Yeah they really should just close the course. I understand why they do it, it's just regoddamndiculous. Either live with the million divots, find a different solution, or close the course.

Wednesday, August 7th

Up before 8am for an early tee time on the New Course. Now new is relative as it was built in 1895 by none other than Old Tom Morris. Grab some breakfast to go, sling the clubs over my back and trek down the hill towards the links eating on the way while watching the fog burn off the North Sea. It's the little things like this that are just so cool.

Very little going on at the New, we were free to tee off at our leisure. Great course, technically better than the Old, but just not near the magic. The weather was absolutely perfect, maybe 60 degrees with little wind.

Tough lie on the front nine.



One of the better views from a tee on the New.



Shot 70, 1-under with a nice little 3-under 32 on the back. Decide to have lunch at the clubhouse overlooking 1 green on the Old as well as the Himalayas, the incredible putting course. That's a story as well, there are actually putting clubs that have events on this course. When we were there I think a round cost one pound.



During lunch we run into the couple from Heathrow Airport and East Texas, they had a great time in the Ayrshire area but were looking forward to St. Andrews. After lunch we were walking back to the hotel but I had tons of energy and it was our last day in town. I made the impulsive decision to put my name on the walk up list to play the Old Course again. Knew there would be spots available but had no clue as to how many walk ups were on the list in front of me.

Walked around town for a spell before heading back to wait. Grabbed a Coke and a Snickers and sat between 1 tee and 18 green to take it all in, another near-perfect moment. After a while, an American came strolling by and was informing all who would listen that he was canceling his tee time because him and his buddies had played the course the day before and hated it! We kind of thought he was joking, but he wasn't. Walked up to the starter's shack and canceled his time. These are the kind of things that cause me to make fun of Yankee golfers even though I am one. But who cares? Immediately four spots just opened up for walk ups! Sure enough, 60 seconds later my name is called! Paired with two guys from Oregon and one from Finland who spoke little English.

With all of us carrying our own clubs we set out on the oldest course on the planet with the sun shining brightly over us. Now the Fin wasn't the best golfer, but he played fast and took it seriously. Had trouble on the par 4 2nd and was in the back greenside bunker in 5 or 6. He was up against the lip so was forced to play out backwards. With the heavy sand in Scotland you have to take a bigger swing in order to get the ball out of the bunker, and he took a near full swing just in case. Unfortunately he caught the ball clean and sent it at least 100 yards away from the green and down 16 fairway! The rest of us nearly toppled over laughing while the Fin sprinted down the fairway to recover his ball and finish the hole, which he eventually did in approximately 15 strokes according to my notes. And all the while muttering to himself in Finnish. It was awesome.

Wasn't playing my best through 6 holes and was 1-over with a birdie and two bogies, but then the magic happened. Pitched on #7 and made a short putt for birdie. Hit a good shot to the par-3 8th and made the birdie putt. Another short putt for birdie followed on the short 9th. Once again drove the par 4 10th to the surprise of my playing partners. A monster putt awaited me and I needed the pin tended as I could not see the hole at all. Gave the putt a firm rap and await the result, the pin was pulled and I couldn't see the hole again. Suddenly my ball disappeared! OhwowIjustmadeaneagleatthehomeofgolf! I swear my dick got rock hard and was dragging on the green as I went to retrieve my ball.

Probably got way too excited as I bogeyed 11, didn't birdie 12, and bogeyed 13. Calmed down by the time we got to the par 5 14th. Bombed a drive and then crushed a fairway metal which we found in the middle of the green once we got down there. A 30-footer awaited, but not for long. It dove into the hole like a scared rabbit. Holy****IjustmadeasecondeagleontheOldCourse! Once again did a tripod walk to the hole to get my ball grinning like a maniac.

Birdied 16 and then once again faced the Road Hole. Another perfect drive over the sheds leaving a good look at the green with the pin in the back. Didn't want to leave myself a monster putt from the front of the green so took an aggressive line over the Road Hole Bunker with a 7-iron which found the edge of the putting surface. A risky shot but it worked out. So of course you know what's coming on this magical day. An firm putt misses the hole and rolls past, and then I miss the comebacker. Mother****ing****I3puttedthisholeagain! So to this day I still haven't parred the Road Hole.

By this time by Dad has ambled down the hill after a nice nap and inquired how I was playing. His eyes bugged out when I gave him the quick details. A good drive and a pitch to the last left a makeable putt but I just couldn't get it to fall, but it did make for a good picture.



The final total was 68, 2 eagles, 5 birdies, and 5 bogies. Plus a lifetime of stories. I just played 36 holes of golf at St. Andrews with absolutely perfect weather. Wow, just wow. So awesome. I was starving however and we had an excellent dinner. I devoured a huge steak and probably one of everything else on the menu. Needless to say I slept soundly that night.

It's not just the divots, during the winter months the ground is rock solid. It's like hitting irons on concrete, so the mats are handy for that aswell. I play on a course that doesn't require mats during the winter but i'll use one anyway because I'm not ****ing my hands hitting from rock solid fairways.

Awesome Old Course trip!

Thursday, August 8th

Up for breakfast and take a final walk around this great town before heading north. Some miscellaneous pictures of St. Andrews.

