Rain, Rain Go Away (& It Did), St. Andrews

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  Dunfermline, Scotland, United Kingdom
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Well, I'm finally back...sorry for the delay, but we've been running pretty hard again and internet access has once again been a tad limited for us. But here is a big update for you...
 

June 22 - Day 6 - Into The Scottish Highlands; Lookin' for Nessie

Sunday morning we awoke in Dumbarton, Scotland, to find dismal, rainy skies and, unfortunately, that was not to change for the remainder of the day. Solid rain showers pelted us for pretty much the entire day as we drove north through some of the higher points in Scotland and then through the Loch Ness area.

Simply gorgeous Scottish countryside past by our windows as we marched on. We passed through picturesque towns like Fort William and Fort Augustus. Fort Augustus borders Loch Ness to the south and it would be there we would begin our search for the area's most famous resident, Nessie. After striking out there, we continued to move north.

We veered off the path a bit at one point, driving about 10 miles out of the way to see Glen Garry, a great spot for a photo. Then, it was on to a tour of Urquhart Castle, the ruins of which sit atop the western side of Loch Ness, providing a great view of that body of water. One thing I never realized about Loch Ness was that it is 23 miles long and about a mile wide. It's huge. I can see why finding Nessie is tough!

Continuing to weather the rain, we wound our way even further north, finally coming to a halt at our headquarters in Inverness, which sits on the north side of Loch Ness.

Scottish Highlands

We went downtown to find a bite to eat and then retired for the night, hoping clearer skies would greet us on Monday morning.
 

June 23 - Day 7 - Finding Ben Nevis; Then Cross Country

Upon arising Monday, we did, in fact, have much more promising skies outside and took that opportunity to backtrack on our route from Sunday on the west side of Loch Ness. We continued our search for Nessie, though I'm pretty sure I got a video of her at the castle on Monday (I wanted to post it here so you could watch for yourself, but it's taking WAY too long to upload).

The real purpose for the backtrack was to go back to Ben Nevis, which is the tallest mountain in Scotland, standing at 4,406 feet. When we came through Sunday, the entire peak was covered in clouds, so we decided then to try to return if things looked better Monday.

We took a ski tram up a sister peak and got a fantastic view from there of Fort William and surrounding areas. Ben Nevis was still hiding it's top from us, however, so we never really got a good look at the peak.
From there we headed west pretty much non-stop for about three hours, finally landing in Dunfermline, Scotland, Monday night around 5 p.m. After checking in and rounding up some grub, we had a huge trip highlight - a visit to ASDA. For those of you who don't know what an ASDA is, try that store with the blue front and white letters.

Me lookin' for Nessie - see her?

ASDA is Scotland's Wal-Mart.

 
June 24 - Day 8 - St. Andrews & The Old Course

As most of you know, one of the biggest things on my agenda for this trip was to play The Old Course at St. Andrews. The oldest golf course in the world. Where the sport was invented. Need I say more? The following is an accounting of my day. Yes, I made it happen. It took work, but I did make it happen...

3:00 a.m. - I awake from about a three-hour sleep to shower and leave for St. Andrews, Scotland, a simple drive from our current headquarters of Dunfermline.

3:45 a.m. - I leave. The drive, as you would expect, was unadventerous. Though the sun does rise around 4:15 over here, Scots are no more up that early that we are. I see maybe five vehicle during my peaceful drive to St. Andrews via the M90 and A91 highways in eastern Scotland. The sun is rising and there is fog rolling over the Scottish countryside and farmland. I can smell success already.

4:45 a.m. - I arrive at St. Andrews Links and am the first to park in the clubhouse parking lot. I feel like Clark Griswold at Wally World, but hopefully I won't have to hold up the security guard to ride the ride.

4:50 a.m. - I walk up to the starter's hut, as instructed by the Royal & Ancient GC, to get in line (excuse me, in the "queue") with other single golfers (from Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee, no less). I am #4. Now, I feel very confident this round will happen. The weather looks solid. We're gonna play today, no doubt.

6:10 a.m.

McKell misbehavin'

- The starter, who is late (remember, Rolex is the official clock here), finally arrives to set the first tee time of the day, a 6:30 slot. He takes our names (our being about 30-40 people at this point) and starts working us into the daily tee sheet. For those of us renting clubs (I wasn't gonna lug them around over here for two weeks for one round), he gives us some lip about not having clubs and that that is key to playing the game they call golf here at the Old Course. I explain to him that I had called the R&AGC Monday and they said I should see him first, then go rent the clubs once I have a tee time. Me and 3-4 other guys dart back over to the clubhouse (about a quarter mile away) and "hire" our clubs.

