If It's Wednesday, It Must Be Balcomie

Some more of that microblogging.... I won't keep you long, just a few quick notes and photos.

We were back on the Balcomie, and to mix things up I decided to play from their back tees, well, backish, in any event, as their Tiger tees stretch us to a daunting 5,867 yards.  At times it almost seems easier from the back tees, not least on the second hole, Over the Knowe, on which a 491-yard Par-5 seems the easier test than a 445-yard Par-4, or at least it did until the angle of the back tee box caused a seemingly fine drive to find a perfectly-placed fairway bunker.  Damn you, Old Tom!

I should also note that the back tees are white, the members' tees yellow and the forward tees (never to call them ladies' tees, heaven forfend).  The color blue seems unused here, amusing to this observer because, when we returned to Fairview in the Spring, we found that a second set of blue tees had been added, admitted more of a sky or baby blue, but still an odd choice.  The other point to note is that some of these white tee boxes are awkward to use, not least on the short ninth hole, where one needs to play across the eighth fairway from the whites, much closer to the intended line of play of the group behind.

The weather continues to dazzle but, interestingly, yesterday's wind was from a different quarter entirely.  It's been mostly out of the West (maybe SW or even SSW), but yesterday it was off the North Sea, call it out of the East.  Most of you will know that that's when it gets interesting in these parts, very much changing the way the course will play.  

As we waited to tee off, the starter placed a green tracking device on my golf bag:

As Ben explained, they are tracking progress on the golf course in the hopes of further understanding and improving pace of play on the Balcomie.  Of course, what I wanted to say was, "I can help you there, there isn't any."  But, irony, alert, they wouldn't have learned much from that tracker yesterday, since we were treated to the chillest day ever, Balcomie Edition.  

Obviously my mind goes down strange paths, it reminded me of a story from a friend playing in Hawaii.  Obama shows up to play and the Secret Service keeps two holes ahead of him and two behind cleared of golfers, and such was our yesterday.  We played an unhurried round in about 3:40, never waiting in the usual spots like the seventh tee, the only delays being the typical congestion issues the course presents.

Theresa has been getting off the tee well all trip:

That's off the second tee, and this from the Par-3 third led to her first birdie of the trip:

I had told you yesterday of driving the Par-4 seventh green, but that was from the 292-yard yellow tees, with that wind out the west helping.  Yesterday, from 54 yards back and playing directly towards the North Sea, it was a different matter entirely, a good drive barely getting to the top of the hill.  Theresa was there as well, though it's hard to tell from the photos:

You wouldn't know it from the two-dimensional camera lens, but the shot is straight downhill.

Later Theresa caught this fine bunker shot from your humble blogger:

A fine shot for sure, although it would have been finer yet had it been my first attempt.... 

I include this from the eye-candy 14th tee for the sole purpose of pointing out the whitecaps on the North Sea:

The wind was so hard left-to-right that I joked that my start line was Carnoustie (OK, maybe local humor doesn't translate, but it's out there to the right on the distant coastline).

It was about this juncture when I realized that, with the wind out of the East, I might actually be able to find my tee ball on the 13th hole....of the Craighead.  I'm thinking I won't be so lucky today when I play the Craighead with Ross.

I had meant to post this from Sunday's round on the Balcomie, one where the photographer might not have picked up on all that was going on:

Do you think it's me, or is Madam sending some sort of subliminal message?

A few years ago, one of my ski buddy Lee told me of their trip to Scotland, specifically their love of two particular pubs.  I don't remember the second, but we certainly know the Dreel:

After a wonderful dinner, we went over to St, Monans, where we stayed in 2019, to revisit their beautiful church and cemetery:

There will likely be no blogging Friday, as we have an earlier tee time, and Saturday is moving day.  But we'll catch up as time permits.