a brilliantly staged championship. Whilst many of the players looked like redundant extras from Les Misérables, his crew are on course to producing a venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup that will take some beating. I was entrusted with driving duties for a third week running, which around Paris is always a little nerve-wracking. I came to rely heavily on yet another Emily (the voice of my GPS) who steered me unerringly to the airport on Sunday night on a southerly route around the French capital that I had never tried before. My colleagues who tackled the notorious Boulevard Périphérique ran into accident hold-ups and only made the flight by a whisker. I was into my third gin and tonic in the lounge by then, and only gloating slightly ...