Drat – Our last day of golf in Scotland.
We bid farewell to St. Andrews, the Brownlee Guest House, and our hosts Jimmy & Elan. What a fine place to stay in St. A. – walking distance to four of the Trust courses (and Greystone, a nice pub); great breakfasts prepared by Elan (who spent time cooking in of a Michelin restaurant); and Jimmy who kept our whisky decanters filled and lectures on finance at the University as his real job.
Our last round of the trip is at the Balcomie links in Crail, owned and operated by the Crail Golfing Society. The society is the seventh oldest golf club in the world, established in 1786 in the Golf Hotel in Crail. Mary and I had more than a few pints in the hotel pub while staying in Crail some 6 years back.
The course we played, Balcomie, is the oldest of Crail’s two courses and was formally laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1894. Prior to Tom’s work competitions were played there since the 1850s. Balcomie is a traditional links with a distinctive set of Par 3s. The 14th is the most photographed hole, a Par 3 with an elevated tee high above the beach dropping down to a heavily bunkered green. Longer holes, such as the 4th and 5th, feature doglegs around the sea edge.
It was a perfect day to finish up our Scottish experience – – a steady light rain and feisty winds. We were blessed again with a great caddy, Harvey Munn. All caddies at Crail are members and most also work at the St. Andrews courses. Harvey had one of the best tips of the trip: “Aim it at Beyonce’s bottom”, a massive bunker with two side-by-side humps. See the pics. After a pint & soup in the clubhouse we headed on to Edinburgh, dropped off our rental clubs, and took a short walk along the Royal Mile.
> Winners of today’s ‘Bette Ball’ match were Ron & Don who are each awarded a ‘Champ Mòr’ point.
> Ron takes low daily honors (again) with a net score of ‘70’
> Best shot of the day goes to Don with his brilliant shot off the stone wall on #9 to set up his birdie putt. Brilliant!
> Today: Lost balls – 4; bunkers – 12
> Group totals for trip: lost balls – 100; bunkers – 143
Congrats to ‘Champ Mòr’ winner for the trip, Mr. Ron Schubert!
It was a close race that was decided on the back nine of Crail, our last course.
Out of a total of 24 possible points, Ron scored 7, Dick & Bill scored 6, & Don was a close finish with 5.
Comments (1)
Great trip, Dick. I want to get north and play Royal Dornoch, among others. You picked some great courses. Crail Balcomie was the first course we played in ’97, and we also played Old and New in St. Andrews also. There are just so many great courses and towns in Scotland. We were also in East Lothian, south of the firth, and there is Muirfield, North Berwick, Musselburgh, Gullane, Kilspindie. Life is too short.