In 2000, two neighbours, both 30, John and Barry, lived and met in a small unassuming street called Glendale Drive in Wimbledon London. They quickly developed a good friendship based, as these things often are, on things of commonality. Both had had similar corporate careers in the City that were now, albeit for different reasons, already over. They gave each other support as new challenges in their respective, now slowly diverging, lives came into view. They had similar flats to witter on about while watching Location Location Location, and similar stories of their former adventures to laugh about while watching Ray Mears build bivouacs. But there was something else they shared a passion for as well as not inconsiderable skill.

John got an Xbox and with it the latest Tiger Woods golf game. Both he and Barry played it to such an extreme extent that they had both achieved 110% skill status for every trait and had earned enough virtual money in tournaments to buy everything that was available in the game’s virtual shop. They each spent hours creating perfect Avatar replicas of how they looked. It was a mid-life thing. Their only challenge now came when they played each other, for even Tiger himself could not compete and had laid his clubs down.

With the realisation that they had reached Matrix-like ability, John bought a little silver cup on eBay and it was to be known as ‘The Glendale Cup’. It shuttled between them up and down Glendale Drive, and there were many close lengthy epics. Towards 2008 as the time came for John to leave London it was clear that the little cup was spending more time with Barry. So with a little ceremony it was awarded to him permanently on the condition that he treasured it. Although the 'Glendale Golf Champion' title, and a new cup to pass back and forth, might somehow be up for grabs one day, that original little cup never would be.

In 2008 John moved out of London and back to where he grew up in Capel St Mary Suffolk. John and Barry got PlayStation 3s. They played each other online a few times and they had some close matches like the good old days. But they both knew it wasn’t quite the same. The last online game they played before Microsoft turned-off the Tiger Woods server in 2012 saw John crumble as Barry hit a legendary round of 50. Although Barry had also moved out of Glendale Drive himself by now, The Glendale Cup was indeed in it’s rightful home of Wimbledon where Barry and now his family still live.

Whenever John had friends visiting him from previous eras of his life he would introduce them to his friends in Capel St. Mary. Around 2012 when Barry paid him a visit from Wimbledon it dawned on John that most of his friends could, and some often did, play golf and he had an idea. He could make the Glendale golf competition he and Barry had played on game consoles an actual reality. He decided in September 2015 to invite 20 of his friends to what was the first, of what immediately then became an annual, Glendale Golf Invitational at the local Hintlesham Golf Club in Suffolk. The invitees paid their own green fees, John organised the event and paid for the trophies. The competition was and is for (a new) Glendale Cup and to be known as Glendale Champion for a year.

Before the first Glendale, around 2014, some of John's friends from his student Trent Poly era visited him. It was when conversation and bar banter turned to golf with his Capel era friends, just as it had with Barry, that John had a further idea for the impendering inaugural Glendale - The Glendalera Cup - see the Glendale eras page below...