In the night garden

It is not often we venture into the neighbouring kingdoms of Great Britain, however, so rather fortunate golf shots in August made me eligible for the BMW International Cup UK final in St Andrew's, reputedly the home of golf.  It was mostly funded by BMW but the final itself was to be contested on the greens of the Castle course just outside the town. Consequently I decided I would travel up early with SWMBO and try to get to play the Old course, an Open Championship venue.

Now I am happy to admit the course always looks pretty ordinary on the TV and would not drag me up to Scotland to play it on it's own, but as an opportunity has arisen then it was reasonable to take advantage of it. Now people who do not follow golf may not realise the mission that is involved when trying to get a tee time. Some tee times are reserved early for the residents and students of St Andrews, there are some times purchased by commercial organisations and then there are the rest! 2,3 and 4 ball applicants go into a tee time ballot and are allocated times by a random draw. There is no guarantee an application will be successful, so, for example, on the Saturday we were there the ballot was over subscribed by 103 people. That is the equivalent of 26 tee times over 4 hours. The only way for those people to get a game or for single players like me is to arrive at the tee and hope for a gap in the field or a no-show.

Now this 'arrive at the tee' bit is not as easy as it looks either! The office does not open until 07:30 in October with the first tee at 08:00. The residents and students are not obliged to fill their spare slots from the waiting queue, so the earlier you get there the more change you have of getting a slot. I arrived at 06:10 and I was number 13 in the queue. The first people had been there since mid-night, no kidding!! I was worried 13 might be unlucky but I was informed I was actually 14 as one chap had given up at 04:30 and gone back to bed.So in true style we formed a line as the office opened. We were told 21 of 33 people had got a slot yesterday so hopes raised. By 10:00 two people had found slots and the rugby was on the TV. Then, miracle, two 4 balls failed to arrive, and I was on, 11:00 tee off. I was with two Canadians and an American, we had four caddies and it was rock and roll. I played pretty well, hitting my first tee shot OK and got a par at a few holes including 15 and 16. My initial views were confirmed though that it really only had two good holes. I arrived at one of those needing a par and a bogey to score 36 points which is a level par score after handicap.

17 is the iconic road hole. In the day you drove over railway sheds to the fairway. The sheds have gone but the hotel which replaced them has kept the architecture such that you still have the same brick wall facing you.when we were on the tee the Polish navvies were dismantling the grandstands used the previous week for the Dunhill Classic. It was very distracting. So, I strolled forward and in my best Polish told them please to be quiet. They were shocked into silence as I and my three partners bashed perfect drives over the sheds to the centre of the fairway. The caddies were more impressed with my Polish that the golf though!

It is called the road hole because the green is about six feet from the road at the back of the course and is protected by a large , deep bunker. No problem for me though as I knocked the ball on and two putts gave me my third par in a row. Just 18 to go!! well, what an anticlimax that was as a twonked by ball into the Swilken Burn about ten yards in front of the tee. I did not get my bogey so ended up with 34 points and a nett score of 77. Pretty good I thought.

Would I rush to play it again? No probably not but the experience of getting onto the course, having a caddie and getting par on the road hole was something to remember and add to my great golf story play book.