Northern hotspot The KP draws a big crowd at the Yorkshire Championship

It nearly never happened.

The weeks of rain falling on the beautiful Yorkshire Wolds for the whole of June had closed the KP for 3 days the week before the Trilby Tour arrived.

However, KP's estimable director of golf Aaron Pheasant isn't a man to allow a bit of wet postpone the TT's third visit to his club.

After a few days solid work by him and his crew, the course was open for business and, a couple of damp patches aside, perfectly playable. 

The KP has embraced the tour like no other club, it feels like a party from the moment you arrive until they finally chuck you out of the stunning clubhouse many, many hours later.

One player I spoke to said that the golf is just a bonus, he'd come for the day even if he wasn't playing.

Fortunately there was some golf, though, and of a very high standard.

The KP dips and folds through the Wolds and the first three holes set the scene perfectly.

A long, straight par 4, a trickier curved par 4 over water and a short, steep par 3 up to an elevated tee take players through a mini-tour of fiendishness, with plenty of opportunity to take a walk in the woods or a swim in a stream to seek your ball.

Usually players would be split into winners and losers after this start, even before the course reaches higher and more wide-open ground at the 4th.

But today there is a touch of Northern grit about the Trilby Tourians and (the odd plum duff aside) the scores being beamed back to HQ were perfectly respectable.

Then the weather turned.

By late morning the heavy clouds over the KP turned pitch black and the odd rumble of thunder prefaced an hour-long deluge.

But, while this same storm caused floods in Newcastle and chaos in nearby Leeds it didn't deter anyone here.

There may have been some soggy Trilbys appearing over the rise in the 18th fairway but below those hats were men of steel – wet and cold men of steel, but men of steel nonetheless.

As usual at the KP, the hospitality was superb and so each and every one of those drenched golfers were welcomed, fed, and cossetted on their return. Soon the atmosphere round the leader board went from worried to wicked and the sun even decided to join the party before the play off.

And what a play off - perhaps not in terms of the quality of the golf (which was a bit ropey, truth be told) but because of the length.

Two of the four players could not be separated after the 3 play-off holes and so played the 18th again. And again. And again.

By the time we got a winner the sun had dipped over the horizon but was replaced by rising spirits. The socialising afterwards went on well into the night and the KP cemented its reputation as the party-hearty champion venue on the tour.

There were a few sore heads and soggy socks heading home the next day.

Dave Lee