Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Waking in the early hours just after dawn, a large percentage of Awali Golf Club’s members were delighted to see Bahrain swathed in mist – the perfect setting to create a soft-focus effect to help hide the wrinkled, craggy faces of the players brave enough to venture out without their zimmer frames, in the annual Seniors Championship competition.
But the euphoria was shortlived as Bahrain’s trusted sunshine kicked-in to lift the mist, revealing the true gruesomeness of the field in time for the first tee-off, with only those having reached their 50th birthday eligible to play.
A few managed to battle through the aches and pains of life at 50 to achieve quite a reasonable score, and collected a prize for their efforts, sponsored by Bapco.
Leading the living dead back to the clubhouse was Peter O’Brien, with a spiffing nett 63 (gross 68), pipping Steve Litherland by one stroke at nett 64 (gross 77), with Abdul Elah Fakhro keeping his pacemaker going long enough to stumble home in third place with nett-65 (gross-76).
This season saw the addition of four new members to the ‘cannot-represent-the-under-50s’ club who had not previously played in the competition. However, this reporter, himself an over-50s dinosaur, is well versed in the art of diplomacy and would not dare mention that their names were Tony L Robinson, Neil Wilson, Mark Hodgkinson and Steve Litherland.
Organisers had conveniently scheduled the event during the morning only, and a midday feast followed.
Everyone appeared to have enjoyed the day, even managing to smile without their false teeth falling out, and the day ended with the weary souls heading home as the sun set so that they could be tucked up in bed with their cocoa before it got dark.
