Going once, going twice.....

I have just had two fab days up in Scotland playing golf at Turnberry, the 2009 Open Championship course. I played the Ailsa twice, and am pleased to report that the game held up well and I was part of the winning team, and came third individually, with my second round 86 being as good as I have played for a while.

I am a bit of a golf anorak, so on my return home I was able to check my golf logbooks and identify that in 1989 when i last played the Ailsa course I went round in 98. My handicap was 19 in those days, and we had played the Arran ( now Kintyre) course in the morning. Progress is progress, however, and for that I am thankful.

In that week during 1989 we played 36 holes round Prestwick Old Links, Kilmarnock Barassie, and 18 holes round Troon and Largs. These days 18 is enough both from the stamina perspective and for the fact golf seems to take longer to play.

At Turnberry people started batting off at 06:30 and the last crew we saw on the 18th was 22:15, so they probably started about 18:30. That's twelve hours golf with average 20 people per hour paying £125 each. £30,000 per day just from the one course.

I only had one embarrassment. You know when you see somebody you think you know, either from the pub or work or somewhere else social, well that happened to me. When I confronted the innocent chap it turned out to be Philip Searle from The Antiques Road Show, and Bargain Hunt. What a pleasant chap he turned out to be, just there for the craic like the rest of us.