My teammate Jordan Haskell and I (along with 2 handicapper Amy, fiancée of JD) won the ballot for Wednesday and got a 3:36 tee off time. It was unusually calm that day, so we were able to play "American style" approach shots instead of the typical bump and run that is usually required.

About 6 of our teammates tagged along for a while and played fantasy golf. The fourth player in our foursome was a useful but obnoxious man who had comments on everything. It helped, sure, but it was a pain to hear him talk. My teammates almost did a ro-cham-knock over his bag, in fact, and they cheered silently when he topped a ball into the gorse.

Amy was the clear favorite in fantasy golf, and strung together a whole bunch of pars on the front, carding a 36, while Jordan and I went back and forth for a 42/43. On the par 3 11th (called "the best par 3 in golf" by the obnoxious fourth), I hit my best shot of the vacation and left myself a 4 footer for birdie, Jordan went into the left bunker, and Amy and Butthead went into the right bunker. None of the three of them could get out. At least Jordan has the sense not even to try, and played backwards. BH failed once then played sideways, Amy took an unplayable lie, dropped, then put her next shot into the lip, and picked up. I made my birdie vs. a 5, 6, and X. It turned out to be Amy's only blemish on the day, as she was about even par except for that.

Jordan and I had a great match going, until Hell bunker crept up. He tried to play safe to the right of it, and apparently had succeeded in missing it, but the rough caught his club on his third shot, and the ball shot almost straight sideways into Hell. This bunker is HUGE, with about a 10 foot lip on it. Jordan tried twice to get out, took an unplayable, then blasted out on his fourth stroke. I took a 6 to his 10 to more or less clinch the match.

I still haven't played the Road Hole. The task of driving a ball over a building was a little daunting, so I yanked my drive way left across not only the 17th fairway but also the 2nd. I then played up the 2nd and 1st holes through the rough and only saw the 17th again on the green.

Exciting, quirky course. We didn't see it in all its glory, as conditions were pretty favorable. Our guide (who, in his own words, was "en fuego" with the putter early in the match, but was "the biggest turd in the world" later on) helped a lot by pointing out trouble spots. I still managed to put my drive into a 3' by 3' bunker on #13, though. Quite memorable, though, and chock full of history. We did our mandatory photograph on the bridge over the Swilcan Burn. Great time, a must for any serious golfer.

We also played the other splendid courses at St. A. New Course and Jubilee were both tougher than the Old Course, as their fairways were narrower and the courses were longer, but less quirky. Eden was our favorite, a little more wide open, but still in the same character. Wind was a big problem only on one day, when standing still was occasionally difficult. Putting green was also a lot of fun.

Additionally, we played Turnberry and Carnoustie. Turnberry was our favorite, and we were high fiving each other after walking off the 18th green, and we went over each shot on our drive to play another course in Edinburgh that afternoon. At Carnoustie, well, let's just say I know how that Frog feels now.

Jim "Van de Velde" Parinella