Taken from the Golfjin website (www.golfjin.com)

What a superb outing this was! A huge thanks to Moto, Kieron and all the Murasakizuka staff who did a fantastic job of looking after us. The course was in excellent condition and the food at the after round party was top notch.

We didn’t get off to the best of starts as once we left Roppongi at 6.30am we hit one of the worst traffic jams I’ve ever seen. It seems that every single vehicle owner in Tokyo hit the roads on Saturday morning and a journey that should’ve taken about 2 hours ended up taking over 4!

(Mental note to self – Don’t arrange large golf outings at the beginning of Obon, Golden week etc.)In my defense, I thought the traffic would be bad next weekend not this one – oops

Anyway, a big thumbs up has to go out to Moto Uchiyama, the manager of Murasakizuka who re-arranged our schedule so we could still play 18 holes even though we arrived over an hour after our scheduled tee times. Thanks Moto

So, after an early lunch, we all teed off about 12.40pm and played 18 holes straight through. If only more courses in Japan could be that flexible and accommodating.

Just before teeing off:

Pavel, Ian, Jan, Marc and Steve

Andrew, Arjun, Gordon and Ryan

Kieron, Spike, Mike n Mike

Ed, Paul, Yasu and Wayne

William the flop shot maestro teeing off

Martin, Tamas & William

Tamas punching one in

The pool side party :

Moto Uchiyama – Murasakizuka’s manager

The food at the after round party was delicious – succulent roast beef, a very tasty chicken curry, huge plates of nachos and lots more.

The competition:
We had 2 comps going on yesterday; a shin peria comp for the top prize – a 2-day golf break for 2 people courtesy of Murasakizuka GC. And James A also arranged a stableford competition for anyone who fancied an extra wager.

The Results:

Shin Peria Competition:
1st: Stephen A (Gross 84 – Net 72.0)
2nd: Wayne S (Gross 82 – Net 72.4)
3rd: Scott G (Gross 84 – Net 73.2)

Stableford Competition:
1st: Stephen A – 40 pts
2nd: Jeff A – 39 pts
3rd: James A – 37 pts

So, congratulations to Stephen A who cleaned up yesterday.
You are now officially on handi-watch though

Near Pin winnners:
Andrew B
Gordon L
Stephen A
Wayne S
Hilmar T
Paul B

Round of the day:
James “The Bomber” Allen: 77 (OUT 43 IN 34)

Shot of the day: William A
William hit a sublime Mickelson-esque 30 yard flop shot from a very tough uphill lie that went about 50m in the air and landed right in the hole. Unbelievably though, it bounced clean out.

Thanks to the much delayed arrival, it was a long day but thankfully the journey back to Tokyo was trouble-free and we arrived in Roppongi in about 2h10m after leaving the course.

I’m already looking forward to our next outing there (The Golfjin Open) in September.