Golf with the Courtneys

Carol and Lowell arrived midday Wednesday, and by 1:15 we were staring down the first fairway of the Old.  Theresa had initially planned to skip this round, but a bright blustery day coupled with a dire forecast for the morning convinced her to join us and instead forgo the following morn on the Glashedy.

Carol, Lowell and my bride as we prepare to tee off on the Old.  Lowell has requested a copy of this photo for the Lynchpin Tours brochure.  T and I eagerly await the royalty checks.

We had a simply delightful stroll with our friends, whom we've not seen since they came accross the Irish Sea to join us on our Machrihanish excursion in 2009.  

The troops make their way down the third fairway (top).  The ladies keep a keen eye on their men, or more accurately their ammunition (bottom).

The weather was reasonably cooperative on this afternoon, with long periods of bright sunshine and good use of my sunglasses.  We were visited by only two rain squalls, and only the second of these brought out the waterproofs.  But if on prior days we were battling the wind, on this day we fought the WIND, a good three-clubber when directly into the fan and even more vexing on the many crosswind holes.

Carol's use of her rain gear was partially mitigated by the gift from Theresa of a strawberry Tootsie Roll pop (top).  Theresa gives it a lash on the Par 3 eighth in the rainsuit (bottom).  Playing in rain gear is its own skill.

We had a cracker of a match, with both T and I playing the best golf of the trip thus far.  T played especially well on the early stretch of the second nine, and took a two up lead after thirteen holes.

Theresa seeks sheltr from the wind (above).  I have photos of her in similar states of repose from most of the great links of the Old World.  Lowell grips it and rips it (bottom).  His ability to continually split fairways became quite annoying after a bit.

I came storming back and tied the match up with hard-earned pars at Nos. 14 and 15.  We played 14-17 in a hard right-to-left hurting wind that would send anything half-hearted soaring off into the spinach (I need to write a separate post on the futility of playing from the long Maram grass).  

These are the best photos to date of the marvellous contours of the Old's fairways, in this case the 15th.  I'll need to do better, but a two dimensional medium might not be up to the task.

We halved the 16th and Attila won the shortish Par 3 17th when I missed a 6-footer for par, only to find that it was, in fact, a stroke hole.  For the second straight day, my bride would take a 1-up lead to the 18th.

A sweep panorama of the 12th green, nestled cleverly into the base of a sand dune, this time sans camera strap (top).  The golfer as artiste, catching T lashing her drive on the 16th from below (bottom).

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and some children shout;
But there is no joy in 'Liffen - mighty Tessie has struck out. made eight.

Not her fault in the slightest, I hasten to add.  She striped her drive off the 18th tee like the gamer she is, it just rolled and trundled and bumped along the firm turf until it rolled into a devilishly positioned fairway pot bunker.  After taking two to get out, she made the best of it, soldiering on as one of what Dan Jenkins called the dogged victims of inexorable fate, a third consecutive halve on the Old Links.

Current Standings:

T. Simpson   1.5

S. Simpson  2.0