London...it's so good!: Scotland

So before we go on our next adventure, I should probably update everyone on our trip to Scotland. Jen wanted me to do it because the trip was really for me...far less a sightseeing trip and more a golf pilgrimage. It was my first Golf Odyssey, and like Homer's included both siren songs and multiple headed beasts. First, golf in Scotland is a different breed of golf that we are used to in the US.

Links golf is the original type of golf...a type that indicates rolling seaside holes that seems to be cut out of the natural surroundings. There was no course design 6 centuries ago when The Old Course at St. Andrews came into existence. Originally 22 holes (11 each side), it was Old Tom Morris who eliminated 2 of the shortest holes on each side to make the 18 hole golf course that is the world standard today. Links golf is meant to be played on the ground, through the use of shots that run on to the green. Links golf combines huge multi-tiered greens, bunkers that have nicknames such as "Hell" and require ladders to get down to the sand and deep grass and gorse (thorny) bushes on the edges of the rough. Then add wind and unpredictible and inclimate weather to all of this and you golf the way it was originally played...and still played in much of Scotland and Europe (although parkland courses--courses that are meant to be played in the air-- like we have in the US are becoming very popular).

Now with that introduction, on to my experience. I played four courses, the Jubilee course (named so because it created in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (25 years) as monarch of Great Britain) and The Old Course (named so because it is heralded as the home of golf dating back to the 15th century--it will be the site of the 2010 Open Championship) at St. Andrews. I also played Kingsbarnes and the Aisla Course at Turnberry (host of the 2009 Open Championship). I drove to Carnoustie, which was the site of the 2007 Open Championship (the British Open as it is called in the States) on Friday but it was closed due to heavy rains.

The Old Course at St. Andrews has been host to more Open Championships then any other golf course and for every golfer is a Mecca for which one must visit. My day on that hallowed ground begin the night before on Friday night when I found out that I had in every real sense won the lottery...my prize a tee time on The Old Course on Saturday morning. Golf in Scotland is viewed as a game for everyone (Keep in mind their most cherished and important tournament is after all an OPEN), it doesn't have the elitist persona that has developed in the US, case in point, even private clubs in Scotland allow the public to play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All this to say that whether you are rich or poor, to play The Old Course you put your name/group on the ballot and hope to get selected for a tee time. I had one chance because of our traveling schedule and thankfully I along with my B & B mate from South Africa were selected for a 10:40 time on Sat.

Standing on the first tee of one of the most famous courses in the world, a course that I had seen hundreds of times on TV and played hundreds of times in video games, was nothing short of surreal.

Jen and I walked the course, playing the game as it was intended. It was very cool to have a caddie actually carry the bag, it is unfortunate that the professional caddie program in the states is not vibrant and often left to amateurs. I enjoyed every minute of my day on The Old Course, despite my golf game being left in the States, because I knew how special it was for me to be out there. I had no illusions that during those 4 hours, which felt like 10 minutes, I was very lucky. Lucky to have a passion for something even when its not going my way, lucky to be a golfer, and most of all lucky to be walking and playing golf with my wife on one of the grandest stage's in of all of golf.