July 20 First Day of Play

Up at 5:30

Today is the first day of play. A crowd of around 50,000 is expected.  Weather looks good, 15c and dry.

Uber was here at 7am. Traffic was extremely busy. Our driver wasn't able to drop us as close to the entrance for security and crowd control reasons so we had to walk for about 10 minutes to the back entrance. 

From there we split into 2 groups; Roger and David went to the Shop again. Steve and I walked down to the 1st green and then I parked myself on the side of the fairway by #2. That way I could see the results of the drives on 1 and see them tee off on 2. I watched groups 7 through 17 ending with Tommy Fleetwood.  Here's a picture of Tommy and Adam Scott as well as Padraig Harrington. 

After lunch Steve and I went to watch Corey Connors come in on #1 and tee off on 2. We followed him through to hole 3 and Steve and I split up. I continued to follow Corey through to #6. He had some really great drives and was even after 6. 

It was really impressive to see the world's best golfers in action. Here's a picture of the scoreboard that they update manually. 

Never saw Roger for the rest of the day and while Dave and I stayed in touch by email we never connected until just before leaving. 

It was a sunny day and we all came away with red faces. We met up at 4 and walked 10-12 minutes to the train station.  20£ for the 4 of us. Unfortunately our train only made 3 stops and then an announcement came on to say that due to problem with the rails ahead it would be terminated.  The cars were stuffed to capacity and everyone got off and they loaded us on double decker buses where we went ahead of the problem and then reboarded the train. We had to wait for the third train because the first two were full. Fortunately they all came within 10 minutes.

After getting to the station we hailed another cab that took us to Tesco where we got some more provisions,  then back home.

First thing we did was pour a drink and sit on the back patio discussing our day.

Then Dave and I tried to order a pizza at Papa John's on his computer but it wouldn't work.

So I ordered an Uber and Roger and I went to place our order. It was only a couple of miles and was only 5£.

At the pizza parlor they wouldn't take our order except on the computer or phone. So I signed on to one of the staff's wifi, and completed the order. It was going to take 15 -20 minutes.

So since there was a pub across the street we went for a half pint. I signed on to their wifi and ordered another Uber for the return trip. He got there so fast the pizza wasn't ready and I had to convince him to wait. 

Off we went back to Fairfield.  Our driver knew Tommy Fleetwood so we had s good conversation. 

Back at the house we consumed the pizza and had another drink before heading off to bed at 10:45.