Caddie Golf Tours

A wonderful  result for the golfing Boynes last Saturday as we managed a round on the Old Course, St Andrews, courtesy of two golfers from France who kindly let us be matched up with them. I had checked the Ballot tee time listing the previous evening and noticed that there was a couple of two balls at 11.30 & 11.50am. So why not go check with the Old Course Starter and see if we could tag onto one of them? LB on par5 5th fairway, Old Course  The weather, as can be seen from the photographs, was simply fantastic for a November day with no need to get wrapped up in too many layers of clothing. The par3 11th tee and 'The Admirals Bench ' The infamous 'Shell Bunker' being re-built  A few areas of the Old Course are roped off as Ground Under Repair, but this does not hinder your enjoyment of golfing on the historic links, and the course is closed every Monday through to the middle of December for annual maintenance work by the greenkeepers. Shell Bunke...

Friday 28th October, I completed my final caddy round of the 2011 golf season on the historic Balcomie Links based 10 miles south of St. Andrews at the delightful fishing village of Crail. What a wonderful golf course this is, it has been far too long since I was last upon it.   The par4 5th on Balcomie Links, Crail The Mullen Party from Germany have been coming to St. Andrews for the last couple of years around this time and after golf on the Jubilee, Old and New courses at the St Andrews Links the lead golfer invited three of the caddies up to Crail for their final round in Scotland. The weather had been kind all week and it remained so which was an excellent bonus.   Swilcan Bridge, Old Course The Old Course was closed to visitors on Friday as the R&A Golf Club had their end of season shotgun competition and they rarely take caddies during this event, so an invitation to Crail's Balcomie Links for our last 18 holes of the golf season was w...

The R&A have completed their revision of the rules of golf in conjunction with the USGA for the next four years. The following Q&A has been lifted from the R&A web site :http://www.randa.org/ David Rickman, The R&A’s Director of Rules and Equipment Standards, discusses the changes The Rules of golf, like the wider game itself, are constantly evolving. For the Rules of Golf 2012-15, a total of 101 proposed changes were considered. These ranged from the very minor - improved grammar or changes to cross-references - to some that would have resulted in fundamental changes to the way the game is played. David Rickman, The R&A’s Director of Rules and Equipment Standards, talks through some of the key changes and others that were considered but ultimately did not make the cut. Q. What in your view are the big changes for 2012-15? A. The two changes I would highlight are the Rules concerning smoothing sand or soil in a hazard and the ball moving after the player h...

The following news was announced on the official web site of the R&A last week: The Open Championship returns to St Andrews in 2015. The Open will return to the Home of Golf in 2015 when the 144th Championship is played at St Andrews from 16-19 July. It will be the 29th time that golf’s oldest Major has been held over the Old Course. Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen won by seven shots with a 16-under par total of 272 when The Open was last held at St Andrews in 2010.   The R&A’s Chief Executive Peter Dawson said: “We are delighted to announce that The Open will be returning to St Andrews and the historic Old Course in 2015. St Andrews has proved time and again that it is perfectly equipped to host The Open and I am certain we will yet again see a worthy winner lift the Claret Jug. Players, spectators and officials alike will welcome a return to the game’s spiritual home and I fully expect that we will witness another thrilling Championship.” Euan Loudon, Chief Executive o...

A few pics taken from the final practice day of the Dunhill Links Championship at a very sunny and delightfully warm Old Course, St Andrews.  Rory attending to media duties World No1 Luke Donald on the range 2011 Open Champion  Darren Clarke  Spanish golfer Alvaro Quiros on 16th green Old Course Alvaro Quiros on 17th Road hole green  The iconic view of the Old Course, St Andrews The weather is set fair, sunny and warm over the next few days for the Dunhill Links Championship. It is being played over the Old, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns and with such a strong field of the world's golfers in attendance we should be treated to some great links golf. Hopefully see some of you out there on the links.

I took this photograph of the resting place of a third drive from the 1st tee of the Old Course, the first and second drives went sailing Out of Bounds on the right...heading towards the West Sands beach here at St. Andrews. I was passing the Rangers golf buggy at the time and heard the crash as it hit his cart. Al and I thought the golf ball had a richochet onto the fairway but we could not see it, so we reversed the buggy to see if the ball was underneath. No luck. Then as Alisdair positioned the golf cart back onto Granny Clarks Wynd I 'found' the unfortunate golfer's third drive lodged between the windscreen wiper and window of the Ranger's buggy. We subsequently found out, as the golfer approached us, that he had failed to call his 'third' drive as a provisional ball so even though his golf ball was in 'play', he had to play where his fourth drive finished, the middle of the fairway. By my calculations the unfortunate golfer wa...

The 'Town Match' is an annual game played between the members of the R&A and those of the local golf clubs in St. Andrews. It is played over the Old, New & Jubilee courses here on the links in the Foursomes format, alternate shot, and is one of the great fun events of the year. I finally got my name into the hat along with my golfing buddy of many years, Andy. I sponsored Andy into the St. Andrews Golf Club this year and we were picked out as a team to golf on the Jubilee Course at 11.44am Saturday. Our opponents, from the R&A, were named as Mr J Rigg & Mr D Fay and our team's combined handicaps are 23, so no one gets any shots in this match play foursomes game. Andy arrives at my 'holiday home' just outside St. Andrews on Friday evening after a horrendous day at work so the decision to head to the Dunvegan Bar in St. Andrews, after a couple of glasses of wine, was a no brainer! Once some food was taken with a couple of pints of guinness I sugges...

