After golf on Tuesday we drove to Lexington in Kentucky. We stopped along the way for some lunch and were warmly welcomed by the guy behind the counter – he was customer service personified. He was quite perplexed as to why we would come to Kentucky when NZ is such a beautiful place according to the pictures he has seen. He said “you call each other mate in NZ don’t you?” I said that was a fairly common greeting so he took great pride in calling us mate.

We then arrived at our hotel and Steve checked us in while I waited in the car. He came out and said that the girl behind the desk was so cool. She loved his Kiwi accent – she probably had no idea what he was saying, quite a common problem especially after a few coronas! I met Sonya later that evening and she is a laugh a minute. Her and Steve enjoyed taking off each other’s accents.

Today we went out to the University Club of Kentucky where there are two golf courses – the Big Blue and the Wildcat. The current course set ups were designed by Arthur Hills. The course is the official home of the university’s men’s and women’s golf teams and serves as the host site for all of the University of Kentucky tournaments. In the car park they have a dedicated spot for JB Holmes who is a professional on the PGA. He is from Kentucky and went to the University of Kentucky. The University of Kentucky men’s basketball team are called the Wildcats.

Steve had called to book us in yesterday and no one answered the phone, he then emailed them and the email bounced. We managed to book online after that. When we turned up at the Club this morning the young guy in the Pro Shop was sitting with his feet up on the counter, very casual. Steve told him about the phone and email issues – his response “oh yeah, that’s been a problem for like the last ten years”. Those customer service standards in Kentucky just got a small blot on them.

We played the Wildcat today which was a very picturesque course. I finally had a great round – you might have noticed that there has been very little reference to my scores in previous blogs. This has been for good reason – the scores haven’t been flash. Today I shot 83 and that included an 8 on a par 4 due to going in the water! The sun was shining, my timing was on, all was well with the world.