6:55 a.m. - The starter, who is my best friend right now, calls two names over the loudspeaker - "Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Cade, please report to the starter" (remember, that's in authentic Scottish tongue). Mr. Mitchell, a former golfer at the University of Missouri, and I are inserted into the 7:30 a.m. tee time. That's right, I just walked on to The Old Course at St. Andrews. But there's still 35 minutes for them to change their minds, so let's hit the putting green and keep a low profile.

7:20 a.m. - We are called to the #1 tee box (The Burn Hole). The gentleman on the tee box in R&AGC garb, let's call him the assistant starter, goes over the guidelines for our group. He emphasizes speed of play (four hours is the goal) and that we will be watched like hawks all the way around the course.

Fort William/Ben Nevis area

He then says the words that our music to our ears - "Gentlemen, the tee is yours."

7:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. (and we did finish pretty darn close to on the button) - I played one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf in my lifetime with three guys I just met, and a caddy guiding me all the way. I felt like I was playing the British Open, and it wasn't on a PS2.

Tuesday's experience was everything I had expected and more. Playing the course that has more history than any other and then playing links golf were both enough to keep my adrenalin well above the levels needed to offset my lack of sleep. The weather was overcast, windy and about 55 degrees, exactly what you would expect at the Royal & Ancient. I did pretty much everything you would need to to call the day complete, including a stellar sand shot on my very first attempt to escape one of those nasty pot bunkers. On hole #4 (Ginger Beer), I chased a 7-iron up to about 4 1/2 feet from about 50 yards away. The putter, which was kind to me all day, was used quite a bit from off the green. I had all kinds of trouble on the famous Road Hole (17), not only finding the road, but losing my provisional ball as well.

My caddy? I was blessed there as well. With a caddyshack stocked full of young guns, I drew a true vet named Steve Jones. He has caddied for men's and women's tour players - most notably Eduardo Molinaro, a lesser-known but still a tour player. Here is an article (see bottom of page) from a couple years ago on Steve working with Eduardo. Oh, yeah, I also asked Steve who his favorite tour players were. I'll remain silent on who he said he didn't care for, but I think you all know.

What did I shoot? Who cares? I'll say this - I did not play my best golf. I broke 100 and I recorded par on five holes, including two of the last three. On 18 (Tom Morris), the golfing gods reached down and touched me when, after my drive went left into the #1 fairway, I roped a 3-Wood 190 yards into a strong wind that plagued us on the back nine all day. The ball dropped gently about 20 feet pin high, left of the cup. Because of that, of course, I will play golf again.

It was incredible. The entire experience layed out perfectly and I couldn't have asked for a better one.

Some of the other members of our group came to St. Andrews a bit later in the morning and played the Jubilee Course (St. Andrews now has seven tracks). In the afternoon, we all enjoyed walking around the community of St. Andrews which is, in itself, something to behold from a historical standpoint.

I'm tired now. Let the pictures speak for themselves...
 

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

The R&AGC at about 5 a.m.	R&AGC	Escaping the bunker with little problem	Me with my caddy, Steve
The Road Hole (#17) from the tee	Posin' like Jack on the famous Swilcan Bridge	Headin' to the promised land	R&AGC
Caddyshack	Let's tee it up!	One of the famous double greens	Shot from the course back to the clubhouse
Our group's caddies give guidance	Uphill all the way - putt it says Steve	#18 (Tom Morris)	My approach on 18 from 190 yds - 20 feet left
My approach on 18 from 190 yds - close up	The Old Course	Some castle we saw - twernt open	Odd place for a stop light
Mr. McKell and JT behaving, sort of	Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands	William and Vivian in the rain	Somewhere else in the Scottish Highlands
More Scottish Highlands	Glen Garry	Vivian and me at Glen Garry	Wildflowers
Fort Augustus	Loch Ness	Loch Ness - south	Loch Ness
Loch Ness	Loch Ness	J.T. stylin' in a Scottish beret	One of them ancient war weapons
Urquhart Castle	Urquhart Castle	Urquhart Castle	Castle in Inverness
Inverness	Where we ate in Inverness	What I ate in Inverness - good stuff	Me and Vivian
Bob and Holly	Some familiar locales	Scottish kilt - a thousand bucks	A Highland cow - they have a lot of hair
Fort William/Ben Nevis area	Fort William/Ben Nevis area	Fort William/Ben Nevis area	Fort William/Ben Nevis area
Fort William/Ben Nevis ski tram	Some town we stopped for petrol in	Cool moon shot on the way to St. Andrews	Cool sunrise shot on the way to St. Andrews
St. Andrews - the city	St. Andrews - the city	St. Andrews - the city	St. Andrews - the city
St. Andrews - the city	St. Andrews - the city	St. Andrews - the city

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