From home, Bobby D. writes:
"No blog this morning? I was looking forward to it."
Ouch! Pierce me to the heart.... I just had a lazy morning and will endeavor to do better in the coming days, except when I don't.
We've had a lovely two days of golf, Thursday on the Craighead and yesterday on the Balcomie, each featuring distinctly non-Scottish and/or non-Crail experiences. Both days were dry, although in each case not the kind of day when you're confident of staying dry, meaning that the golf bag is jammed full of wardrobe alternatives. On Thursday, it didn't rain until bedtime but yesterday, after an unusually late tee time (more on that in a bit), we noticed the streets of Pittenweem were wet as we drove home, so a near miss. Still, dry is good....
I'm also blogging without the benefit of the camera, and on top of that I forgot to take my phone with me yesterday, so Employee No. added Court Photographer to her list of responsibilities.
Could that stance be narrower? All else aside, it's just a beautiful property with million dollar North Sea views.
Not much to report from the Craighead, as we're both settling in and finding our games, though all it takes is one ball to trundle into a bunker to wreak havoc with a scorecard. Some actual golf was played, as an example I had my first eagle put of the trip on the Par-5 eighth, and Theresa was driving it especially well for a bit.
But the notable bit was something that rarely happens. We had seen a single man tee off in front of us, and almost caught him a couple of times. Pace of play seemed slightly sluggish, though we actually got around in 3:30, but it must have seemed much slower to him. But we caught him on the 17th tee, and he suggested we play in with him, something that just never happens in Scotland.... Turns out he's an Aussie and find that aspect of Scottish golf equally curious, like us happy for the company.
An Aussie as I said, but one who married a Scottish girl from Peterhead (on the East coast north of Aberdeen), though they live in France. He had driven up from Edinburgh, though we didn't realize he had done so with his wife and father-in-law, who were parked on a bench behind the 18th green as we finished. On the one hand it's nothing little half-hour interaction, but how nice to share travel experiences and reactions with fellow travelers (admittedly, those last two words are typically used to connote something entirely different).
We were back on the Balcomie yesterday with a 2:40 p.m. tee time, a time I tried to move up but ultimately decided might be fun to see the place in the late day light. I know, the assumption that the sun would be available to us in Scotland is really a scratch. As they used to say about second marriages, the triumph of hope over experience..... The reason we were so late was a junior competition, both men and women, and I was told by David Snodgrass, the Head Professional, that one of the boys had posted -1, so the kids can play.
As I've noted previously, the Balcomie is where pace of play goes to die, but we got quite lucky. We were there early and saw the last tourney group tee off. The starter explained that they had left a gap on the tee sheet, and regular play would start at 2:30, one group ahead of us. After checking out the Open in the clubhouse we found that the one group was a fourball playing some kind of match, and they were kind enough to allow us to jump ahead, meaning we had an open golf course ahead of us. Be still my foolish heart, we proceeded to play the first twelve holes in two hours, perhaps explaining why we both played so well.
If you'll recall my prior blogging of the Balcomie, I had done a deep dive on the fifth hole, Hell's Hole, a brutal Par-4 that's the No. 1 stroke index hole on the course. It features a classic cape tee shot, and on that day I got overly aggressive with my line off the tee and my ball presumably sleeps with Luca Brasi and the fishes in the North Sea. This time I was only slightly less aggressive with the tee shot, but we found it in the rough having just cleared the OB.
As I noted the other, day, the tee box points you directly towards the sixth green, and yesterday I had a group playing second shots from short of that green, so the choice was waiting or taking the more aggressive line. And your humble blogger isn't great at the patience thing.... My lie in the rough wasn't brilliant, +/- 190 yards out, so I decided to "play smart" and hack out a 5-iron that would leave me short of the green. Subsequent events defy explanation, because I most certainly pulled said 5-iron and it was never enough club to get there, but we found it on the green only ten feet from the hole. That sixth tee box is elevated, and the only way I can explain it (my line of sight to the green was blocked) is a fortuitous bounce off the sixth tee. But I made the putt and who doesn't like to birdie the hardest hole on the golf course, much less a hole on which I've never before even made par?
In my prior Balcomie post, I had planned on writing about the 13th hole, quite the unusual one-shotter. The Balcomie strikes me as a place you'll love or hate, it's so quirky as generate the widest array of reactions. I enjoy it (and Theresa much prefers it to the Craighead) because it never fails to provide 4-6 truly interesting golf shots per round, though one never knows when those will present. Of course, I also enjoy it for the eye candy, brilliant North Sea exposures, and also for the fact that I can pretend I'm a big boy and reach Par-5's and the short Par-4's. I had one round last year in the firm and fast conditions where I had three eagle putts, and who among us doesn't like that?
But the quirkiness and tight quarters ensure that not everything will work as well as we might hope. Old Tom did a heck of a job, though his failure to anticipate how far we would all be hitting the ball 125 years later is understandable. The thirteenth is such an example, an uphill Par-3 that plays 209-214 yards from the men's tees. You'll get a sense perhaps of where I'm heading when I tell you it plays 203 yards for the ladies, there being nowhere else to provide them a shorter tee. It's a Par-4 for them, but that additional stroke is only of marginal utility.
This is what it looks like from the 12th green:
You'll just have to accept that the hole is far more uphill than it appears in this photo, and that bank of long grass makes the tee box feel claustrophobic. Here's Theresa on the tee:
For me, club selection is an issue.... driver is too much, I've visited the car park previously. But 3-wood feels like not quite enough, though that might also be a result of having no confidence in that particular club. Notwithstanding that, I hit a perfect 3-wood on Monday and actually ran through the green. I hit a really good soft pitch to about six feet and made the putt, my first three ever on that brute, and just then the heavens opened up. We had fought small squalls all day and it was going to be a slow final five holes and we were next to the car park so the bride and I just looked at each other and nodded, each knowing that in that moment we'd rather be here:
We knew the rain wouldn't last, but we enjoyed watching the groups in front and behind us play those four holes that the bar overlooks.
That three was sweet, but yesterday I made quite the comical four, as I hit my three-wood hard but thin, driving it straight into the bank, where it should have plugged. Instead, it hit a rock and bounced back, and somehow I got a PW to the green from a severely downhill lie. I was owed one, perhaps, since the bride hit one into the North Sea on No.5, only to have it bounce back into play off a rock....
A delightful day on the Balcomie, and not only because we stayed dry..... A couple of final notes before we get on with our day.
A Berry Good Time - There's a farmstand between Celardyke and Crail that we've patronized on prior trips, and I remember the strawberries and raspberries as being just fine. But this year, the first bite resulted in an explosion of flavor in my mouth, and Theresa quite agrees. I suspect the difference is in being here a month earlier, but we can't get enough.
Our Rainbow Coalition - We might prefer it a little drier, but there is one obvious benefit to the rain:
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