South of St. Andrews about 10 miles lies the charming village of Crail, home of the Crail Golf Society, founded in 1786. We left our hotel, even par, and arrived for our first 18 holes on the Craigshead Course, perched just back of the headlands. At 9:40 the Issaquah twosome teed 'em up and off we went in 50 degree weather and grey skies. Craigshead is crisscrossed with rockwalls and yellow bloomed gorse (pretty to look at but deadly to play in!). With wonderful seaviews across the wide open terrain we met some fine gents from Aberdeen on the 5th tee when I "went off line" with an approach shot! We caught up with Colin, Douglas, Peter and John again at the end of the round and they may be reading this blog! Best of luck and hope the rest of your golf holiday goes well!
We played well enough to break 100 and then took a lunch break before taking on the original of the 2 courses, Balcomie. While slightly shorter, Balcomie included some of the best and most spectacular scenery and holes of the trip so far. Hard against the seashore, this was Pebble Beach in Scotland! Again, we were brilliant at times (birdies!) but often humbled by the everpresent and well hidden pot bunkers.
After our finish, we were more than ready to head back to St. Andrews for brews (my favorite is St. Andrews Ale) and a delicious dinner at Rocca's with a surprising serenade by a 20 piece bagpipe band on St. Andrew's 18th fairway! Then, a dram of Macallan 10 year old and anCnoc 12 year old, a fitting end to the St. Andrews leg of our trip!
Off to the north and the highlands on Monday a.m..
Bruce and Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment