We have a guest blogger today, Andy. He regales us with his golfing adventures with Jim K in Scotland last September. I would like to note that he may now appreciate how long it takes to write, edit and add photos to these entries, as it now late November. Enjoy:
Ahhhhh… Scotland. The land where haggis, whiskey, the breech-loading rifle and the great game of golf were all invented. Coincidence? I think not. As I was not able to attend the traditional
Buckwheat festival in upstate New York this year, I convinced my brother-in-law, Jim, to fly over for a trip north of the border.
Jim arrived Friday evening and I picked him up at Heathrow. Since he had to sit an hour on the tarmac, I figured he could use a beer. I bought some traditional English bitter for the ride home, which he promptly spilled in the center console. I knew sitting on the other side of the car was going to be stressful, but I’m not that bad a driver. We finally made it back to our place in Hampstead where Christine had some tasty snacks awaiting. After a few bites, Jim and I headed up to my favorite pub, the
Holly Bush, for last call. Fortunately pubs close early over here as we had a 7am flight on Saturday.
The next morning we drove an hour up to Stansted Airport and became intimately familiar with Ryanair. Jim put it best when he called it a Greyhound bus with wings. They manage cheap fares by playing advertising over the loudspeakers at every possible opportunity. We scrambled into the exit row seats, so at least we had extra legroom for the flight to Prestwick. We met a great Scotsman and avid golfer in the seat next to us who gave us all sorts of tips. He was a bit impressed with our itinerary of
Turnberry and
Royal Troon. To our great surprise our clubs arrived on the baggage conveyor so we were all set. With no map in the rental car and many road-signs warning us about
otters, we finally made it to the resort at Turnberry.
The
Turnberry Ailsa course is rated in the top ten in the world and known as the Pebble Beach of Scotland. It is also host to the 2009 Open Championship for those that want to see what we experienced. Our room was not quite ready when we arrived, so we changed at the clubhouse and had what we thought would be a quick bite at the bar before our afternoon tee-time. Apparently they forgot about our food as we continued to order pints of Tennants ale and lager. One hour later our meals arrived and to our delight, the resort picked up the whole tab.
The weather was beautiful for our afternoon round on the
Kintyre course, which is arguably as nice as the Ailsa. We both played a bit erratically, but I was pleased to only lose three golf balls. After 18 holes of golf and another pint in the clubhouse, our room was finally ready. We cleaned up as much we could and wandered up to the hotel for our dinner in the main restaurant (our room was in the outer lodges so someone must have tipped them off to potential noise problems). We both decided on the lamb chops and washed them down with a nice bottle of 1991 Rioja Gran Reserva.
Turnberry Day Two… After a quick breakfast of sausage and eggs, we were set to tee-off on the Ailsa. The weather looked a little bleak during breakfast, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. The course was great and we both had some good and very bad holes. I, for example, got stuck in a pot bunker that took me about six strokes to get out of… these courses can do some serious damage to a golfer’s handicap and confidence. I learned quickly, it is best to just leave the bad shots behind and enjoy the view. We both played 18 extremely well, which gave us a bit of a boost heading into the clubhouse for a late lunch. After another great meal and a few pints, we decided to see what it would cost for another 18 holes. It turns out, they have a great afternoon rate so we grabbed a cart and cranked through another 18 on the Kintyre. We finished in about three hours, utterly exhausted.
Back to the room, and to my dismay, the mini-bar was locked with all of OUR beer inside. A quick call to the front desk solved the problem so we were able to enjoy a little
NFL (yes they show that over here) and a few beers before dinner. We had dinner at the clubhouse bar and convinced them to turn on the NFL so we could watch the NY Giants game. We ended up socializing with the staff quite a bit. They seemed to relate better to us than the regulars. Hmmm. I missed the second-half Giants comeback, but it was probably for the best as we had a big day at Troon ahead of us.
We packed the car and went to check out of the hotel. There was a bit of confusion with the bill because they thought we drank the entire mini-bar… we finally convinced them that we had simply removed the items to use the fridge to keep our beer cold. I am not sure they really believed us, but they made the necessary corrections anyway. After a few detours to avoid all the otters, we arrived at the Royal Troon. Jim and I were paired up with another two Americans and set to tee-off. For some reason, I had the honor of going first. Surprisingly, I smacked one straight down the middle. I started bogey, par on the first two and then the rains came. I’m talking serious, sideways rain with gale force winds. Unless we were playing in an actual hurricane, the conditions could not have been more challenging. I was playing some of my best golf and only managed a 50 on the front. I don’t know if it was the previous 63 holes of golf or the conditions, but my game completely disintegrated along with my scorecard on the back nine.
Even in the worst conditions, Scotland golf is a great experience and I cannot recommend it enough. I am so pleased Jim made the trip over and I am sure we will be reminiscing about this trip for years to come (of course over a few pints). Enjoys some photos
here.
