Well, our final round of golf and a great way to finish at ‘The Machrie’ on Islay.
Our taxi to/from the course was ‘Bodachs of Islay’, run by a father/daughter team. ‘Bodach’ means old man – the nickname given to the father by the young lads working with him in his previous life one of the local distilleries. He was more than irritated at the approach to the course – probably 10 speed bumps on a single-lane access road. Very strange.
Machrie is an original Willie Campbell design dating back to 1891. Revered by some and hated by others for its quirkiness and blind shots it was redesigned and reopened in 2018. It ranks inside the top 50 UK&I and top 20 in Scotland. Links terrain set in the dunelands on Laggan Bay in Islay. Throughout the round are ocean views, the ‘Paps of Jura’, and the ‘Mull of Oa’. Spectacular.
We enjoyed Machrie immensely. Fun and challenging with wide, well-manicured fairways and revetted bunkers. One interesting aspect (which I failed to get an image of) were the ‘lazy beds’ remaining on a few of the fairways from the original course. Lazy beds are the remains of grassy ridges made by crofters for cultivating crops in the poor soil. Potatoes were often grown in this way until the potato famine in the Highlands and Ireland.
We had another fun forecaddie – David. In addition to walking the course as a caddy a few days each week he is evidently a keen photographer. He took us to some fine spots for photos.
We finished up golf with a few rounds at the ‘Wee Course’, a six-hole par-3 on the resort grounds.
Hard to believe but great weather again. Just an amazing couple of weeks with good weather.
Now we just have to get back to Glasgow!
Daily Team Stats:
- Lost Balls – 7
- Bunkers – 3
- Low Gross – Bill @ 82
- Low Net – Dick @ 72
- Birdies – 1 – Bill
- Dram o’ Day – Bunnahabhain, Toiteach a Dha
Comments (2)
I almost bought a bottle of Bunnahabhain when flying out last Thursday, but the guy at the Duty Free shop said they didn’t “ date” the age on the bottles as I was looking for a 15 year old single malt. Didn’t make sense , as I was of the impression that they had to be at least 8 years before selling, but what do I know. So I bought bottles of 15 year GlenGoyne, Dumgoyne near Loch Lomond and 10 year GlenDronach, Huntley , Aberdeenshire along with a very smooth 10 year Ardnamurchan bought at the distillery, that went down nicely 😁.
Nice haul Bob!!