The beach just off the first tee of the Old Course. You might recognize this as the beach where the famous scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed



The view from our hotel room



Two humorous street signs




A typical street in town



We get in the car and retrace our steps towards Carnoustie and beyond heading north along the east coast and the North Sea. Before Aberdeen we come across Dunottar Castle, something that cannot be described by words, so here are a couple of pictures.




We drive through Aberdeen and arrive at the Udny Arms Hotel in Newburgh. What a strange name for a hotel.



Have dinner at the hotel restaurant that night and order a chopped steak, basically a hamburger patty. Bite into it and it's crunchy, and not in a good way. Take a closer look and discover about half of the meat isn't meat after all, it's white filler! Tossed the meat aside and ate as much bread as I could in order to fill up. It was at this point where we decided that the Scots could not screw up pizza so if there was any question that's what we would be ordering.

Retired to our room and tried to sleep as it was right on the main road and pretty loud, overall the hotel was one of the few bad experiences of our trip.

Friday, August 9th

Up early for a 9am tee time at Cruden Bay, one of the hidden gems in Scotland. The temperature is 50 degrees fahrenheit, the rain is coming down sideways, and the wind is howling off the North Sea which is just steps away. Perfect Scottish weather in August, I was hoping for this at least once during our trip and here it was. As it turns out, it couldn't have happened at a more appropriate course. And surprisingly, this was the only day of bad weather we had on the entire trip.

I've got on several layers of clothing, my rain suit, a ski hat, and cart gloves in between shots. One of the rules you rarely hear about is that when it rains in Scotland, either your waterproofs work or they don't. There is no reason to carry an umbrella because it just won't hold up and certainly does not matter when the rain is coming down sideways. After 7 holes we took refuge under a shelter for a bit to simply get out of the monsoon. By the 12th hole every fiber of my body was soaked. At this point my dad basically gave up and didn't play the last few holes because he simply could not swing or hold onto the golf club any more. I soldiered on however. The last par 5 was into the elements, I hit a solid drive, a solid fairway metal, another solid fairway metal and still had 50 yards to the hole! Brutal. Summoned all my mental power and got that sucker up and down for par though.

Get to #15, a wee par 3 of 230 yards or so. And to make things more difficult, it's a blind shot over the side of a 100-foot dune with an alignment stake halfway up. Smash a 3-wood just left of the stake and hike over the dune. Where the **** is my ball? Not on the green, not in the hole, not visible in the rough. Who knows? Screw it. And no, the nit did not go back to the tee in the monsoon. Lost a ball on a par 3, sweet.

On either 17 or 18 there is an elephant buried in the middle of the fairway. And not a small elephant, a big friggin' elephant. Staggered my way home with a 78, 1 lone birdie. But the course was unbelievable, quirky, but just awesome. Several holes on the back nine border the North Sea, other holes are cut through the huge fescue covered dunes. Sadly, because of the brutal weather I didn't take many pictures, here are a few.





We retrieved some dry clothes from the car and changed out of our drenched attire, then we headed west along the coast to Inverness, the third biggest city in Scotland on the edge of the famous Scottish Highlands. Checked into the Glen Mhor Hotel situated on the river and set off to find food. Stumbled into a local pizzeria and feasted on food unable to be ruined. It was actually really good deep dish pizza.

Only about half way through so far, but wanted to say: Very good read and very nice pics! Enjoying this thread a lot.

We need more golf trip reports in this forum.

Inverness is the 5th biggest city. Was going to say glad you enjoyed your time in the North East.

Thanks for the correction, not sure why I thought that. After some quick checking the numbers aren't even close.

BO

Bump, hope to see more

Thanks, have been meaning to finish this up.

BO

Awesome thread.

Wonderful photography. Wonderful writing. Thanks for sharing.

Going to try and finish this trip report off. Not entirely sure why the above pics are not viewable at present while the current ones below are, have not deleted them. Any thoughts?

BO

Saturday, August 10th

Not playing golf until after 3pm today so able to take some time and explore Inverness a bit. Some pics of the city starting with our hotel.





Drive a bit east of the city to Nairn, a course that has hosted both the Walker and Curtis Cup. The course is located right on the North Sea, as a matter of fact if you take two steps off the putting green you would fall off the small seawall and into the water. Pretty cool setting to practice putting.

The course itself isn't quite as Scottish as the others, fastest greens we played by far and the course wasn't as roughish. But an excellent course nonetheless. Played a fairly straightforward round and shot 69. Sadly, left my camera at the hotel so no pics of the course.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the day came while exiting the property. From the parking lot there is a short narrow road out to the main road. Out of habit when coming out of the parking lot I started driving on the right side of the road. Until I noticed a vehicle coming directly at us that is. At first I wanted to lay on the horn as he was on the wrong side of the road. But then both me and my Dad realized it was us that was on the wrong side of the road. Oops. Casually found the correct lane with no harm done, I believe the other car realized we were tourists and sadly shook their heads. That was the only time during the entire trip I made that mistake however.

Back in Inverness we decided to eat at the pizza place again, only this time it was packed full of people and we had to wait to sit down. Once seated we waited 30 minutes for drinks and a full hour for pizza. Very frustrating, I think the only thing we didn't like about Scotland was the food and drink aspect.