Caddie Golf Tours

Boy  oh  Boy . This is some links golf course. Absolutely fantastic.   A shame I played like a complete   idiot for the first nine holes or so. I did improve on the back nine, regaining some pride, thank goodness. The 'extra' red wine the evening before was probably not my best preparation for golfing on such a great links course for the first time. Andrew picked me up at 9am (hic..) and after our 45 -50 minute journey, a cup of coffee, a lot of water and some putting on the practise green I was less than ready to hit the first drive. An over swing and big pull has me on the 18th fairway, only 65 yards off line. Wonderful. The good news, and there is good news..., this is a links golf course in Scotland which means few, if any, trees and there is always a route back to the true fairway. A bogey ensued.   It did not get any better over the following holes but then again not really too bad considering I was nursing a general body numbness. The first nine did try my patience mind

For the first time in a long, long time Scotland will have six representatives in the Deutshe Bank Swiss Ladies Open which begins on Thursday. Tour regulars Lynn Kenny and Claire Queen are to be joined with fellow Scots and tour rookies Michele Thomson, Krystle Caithness, Vikki Laing and Pamela Feggans. Go fly the flag girls!

The young Argentinan Estanislao Goya, a tour rookie, won at Madeira by one shot after an extraodinary final back nine from another rookie, the Scot, Callum Macaulay.  Macauley shot a 28 on the back nine with eight birdies, six of those were in the final six holes! Goya held his nerve after double bogeying the 16th with two pars to win his first European title and a two year exemption. My 'adopted' player for the 2009 season, David Horsey, played all four rounds finishing in 23rd position.  

The European Tour's 'Race to Dubai' continues this weekend after the big events in the USA over the last couple of weeks. This is a hardcore, run of the mill, tournament no matter how you package it and is the the sort that has really good players in the field but the cream are resting, after their exertons of late. Poor souls.   Good to see my adopted rookie golfer for the year, David Horsey, make the cut, reasonably comfortably, with a pair of 73s'.   There are a couple of guys I've caddied with (not for) at the top of the leaderboard - Damien Mcgrane at the Scottish Open Loch Lomond. He is a delightful man and a winner on the tour last year. The other is Joaggem Haeggman who I encountered a couple of years ago at the Dunhill Links jamboree, held in October over the Old, Carnoustie & Kingsbarns. Poor lad was going through a real loss of form and eventually lost his card. Good to see him back as he was really corteous to my (amateuer) golfer and genuinely depor

Just a quick entry to let you golfers out there know that tee times for 2009 are available on the Old Course at St. Andrews. More importantly they are at cost price of £130 British pounds. Every year, around February/March, the St. Andrews Links Trust publicise tee times for the Old Course that have been 'returned' to them from tour companies or individuals that have been unable to commit to them. This year there are a number of tee times during May, June, July and August. A minimum of two golfers and maximum of eight can apply and one other golf course at St. Andrews has to be chosen along with the Old. Applications will be accepted from 10.00am on Monday 23rd March 2009 to the St. Andrews Links Trust. Please contact Caddie Golf Tours for further information or visit the official site for the application form at: http://www.standrews.org.uk/golf/book_golf/advanced_old2009.html Now is a great time to golf in Scotland with the dollar at its strongest, for many years, against the

The Scottish golf season is beginning to slowly escape from, what seems to me, a rather long winter period which started in mid November last year. Thankfully when April springs into view the golf season will have truly arrived. The golf season on the links courses at St. Andrews generally starts on the 1st weekend of April with the now traditional event of playing the Old Course in 'reverse' or as they would have played it during the 17th/18th & 19th C enturies. The 17th green on the 'Reverse Old Course' what we now play as the first. The course is played in a clockwise direction with the 17th Road Hole green becoming the 1st.You then tee off from the side of the green to the 16th green which now acts as the 2nd hole, followed by the 17th tee to the 15th green which is now the third and on it goes......it is truly odd for the golfer because this is not how they have viewed the golf course on TV and certainly not how they would have pre-planned their route to the gr