Day five of the HOG World Tour trip to Scotland had two courses on the menu. We called to find a slot on the Jubilee Course and the only available one was in 15 minutes. What to do when you’re a 20 minute walk to the course? Book the time and walk fast! We made it.
The Jubilee Course (first photo below) is right next to the Old Course and New Course. It was designed by Old Tom Morris in 1897. Many say it is the toughest course of the three. We had a fabulous time on this great links course. I had some serious pressure to overcome as I had forgotten to reload my bag with golf balls. After losing a coupe of balls to the gorse monster, I found myself with one remaining ball on the 9th tee. I’m proud to say I managed to finish the round despite a 3-club wind.
The afternoon round was at the newest course in town, the Castle Course (photo below). Not a local favorite probably due to cost and it not being a “natural” design, we have never found the Castle to be overly crowded. The incredible dunes, elevation changes, and views of the north sea make it one of the funnest rounds of golf one could have in St Andrews.
At the end of the day, the 5th day mind you, we had walked over 18.4 miles, the equivalent of 89 flights of stairs in elevation change, and 43,319 steps!
In the evening our group stayed in our rented flat (more later on that) and cooked up a carb-rich spaghetti dinner and enjoyed some wee glasses of red while conteplating the day’s golf.
What an unbelievable day it was playing 36 holes in St Andrews. Epic.
Finishing in the dark on the Old Course
First our group started with 18 holes on the New Course. The New Course sits next to the Old Course. It was designed by Old Tom Morris and opened for play in 1895. The greens were fantastic and the tight links style golf was fabulous.
After some afternoon rest in our flat (more on this later) we went down to the Old Course for a 5:30PM tee time. There is enough daylight this time of year to start that late.
In our group was Scott, a caddie on the Old Course, and an excellent golfer. We had a 2-man match pitting my friend Todd and me against Scott and our other lad Shane. The match was extremely fun and competitive. I shot one over par on the front with a tail wind. I had a lone birdie on the par-3 8th which brought our match closer. Scott made a clutch par to secure the win on the front in the nassau.
The back nine was much more difficult as we turned back into the wind. The golf was solid. Despite our efforts, caddie Scott and Shane closed out the rest of the bets on the 15th and 16th holes.
The last few holes were cold and fun as the cloud cover covered the setting sun. By the time we were on the 18th it was dark. I had a 12 foot birdie putt to break 80 which just missed. Despite shooting +7 on the back I feel it was a solid nine given that it was a 3-club wind, cold, and we were playing the world’s greatest golf course.
The winners enjoyed wee pints at the Dunvegan pub. The sweet taste of victory. Cheers.
I can’t think of a more fun day of golf. I love Scotland and I love the Old Course.
I am having a high octane latte as I write this post this morning in Cruden Bay Scotland. I am attempting to write it via voice to text in my tablet so hopefully there will be no strange medical errors. How ironic that the word grammatical (medical) was interpreted incorrectly.
Below is a photo taken by my pal Alan at Fraserburgh golf club yesterday. Because I did not bring my laptop I am not able to process many photos while I’m here so stay tuned for many 1000s more in a week or two.
Greetings from in Philadelphia where I have had a short stop to play some golf and join with my travel group to Scotland. Shortly I will be heading to the Philadelphia Airport to catch a direct flight to Glasgow, Scotland. My connectivity will be limited but I will tweet, Instagram, blog, and Facebook when I can.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BH7EjzAgjAq/
This is such a great shot from the Open Championship.
Somewhere in the gorse is Padraig Harrington.
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