The Byron Nelson and brilliant drama
One of the reasons why I limit myself to a tenner is my incompetence in placing bets which I do on the Betfair site. For the first two days of the Byron Nelson I was rubbing my hands at the prospect of an Aaron Wise win as I backed him alongside Marc Leishman, Jimmy Walker, Adam Scott – all in the top five – and Grayson Murray except I has not backed Wise. I duly did so at 9-4, considerably skinnier odds than at the start. Wise did win, Leishman finished second and Walker and Scott finished top ten. So it’s trip to IKEA with the missus.
The Byron Nelson was held at Trinity Forest, a course designed by Ben Crenshaw and similar to Ashdown Forest as it’s natural one using the natural contours.
It’s windy too so the big bombers do not do as well as at other layouts.
21 year Wise was a worthy winner. He adds to the roster of bright young Americans.
The decision to liberalise betting in some US states was good news for the UK betting industry. Yet I am still concerned that, after smoking and alcohol, betting will be the next in line. Many betting companies have registered offices in Gibraltar to avoid UK tax and there is the sponsorship of many clubs by betting companies and saturation advertising too. In an increasingly anti-capitalist atmosphere of political corporate interference, politicians may well have betting companies as a target.
The start of the final pair of Leishman and Wise was delayed for 4 hours. So I watched A Very English Scandal which starred keen golfer Hugh Grant.
I have always found him a more accomplished versatile actor than his reputation and in late middle age he has matured from the public schoolboy emotionally muddled roles in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. He fitted the role of the debonair gay boulevardier Jeremy Thorpe brilliantly.
I found the drama compelling. I heard one feminist reviewer on the BBC say she was deeply troubled by the way the predatory Thorpe used his power to seduce Norman Scott. Is drama based on true events now supposed to reposition the facts to suits the mores of our times? In fact, Scott is the only one still alive, having outlived and outmaneuvered those rather shady chancers in the Thorpe circle.
