Golf and a wedding

Posted by Jamie on 20 August 2010 | 1 Comments | Tags: Gleneagles, Kings Course, James Braid, Scotland, wedding

We seem to have packed in all sorts of extra-curricular activities this year.  Like sight seeing.  Or even milking cows.  It wasnâ??t until today that Iâ??d also squeezed in a wedding.  Not just any wedding either â?? this was the day my oldest friend, Hamish (whom Iâ??ve known really since birth) tied the knot.  And I was one of his ushers.  So I had lots to do before, during and after the Main Event!  Plus, of course, there had to be some golf in there too.

As fate would have it, one of the nearest golf spots to the wedding venue was a place called Gleneagles.  Itâ??s quite good.  Pooky kindly organised for us to play The Kings Course at 7.50am, giving me 4 hours and 10 minutes to get round; get cleaned up; and get myself 20 minutes down the road to Dunblane where everyone was to congregate before the wedding.  That didnâ??t sound like enough time for me, so we set off at a shade before 6 from Hamishâ??s parents place in Fife, to arrive at Gleneagles before 7 (the thinking being that we might be able to swap our tee time for an earlier one).  Luck was on our side: someone had cancelled their 7am tee time, so Michael, myself and Big Ed got off first thing with no one ahead of us.  Perfect.

We met with the Starter; got our little goody bags, yardage books and the like; then teed off on that familiar first hole.  Iâ??d been here once before as a 9 year old to watch the Bellâ??s Scottish Open, and remember being quite impressed with the whole thing.  In those days it was Monty & Woosy doing battle â?? now those boys will soon be on the Seniors Tour if they arenâ??t already (I donâ??t watch much golf...).  

It wasnâ??t a bluebird day, but the sun was certainly threatening to reveal itself.  Once you reach the elevated 2nd tee you get the first of many stunning views across the Perthshire region; Gleneagles seems to sit in the middle of a huge basin which reminded me at times of New Zealand.  On the estate were beautifully mature trees, red deer and a bunch of birds that wouldnâ??t shut up while I was putting.  So I had them shot.

Walking down (or up, rather) the first fairway I remember thinking to myself how surreal the whole experience was, playing The Kings Course at Gleneagles early in the morning on the day when your oldest pal is getting married.  The excitement combined with my mild exhaustion (Hamish and I had sat up the night before with a bottle of whisky to have a proper catch up on life) was an unusual one â?? almost like Christmas morning as a kid when youâ??d woken up at 4am to open your presents.

The exhaustion side of things however appeared to be causing problems with my putting (at least thatâ??s my excuse anyway) - right from the outset.  On the 1st I had 10 feet for birdie across a rather severe slope, and missed my 6 footer coming back to card a frustrating opening bogey.  Then I 3 putted the 3rd.  And the 4th.  And so on and so forth.  Good ball striking doesnâ??t help much when you canâ??t tap the wee thing in the hole with a respectable number of strokes (1 or 2).  My putter mightâ??ve got confused and thought Ed was using it.  Ah well â?? I just enjoyed the company of my cursing friends (Ed having seemed to pull hook his first tee shot off every tee then snap cut the next) and the bonnie scenery all around me.  Gleneagles as I said before is quite beautiful.

The Kings Course isnâ??t a forgiving creature.  James Braid laid out a very varied course with undulations aplenty and trouble even more so.  The bracken is omnipresent and trees in play every now and then.  Not a course for driving it like Big Ed did.  It was almost a surprise when after hitting a shot he didnâ??t have a yelp.  I think the amusement softened the blow of all the 3 putting...

Pooky names The Kings as his favourite course in the world, just ahead of Pine Valley.  While I wouldnâ??t tend to agree with him on that one, I do think itâ??s something of a masterpiece.  Itâ??s the sort of course that ankle taps you (something Iâ??ve talked before in posts on clever layouts), and because itâ??s reasonably short it can be played by most golfers.  Youâ??ve just gotta be a bit straight.  And not 3 putt every green!  

Our skins match was honours even between Goldy and me going down the 18th, Goldy snatching a bunch of skins down the stretch with back-to-back birdies after doing nothing spectacular for the first 14 holes or so.  (We played that annoying format where the first 6 are worth 1 skin each, the second 6 worth 2 and the final 6 worth 3).  Then the icing was laid on the cake.  He pulled his drive 30 yards over the bracken on the huge hill at 270 yards, into what looked Hell.  I hit a sensible 3 wood down the middle then another one down near the green.  The bracken however stopped at the crest of the hill and Mike found himself in good shape.  He knocked a long iron into the greenside bunker then flopped it out to 25 feet.  I had an easy pitch but it checked up early on the front edge.  Then I 3 putted one final time to hand him the match.  To be fair the writing was on the wall from the start.  Bah humbug.

But I had a wedding to go to.  And some plush facilities to make the most of beforehand.  So off to the amazing showers I went, then into the sauna (I passed on the Turkish Baths).  To keep up appearances I even had a shave!  While all the other chaps in the locker room were chucking on their spikes and Titleist caps, I was strapping my kilt on and doing my best to look like an authentic Scot.  These boys mustâ??ve wondered what the hell was going on.  

With plenty time to burn we jumped into the car and found ourselves at Dunblane hyrdo, where I was duly dropped.  Then all hell broke loose and in the midst of it all Hamish got married.  But I wonâ??t bore you with all of that.  Here's a photo of Hamish & his gorgeous bride Gillian though, in the red Morgan he hired for the weekend.  Doesn't the lad look happy.

Not that you read the blog Hamish, but if you are - congraulations my friend.  I can't believe you managed to find a girl crazy enough to marry you, but fair play to you and commiserations to Gillian all the same...

JP