Trip of a Lifetime (Part One, Chapter Four)

IV. Miscellaneous

After our big day yesterday, I now have a sore back and legs. In less than 48 hours, we have already played in sun, wind, rain, and fog. Welcome to Scotland! Hopefully my body will limber up after I get moving. The dorm that we are staying in (New Hall on the University of St. Andrews campus) is very nice, and conveniently located to everything, literally easy walking distance to The Old Course. And the cost is only about 40 pounds per person per night, not too shabby. And that INCLUDES breakfast. The security guard at the dorm, John Robertson, is a golf FIEND. He plays in all of these various competitions around the area, and basically rearranges his work schedule around these events. When he found out that we had some early tee times, he opened the cafeteria early for us so we could get something to eat prior to our golf!

Since it's Sunday, the Old Course is closed, so we decide to walk it, as we are playing it on Monday, and we want to see what it looks like beforehand. It's awesome to walk it when it is closed, and to think about all the famous golfers that have graced this course (basically every big-name golfer in history except Ben Hogan has played an Open here at least once). When we get to the Road Hole, #17, we hear bagpipes in the distance. Another good omen?

The next day, we play the New Course in the morning, and then the Old Course in the afternoon. I now have a blister forming on my right heel. I am quite a mess, with my sore back, sore legs, throbbing finger, and now blisters! But I muddle through. Roger gets a caddy for the Old Course, and it is none other than Oliver Horovitz, the American who wrote the caddy piece in Sports Illustrated! This whole trip has been a series of coincidences! Oliver is a great caddy and companion, giving invaluable advice to both Roger and me around the course (we both tip him well at the end!). Roger and I both play well, especially on the front nine with the wind at our backs. I shoot 39 on the front, and put together 8 pars in a row, from holes 3 through 10. I didn't start out so great. I was very nervous on the 1st tee, as they announce your name on the loudspeaker, and then you step up to hit your ball with quite a few tourists and onlookers observing your every move. I took a 3-wood in the hopes of keeping it in the fairway, and felt like I literally blacked out on my downswing. I honestly don't remember following through (I probably didn't!). I actually duck-hooked it into the 18th fairway. Thank goodness it's nice and wide. Then I proceed to dump my approach into the Swilcan Burn and end up with a double bogey. I bogey #2, and then finally settle down and put together my nice little run of pars. Then we turn into the wind, and I play bogey golf in and shoot 84 or so. All in all not too shabby. Roger takes away a nice memory by parring the Road Hole. He's just barely off the front edge of the green in two, and actually has a shot at birdie. He rolls it up the hill, but it's just not quite enough, and rolls all the way back down to his feet. He then rolls the next one into the hole!