Welcome to the 152nd Open, folks. The diarist checked in at Royal Troon yesterday following a circuitous car journey featuring bollards, gesticulating policemen, yellow AA signs, road closures, diversions, military convoys, naval flotillas and the odd maritime flag semaphore.
With everything happening in this parish over the next few days, that pesky Secretary of State for Transport decided that it’s necessary to introduce Restriction of Flying Regulations under Article 239 of the Air Navigation Order 2016. The old rascal.
That means the diarist’s newly acquired Cessna Citation Latitude jet will just have to sit up on bricks in the bloomin’ driveway.
*Talking of transport arrangements, The R&A are now in commercial cahoots with NetJets, which has become the first official private jet provider for The Open. How the other half live, eh?
“We are committed to maintaining the highest standard in travel for the world’s top performing golfers,” said the sales, marketing and services president of NetJets, Patrick Gallagher. “This partnership will allow us to strengthen the offering for our owners by offering access to some of the most exclusive events worldwide.”
Funnily enough, that sounded exactly like the promotional bumf sent by the good folk at Troon Cabs who are offering some wonderfully luxurious pick-up and drop-offs in Big Norrie’s recently valeted Ford Sierra.
*With bumf in mind, you don’t get much of it at The Open these days. Well, you do, but it’s not in paper form. All the media-related paraphernalia is just an online click away at the Virtual Media Centre.
Going paperless, of course, is all part of the eco-friendly Open. As regular readers know, the diarist is well aware of my environmental responsibilities too. That’s why I will keep recycling the same old rubbish in this daily chronicle.
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