Open All Hours

UK Handicap; 3.6 USGA Handicap; 2.5

Apologies for the lack of updates, the reason for this will become clear later in this post.

As mentioned in my last post, I’ve had time to review the 5 courses I played last weekend, and as they are all given more thorough reviews in the individual posts, I’ll just give a summary here;
Nairn Dunbar 9/10. Fantastic course, fantastic clubhouse, fantastic value for money.
Aboyne 8/10. Course in great condition, interesting to play, could do with cutting back some of the rough though.
Boat of Garten 8/10. Great views, good service in the clubhouse.
Montrose Medal 7/10. True links golf, very difficult, spoiled by the wind a little.
Stonehaven 4/10. Spectacular scenery, but the course needs a bit of attention, and other than a couple of signature holes it was not the most inspiring to play.

Since I returned from my trip, I’ve played 3 times, all on the same course; Monifieth Ashludie. It is a short 5,100 yard course with a par of 68 and an SSS of 65. It is the course I played twice daily when I was around 11 years old and started playing golf properly, and it has changed quite a bit since then. Several hundred trees have been removed, and every green has been remodelled to make it easier. This mainly involves removing, or vastly reducing the depth of, the greenside bunkers, and also flattening the greenside areas. It is still a very enjoyable course to play, good for sharpening up the short game, but the greens are quite a bit slower than I am used to. This is for the reason that it is now aimed at the less able golfer, whereas it’s big brother Monifieth Medal is a much harder test, and is used for Final Open Qualifying when the Open Championship is at Carnoustie.

The first of the 3 times I played this week saw me break par for the first time this season, with a 2 under par 66, including a couple of daft dropped shots. The second time was less successful, with a score of around 74. Tonight I was round in 70 shots, including 4 throwaway shots caused by either 3-putting or missing tiny birdie putts. It’s hard to gauge where my game is at the moment, I think I’m playing alright, but I could do with sharpening up my short game a little bit.

Wednesday to Sunday this week saw me working at the Open Championship at St Andrews. I was working as a fairway mic walker, on different holes each day.
Wednesday was an absolute disaster, the weather was appalling, and I was a bit pensive about the rest of the week having been completely drenched despite having only been out on the course for about half an hour.

Thursday was a good day on 15 and 16. I saw lots of players go through those holes. It was interesting to note that Sandy Lyle was the only player who blatantly looked into a playing partners bag to see what club he was hitting. This is perfectly within the rules, you can’t ask the player directly, but most people, if they do want to know what a playing partner hits, will look subtley. Sandy was extremely blatant about it and it got me thinking about the grey line between the rules and etiquette.

Friday I was on 17 and 18, the 17th was hard work but very interesting, the 18th was good atmosphere but there was nothing to do as the players were driving within 50 yards of the green so there was no fairway mic requirements. In 2 hours I only recorded one shot. I was on 17 when play was suspended which was great as a lot of the players came back to the adjacent Old Course Hotel. I was walking up the path beside the hotel towards the 17th tee, got to the corner of the hotel, and out came Tiger with Steve Williams a few yards behind, and walked straight by me. I also got some really good audio with Louis Oosthuizen and his caddie on 17, I don't know if it was broadcast though. Because of the suspension, I didn’t get home until about 11pm, having left home at 7am.

On Saturday I was on the 3rd and 4th. Both were interesting, the 4th was the best as I was on when all the leading players came through, and as well as getting next to the players I also had to spot quite a few balls and tell the players where their ball was. On the 3rd I also had a chat with Ian Poulter whilst we waited to get to his ball whilst Tom Pernice drove down 16 on his own. I also recorded Colin Montgomerie and a rules official in an interesting conversation when Monty wanted line of sight relief from a tv tower and the rules official said no. Monty was very polite about it, I'm not sure if that bit was broadcast.

Today I was on the 10th for 3 hours, it was fairly straightforward, only notable incident was Bo Van Pelt and Jeff Overton going mental at a Rules Official who I think was trying to put them on the clock (which was ridiculous as they were 1 hole behind, and the group behind them was 2.5 holes behind).

All in all it was a great week, made even better by getting paid for it and getting inside the ropes. Having a BBC pass gets you loads of places that the paying punter, and also the guest passes, can't get.

The bottom line of why I haven’t written any blogs this week is that I have been absolutely shattered each night when arriving home. Although the work itself is normally fairly straightforward, the number of hours involved, and the amount of walking, has left me virtually asleep by the time I get home and sit down for 10 minutes. This is coupled with the fact the mobile phones are not allowed on the course, so I’ve not been able to take any photographs or post whilst I have been at the course.

Normal service should be resumed this week, I travel back London on Monday evening, so aim to practice a couple of evenings this week, before handicap competitions on Friday and Saturday, follwed by another 6 hour train journey back up to Scotland in time for the Montrose 5 Day Open starting the following Monday.