29th of October, Lelystad, Netherlands.

In September 2004 a message was sent to the regular Dutch participants of the CMG Ryder Cup event by Dutch Team Captain Jacob Bremer, that no match could be organised in 2004. The organizing committee (Bremer & Jenkins) had great difficulty in making reservations for golf courses and accommodation in the Belgian region where this event took place in the past. As time went on it was decided that the CMG Ryder Cup Event 2004 had to be cancelled. How sad.

However, this did not discourage Jacob Bremer, who decided to organize a training session for the Dutch participants, just to keep everybody aware of the fact that selection for the Dutch team is not an automatism, but has to be earned.

So on the 29^th of October the Dutch selection was summoned to Jacob’s homecourse in Lelystad, the Flevo Golf Resort, to show their (in-)capabilities.

The response was overwhelming and 19 competitors showed up. Jacob had organized a stableford competition and only the best players would make it to the 2005 selection.

At 11:30, after a long coffee-break, the flights took off and started to send their balls to new (and some final) destinations. The sun was shining, the grass had grown high and the going got tough, as the not so tough got going.

However, everybody succeeded in finishing in time to be able to join the after-golf drinks on the 19^th hole terrace and conquer some bitter-balls (famous Dutch recipe). The last item started people remembering old CMG Ryder Cup highlights like the snooker game that Brian Walters played with his own balls and made him pass out on the golf course. Not to mention the dramatic fall of a golf buggy down a golfhill in Belgium, where the UK-player that was driving the vehicle (did he, now?) was nearly able to save his life. Or the event where the rain never stopped to fall down. And many more spine-chilling stories were remembered, not all of them very reliable, as drinks were consumed in good old British manner (a lot).

During dinner Jacob reviewed the day’s achievements of the participants and it turned out to be that the Neary was scored by Bas Ossewaarde, the Longest Drive by Jos Nieuwenhuizen, Longest Drive Ladies by Ploni Slob, top stableford score by Jan Pieter van de Hoogeband, Eric Beerhorst second place, Piet Huisman third place. This led Jacob to the conclusion, that the still active (in the business) players, who have little time to improve their handicaps, outscored the retired CMG-employees who can play all day anyday. This showed once again how little insight exists in the way of life of the retired CMG’ers, who all have other important priorities in their lives.

In the end of the day everybody turned out to be selected for next year’s challenge and a toast was made to our absent UK-competitors that we would not meet this year. A positive result is nevertheless that the trophy stays in the Netherlands for another year, as the Britains failed to challenge the Dutch. Not that it mattered, for the golf skills and moral showed this day, would not have given the UK-players the tiniest of chance to have won the trophy back!

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