Golf and sport over the weekend

Well...with a group of South Africans here for their golf tour they were able to celebrate twice in the last two days and what a couple of days for the South Africans. The victory by Ernie Els at Lytham St Anne's was a remarkable turn around in fortunes for both the golfers. It only goes to show that the match or competition is never over until the last putt is in the hole.  Poor Adam Scott but it was also a great finish from Ernie who knew that it was easy to have consecutive bogeys on the way home and avoided that and even advanced while Adam lost his way and eventually the Open.

The McWilliam party were at Castle Stuart and watched the event live and were gifted a bottle of single malt to celebrate Ernie's victory. Very nice touch by Castle Stuart! Just to make the week better for the South Africans, England lost by an innings and lost their no. 1 status....oops!

Here at the Links Club we are preparing for the arrival of the Fraser group on Thursday. They will be staying at Newholme House for the majority of the time here in Scotland and they will be finishing their golf tour at Turnberry for the last two days. Let's hope we can follow any good weather around.  I think the McWilliam group have been lucky although they had a strong wind to contend with at Castle Stuart.

On Friday of last week I had a very kind invitation to play at the Rennaisance Club with three good friends, courtesy of my fourball partner at Gleneagles in order to celebrate his daughter's wedding. We had great weather and played on a course that was in great condition. Nice for once to play on greens that are running true. Gleneagles has had problems this year that have meant that we have not had good and consistent running greens. Let's hope we can get some for the end of the season. The Renaissance is a good course but we all had a close look at the new holes, of which one is spectacular, however the other two are great holes but the greens for each hole are separated by a wall - what happens when you get on the wrong green?  Not sure but lift and drop is probably the only rule available so not really the full payment for going long...interesting.  Fore caddies are not normal in the UK...they should be considered by some of the bigger courses...it works and can, if the individual is good, really speed up play.  The reading of putts by the fore caddy can slow the pace of play, but I really enjoyed the input from our fore caddie Todd.

McWilliam golf tour

Late at night just finishing preparation for the group arriving at Glasgow airport tomorrow...early start and then down to Turnberry..update tomorrow So the McWilliam party arrived at Turnberry with pretty good weather around. Not much wind and no rain, and the course looking in good condition. The stands were starting to appear fro the senior open, and so there was a great buzz around the course.

Here is Mark, Patric Simon Andy and Quinton ready for their first hole on the Ailsa Course.They played round in excellent weather and only just caught a small shower just as the sun was setting, however the shower and the sun firmed a great backdrop for a double rainbow over the hotel and the course, as the two groups played in to the 18th.Tom Watson would have bought at least three of the approach shots into the 18th back in 2009!!!!!!!

The next day i lead the whole group alongs to Girvan harbour where they boarded the kintyre express for their journey over the sea to Campbeltown and onto Machrahanish for their golf. Below are some of the pictures of the group boarding the boat...perhaps a little apprehensive?? not sure but they all returned safely and it was a great success. Save a four hour drive or a flight from glasgow airport.!