A golf trip to remember

For the last seven years a group of elite athletes and myself have ventured over the Channel to wreak golfing havoc in northern France.

The adventure starts at 4.30am with an unwelcome blast of the alarm in my right ear. I come round from my deep slumber and remember four days of fun with the chaps follows this most unwelcome noise!

Following a fairly cool shower (I should have kept the hot water on during the night) I grab the clubs and we are away to the Chunnel.

We meet up with the rest of our chums for a quick chat and some bacon and eggs before we join the queue for the train.

Before you can say ‘bonjour’ we have arrived in France and are on our way to the fabulous Belle Dune Golf Club for our first game.

After a quick warm up (normally 30 balls on the range) but today, as we are on holiday it’s a swift pint in the bar (it gives us more rhythm on the first tee you see) to get us started.

Once we have finished our round, as tradition has it, we had to visit the bar once more and enjoyed a couple of beers on the patio watching the golfing world go by...happy days!

La Manoir Hotel is situated 200 yards form the first tee of the Le Foret course at Le Touquet, and is our home for the next couple of nights.

The following day is a triathlon of food, drink and golf, food, drink and golf. Thirty-six holes around La Foret and La Mer not easy, but we have trained hard for this event.

The final day is just down the road at Hardelot at Les Pines, a fantastic tree-lined course that is a great test for our final game.

The final picture is of lunch after a last game, enjoying the biggest burger in the world followed, naturally, by a glass of wine.

Great golf courses, lovely food, gorgeous wine and fabulous company - a golf trip to remember indeed.