WALKER CUP RESULT: G B AND I 14pt, UNITED STATES 12pt Great Britain and Ireland have won the Walker Cup biennial match for the first time since the Ganton match in 2003. The final scoreline at Royal Aberdeen's Balgownie links was: So, in the end, home skipper Nigel Edwards' team needed the big lead they had built up over the first three sessions of play to lead by 5pt going into the final session of 10 singles. The Americans narrowed the gap to 2pt in the end by taking the singles honours today 6 1/2pt to 3 1/2pt. GB and I's only winners in the afternoon were Michael Stewart and Rhys Pugh. There were halved matches for Jack Senior, Steve Brown and Paul Cutler. But all credit to the home squad. The American team was loaded with players rated far higher in the World Amateur Golf Rankings than their GB and I counterparts. But our men played better in the wind that swept the links for the best part of the two days. Above text courtesy of 'Scottish Golf View...

A wonderful day of golf on the links of Royal Aberdeen GC with conditions as one would expect during the month of September in Scotland...sunshine, rain, wind then there was sunshine, rain and a wee bit more wind. A really good start in the morning Foursomes (pairs playing alternate shots) for the GB&I Team with them coming out on top by 3-1. The x8 afternoon singles went through all the emotions that golfer v golfer can bring with the USA Team winning the first x3 matches, thus putting a lot of pressure on GB&I in the remaining games and they responded well to that initial burst from the USA by winning four of the remaining five matches. The end result of the first day here at Royal Aberdeen GC is 7 - 4 in favour of GB&I. A detailed rundown of the matches can be found at the official R&A web site, the link follows: http://www.usga.org/WalkerCup/ChampEventScore.aspx?id=2147495184 

I, along with x11 of my fellow St. Andrews Caddies, was given the opportunity to guide the 2011 American Walker Cup Team around the Old Course here at the Home of Golf last Saturday. USA Walker Cup Team 1st tee Old Course Unfortunately, for those few that actually follow this blog, I feature quite a lot in the photographs of the American Walker Cup Team as they progress around the Old Course. The pictures were taken courtesy of the ever loyal LB...an extraordinary girl. Boyne points out obvious line to Patrick Rodgers, No3 in World Amateur Rankings Boyne & Patrick discuss putt on 1st green of Old Course  The x4 ball stride down the 2nd fairway On the 3rd fairway, 65 yards from front of the green On the 6th Championship Tee, Old Course Boyne & Patrick approach the 9th green, 2 under par for front 9  Boyne relaxes as buddy Scottie 'zaps' yardage to 10th green Striding out from Par3 11th tee, Old Course Down we go into 'Hell' bunker, par5 14th ...

The prestigious amateur Walker Cup golf match between the United States (USA) versus Britain & Ireland (GB&I) takes place next weekend, 10th & 11th September.This biennial golf contest consists of 18 singles matches and eight foursomes matches over the competition’s two days. The USA Team has won the last three matches and leads the series overall, 34-7-1. This is the pinnicle of the amateur golfers career and many have subsequently gone onto wonderful professional golf life, most notably in recent years: Rory McIroy, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and many others... The match is being played at the superb links of Royal Aberdeen, founded in 1780 and recorded as the 6th oldest golf club in the world. It is regarded as one of Scotland's finest links most notably by the golf chronicler Bernard Darwin who thought it  "..a noble links".  It recently hosted the British Seniors Open in 2005 which was won by the ag...

One can be assured, at least once a week, as I caddie over the legendary links of St. Andrews that the subject 'golf's small world' will pop up. This was highlighted on last Wednesday when my caddie buddie Scotty & I were asked to go straight down to the New Course from the 18th green of the Old Course, and catch up with a x4ball that had teed off and would probably be on the 2nd green by the time we got there. So it proved. A view to the 4th & 5th green of the New Course  After introductions and a few holes under or belt we were standing upon the green of the wonderful par4 6th when Scotty mentioned that walking down the 4th fairway was Hank, my R&A member from San Francisco, who had waved across in recognition. Good to see his familiar gait upon the links again, out for a bounce game and a couple of weeks practice before the R&A Autumn Medal. One of the golfers we were looking after, Bart, asked who it was as he...

Hello golfers, a wee note to inform you that now would be an excellent time to prepare your golfing dream of playing the Old Course, St. Andrews next year, 2012. The 18th green Old Course 2010 Open Championship Applications for advanced Old Course tee times, priced at face value, will be accepted by the St. Andrews Links Trust on Wednesday 7th September. A maximum of x8 golfers can be submitted on the form which can be found at the following link: http://www.standrews.org.uk/Playing-golf-in-St-Andrews/How-to-book/Advance-Reservations.aspx The Old Course 'open' for play after the 2010 Championship Caddie Golf Tours will be happy to assist you in understanding the application or answering any questions that you may have about golf, accommodation and transport here in Scotland. We look forward to hearing from you soon, cheers.

The Oystercatcher Golf Society, minus a couple of members, met up for an improptu weekend in St. Andrews and some golf in the area. Arrival was late Friday afternoon and as I had managed to finish my 2nd caddie round at 5.45pm we got to meet at the Strathtyrum Course just after 6.00pm. Boyne was knackered. Might have been due to a 07.04am tee time on the New Course, following by a second round caddy round over the Old Course finishing about 17.30pm. I thought I was going to meet LB, Alistair & Mary on the Strathtyrum around the 9th hole...but due to some delays on their journey to St Andrews I bounced into them at reception area and found myself playing 18. A grand 54 holes completed...my golf was a wee bit under par but good fun! Oystercatchers Golf Society members at the Dukes Course, St Andrews  After a good nights sleep, assisted by a couple of glasses of wine, we regroup and travelled to the wonderful 'Heathland' Dukes Course based a couple of miles sout...