Sun and strokeplay

The day began, as all good days should, with breakfast. Scrambled eggs or omelettes were available on request for the guests of the 12th Eurobuild CEE golf tournament held at the First Warsaw Golf and Country Club in Rajszew. Afterwards the golfers dispersed armed with bottles of energy drink and water to their various holes, which had names such as ‘Copse and Robbers’, and then began a day of thwacking small balls into the middle distance. Some balls flew directly to the hole, some players preferred to go from bunker to bunker, while others disturbed the swans that were nesting on the course by plonking their shots straight in the drink. But by far the greatest obstacle along the course was the sun. It was a swelteringly hot day, particularly for those golfers who had not managed to grab themselves a golf cart and were left wilting on the walk back. The other unadvertised hazards were the mosquitoes, sucking the blood out of all those who had come unprepared. Afterwards, Tomasz Jesztak of Nowa France, the winner of the Stableford net golf contest, was able to claim that his secret weapons were mosquito spray and a sun hat. He beat Waldemar Kozak and Tom Leach of Leach & Lang into second and third places respectively. At twelve o’clock it was time for the beginners to congregate to listen to the wisdom of Martin Hejger, not Martin Heidegger the philosopher, but the club’s resident golf professional. He began by talking about the clubs, explaining that woods were no longer made of wood, that only 14 clubs could be placed in a bag, and that most of them were unimportant anyway because most shots are taken with the putter. He then went on to demonstrate the basic golf swing for twenty novices, who were then let loose to begin smashing balls dangerously down the range. Iain Leyden, the country manager for Poland of Turner & Townsend, smashed the ball the furthest; but when it came to accuracy, everyone was beaten by a 14-year-old girl – Natalia Radomska, who managed to chip the ball inches away from the target (but Tiger Woods would have hit it nine times out of ten, claimed Martin Hejger). Meanwhile, back out on the golf course the serious players were finishing up their rounds, with Ernest Kiruja, the CEO of ‘Eurobuild CEE’, doing embarrassingly well. After he had realised that he had hit the longest drive at the 9th hole (for which he was later presented with an award), he told the photographer that he hoped someone would later beat him. But such hopes were dashed as the evening drew in. While the golfers were playing in the “closest to the pin” competition, the 8th ‘Eurobuild CEE’ Tennis Competition was taking place at the Legia stadium courts in Warsaw. The weather was not very gracious to the tennis players, either, who had to sweat through their matches – but they made it in the end! Some excellent motivation was provided by the long-awaited Wimbledon semi-final between Jerzy Janowicz and Andy Murray, which was being played on the same day. Unfortunately, the Polish player did not go through, but he set a good example to our players, and especially to Agnieszka Lucińska-Kozłowska of Metal-Mark, who won the women’s tournament, and to Bartosz Prytuła of AIG/Lincoln Polska, who turned out to be the best male player. The other places on the podium were taken by Beata Wilecka of DaWeg Asset Management, Monika Żywiecka of Griffin Real Estate and Michał Małaszyński of APP Projekt, while equal third place went to Rafał Twarowski of Qumak Sekom and Maciej Bańdo. Afterwards, everyone met up at the Boathouse restaurant on the banks of the Vistula in Warsaw. Upon entering the guests were festooned with garlands to begin a Hawaiian themed night. The formal part of the evening began with Włodzimierz Soporek receiving two prizes. Firstly he was awarded the Strokeplay gross prize and then immediately returned to the stage to pick up the third prize in the Strokeplay net contest. The second prize was picked up by Wojciech Borowski, and first place went to Sebastian Szrajda. Additionally, Filip Kościkiewicz, a guest of Poleczki Business Park, was the winner of the closest to the pin on the 14th hole. Finally, a lottery was held for a one-month’s free membership of the First Warsaw Golf & Country Club for the three lucky winners. The entertainment was provided by Show Time – three hula dancers, who later enticed some of the braver guests up onto the stage to do some limbo dancing. The drink and food flowed freely as everyone danced into the morning.