Finishing up with the day job tomorrow and heading strong into the holidays. An afternoon outdoor service at Lake Benson Park with our great friends at True North Church and then a few families over to our house for some Christmas eve socializing. Then, waiting for Santa!
I’m not planning on writing much over my Christmas break. I figure if my kids don’t have to do homework, maybe I won’t either.
Merry Christmas to all!
Friday was my birthday – don’t worry, I’m not upset that all of you didn’t call or send me cards. Well, I retract that – my sister, Kerry, has blown off my birthday once again. But that’s OK – she’s visiting for Thanksgiving so I’ll extract revenge then.
I had a great time, even though the nasty rain prevented playing golf with my older two sons. But Erik, my 19 year old son at UNC – Wilmington, and Kirsten, my 21 year old daughter at UNC – Chapel Hill, both came in town and we all went to dinner, so it was nice. And I got some cool gifts – UNCW hat and shirt, the new Bob Rotella book (always a great read), the Josh Hamilton book (inspirational!).
Erik gave me a very, very cool present. He doesn’t have a lot of money, so I was a bit surprised when he brought in a large, flat package “wrapped” in a sheet – a clean one, he insisted. It was this:
4 summers ago, Erik, my father, and I had taken a “once in a lifetime trip”, in our case, to Scotland to play golf. My dad is a golf nut and, as I’ve mentioned before, taught me how to golf. And I, in turn, taught Erik. My dad had been to Europe many times, but always with my mom, who doesn’t golf. He had never visited the great golf courses of Scotland. We played at Turnberry, Prestwick (the original home of the British Open in the mid-1800’s), Kingsbarnes, Carnoustie, and at St. Andrews. It was a great 3 generational trip. And Erik took the yardage book from the Old Course at St. Andrews and cut it up to make this poster, including our scorecard, which you see on the bottom right of the poster, and below in close-up.
Our scores from the Old Course
I would like to point out a few things. Yes, I did indeed shoot an 89 while Erik shot 77. And, in fact, I did have a 10 on 14. I could say that I wanted to give the “Hell Bunker” a try and failed. But in reality, I got into this version of golf Hell and, 4 swats later, found out how it got its name.
But I’d rather you focus on #18, the Home Hole. We had teed off at 6:40 in the morning (a bit brisk in St. Andrews at that time, even in July). We were finishing at around 10:30 on what was turning into a beautiful summer morning. This area of St. Andrews is very popular and bunches of people are typically walking around the 18th green and 1st teebox, which are adjacent, on their way to the beach or just for walks.
The 18th Green at The Old Course
So there were probably 50-60 people standing in back of the green just watching the golfers on 18. Erik and I both hit good drives and hit our approaches to about 20 feet. In front of the crowd, I drained my putt for birdie, hence the “3″ you see on the card. My caddie then incited the crowd to cheer for me, so I am proud to say I got a standing ovation on the 18th at the Old Course. Probably my greatest golf memory ever.
The classic tourist photo on the 18th at The Old Course
