Caddie Golf Tours

A great but tough day of matchplay golf on the Old Course St Andrews against Donald, my good friend and St Andrews caddie. He kindly gave me 3 shots each side. It is the 19th June and St Andrews has been afflicted with the haar, a sea mist, for the last 6 days. Visibility got quite bad out at the Eden Estuary and the par 3 11th hole, as can be seen from Donald's tee shot, only 160 yards to the pin! It did begin to clear as we played the back nine and by the time we reached the 17th we could see the town of St Andrews from the tee position. The match is over, as Boyne drove OB from the 16th tee, Donald winning 4&2. From the 17th tee both drives find the thin slither of fairway, remarkably, Boyne 200 yards from front edge of green and Donald 180 yards. One makes bogey and he par!

The St Andrews Links Trust have announced today that local ticketholders in St Andrews can now play golf in 3 or 4 balls with golfers from no more than 3 households. This will allow us to golf with local friends and also the option of inviting one or more guests to join us.  This announcement is in line with the Scottish government's physical distancing 2 metre rule and the travel restrictions of 'broadly' 5 miles which, if truth be known, is being loosely interpreted.

With the horrendous Covid-19 virus lessening in Scotland we are now moving into the third week of golf here in St Andrews. Only the Castle Course, on the outskirts of town, remains closed. Hopefully it will reopen in July. During my game on the Old Course last week with good friend Doug Clements, founder of the Kingsbarns Whisky Distillery, we both commented on how brutal the rough had grown and that it must be 10 years since we had seen it as penal. The weather has been perfect for the rough growing: damp in March then warm through April and May. The best advice I would give to any golfer to get out of it, amateur or pro, is grab your wedge, choke down, take the easiest exit and swing hard. Good luck. Old Course 17th Road hole rough The Old Course is superb condition, especially so with a limited number of staff working since the coronavirus and lockdown. There are a few bunkers to finish off from their winter reworking but it really does look ready for The Open. Unfortunately we now

The Scottish government have allowed the resumption of golf in Scotland, and St Andrews, with the majority of golf courses now open for play with a few restrictions/guidelines in place. The local golfers at St Andrews are being allowed to play in 2 Balls with a 12 minute space between each tee time. The golf courses initially opened last weekend were the Old, New, Eden as 2 nine hole layout, and the small 9 hole Balgove. The demand was exceptional high after 9 weeks of no golf for the St Andrews golfers and on Tuesday 2nd June the Jubilee Course was opened.   The round over the Old Course with Donald, my golfing pal, took us 3 hours 20 minutes. A little slow mainly due to a good chat with the Caddie Master who we met out on the course and had not seen for 9 weeks.   There is hope that the by the end of June all the St Andrews Links courses will be fully opened, probably still with only 2 golfers playing together, but as yet there is no indication as to the lifting of travel restriction