We chose Balcomie for our swan song, which will come as no surprise to those that have been with us since we landed. It's another sunny, blustery day, but the weather is about to change, which is our cue to get out of Dodge. But we'll have a little news for everyone at the bottom of this post.
The camera is in hand, but it only comes out for the occasional scenic shot. The golf, on the other hand, is of the spotty kind, as both combatants are awfully tired by this point. Your humble blogger, for instance, fans on two consecutive 5-irons on the Par-3 third, and even at low tide there's no available land on which to land....
Better to focus on the lovely beach running to the right of the opening two holes:
My caddie John tells me that the first few feet of water can be quite warm, though after that it's, you know, the North Sea. I'll just take his word for it...
The second green is delightfully close to the water:
The equally picturesque fifth green, though not sure what's become of the livestock:
I make a tactical blunder and decide to play for the Medal Tees, which are a scant 5,861 yards on the scorecard, but feels more like 7,861... We have some wind, for sure, but nothing like what we had early in the trip.
The seventh green is interesting, it plays downhill but with an odd landform, actually and old roadway of some sort, in front of the green.
A view from the thirteenth tee, a long, uphill Par-3 (the ladies play it as a Par-4):
The joke is on your humble blogger for choosing the medal tees, because I'm forced to hit driver both here and on No. 18... It's hard to make a decent living hitting driver on Par-3's. Equally hard giving Theresa Simpson a shot on three-pars....
This, from the 14th tee box, is actually a better view of that beach:
My best swing of the day comes here, as my nine iron takes a good look at the hole, but ends up twelve feet past:
But, of course, Madam has an answer:
Theresa is in control of our match the entire time. I make a few runs, but never get closer than one down. But we're grinding, finding some clever up-and-downs, mostly due to finally dropping a couple of medium length putts.
John does his best to get me around, but his player can't find his best stuff:
I do keep things alive until the 18th, but the outcome was never really in doubt.
We head to the clubhouse for a post-round drink and, perhaps, an early dinner, and the bride and I get to talking. We've been mulling things for most of our time here, and we finally decide, and I walk into their administrative offices... before we leave, we submit our applications to become Overseas members of the Crail Golfing Society.
We sit with Elaine Johnson to discuss, and amusingly the Admissions Committee is meeting that very evening. Before we depart we notice this listing of membership applicants affixed to a notice board:
I know you can't really make it out, but ours are the last two names on the list, quick work indeed.
The timing of the committee meeting is for amusement value only, as our membership would coincide with the start of the club's new fiscal year on October 1st. And, of course, there's always a chance they'll come to their senses before it's too late. Time to start looking for a house in Pittenweem for the summer of 2020.... We also told Elaine that we might want to spend a full season with them, and were assured that we can readily convert to full membership then.
This is likely the end of our time together from The Kingdom of Fife. We'll have a lazy morning packing our things up and loading the car, though we'll find time for a last walk around St. Monans as well. Especially as rain precluded our usual evening stroll.... We'll sleep at Glasgow Airport tonight, OK, not literally at the airport, flying home early Thursday morning.
Given the new professional golf calendar, I'm unclear as to when regularly scheduled programming will recommence. Check back early and often, as you'll not want to miss any of those random musings....
No comments:
Post a Comment