IC XI first day of competition

It was a beautiful sunny day for our first round at Desert Springs - a course designed by Peter McEvoy and described as Europe's first genuine desert course, designed on the Arizona model. Sir Ian Botham and a host of other top sports stars have attached their names to the resort - indeed it was Beefy's Pro-Am just the week before we arrived.

We discovered that it was Captain's Day at the club and they were holding a Texas Scramble - we were invited to take part, but declined, although we did accept the invitation to the champagne reception and dinner dance in the evening. When we arrived on the first tee, some of the sponsor's advertising materials were on view:

A typical view of the wasteland between the narrow strips of green that masquerade as fairways:

The desert wasteland also has some natural hazards - Malcolm had to play this one left handed:

Stroke Index 1 was a tough par 4 with 2 strips of hazard, the latter of which was just in front of the green. Spotted retrieving his ball was our man from Linlithgow:

Syd had to be the winner on a course with a huge premium on accuracy:

The side bets from the matches resulted in Euros being exchanged - Dan insisted I record the scene:

It was only the first day of competition, but already we had a pretty firm favourite for the Wee Cup. Malcolm decided to make a clean breast of things for the record:

After the Captain's Dinner in the evening, there was a raffle - and Keith won a golf bag!: