Scotland Fantasy: Day Three

The pandemic has forced us to cancel our Scotland Golf Vacation this year. But we refuse to let that stop us from doing all the things we love in Scotland. So for the next two weeks we’ll be in Scotland, not physically but mentally. We choose to take our own imaginary vacation to those lovely links. We’re not crazy…not yet anyway.

We made our way to St. Andrews in the afternoon of day two of our ’20 Scottish Adventure and did some wandering round the town. Our next four nights were in a rental house just outside the city center so we had to stock up on groceries and supplies.

First stop was the liquor store of course. On our first trip here back in 2016 we found a little liquor store close to our digs at 5 Golf Place which was right up the road from the Old Course. I went in the store thinking some old, pipe smoking, bearded Scotsman would be waiting to give us his opinion on a good whisky and everything else. Well, weren’t we surprised when we found a young American girl, a student at the university sitting behind the counter. We inquired about a recommendation for a new tasty drink and she asked her co-worker for help. He was also a student and a wise one at that. He touted the flavors of Benromach 15 and we gave it a try. If that kid knows his studies as well as he knows his whiskys he was an A+ student. It was damn good, so good in the interest of tradition I grabbed another bottle off the shelf.

After a trip to Tesco for real necessities, coffee for George and scones for me we made it to our rental, a nice, full size private home outside the village. Dinner was fun at a local pub, I took it easy on the alcohol as we had a big day planned for day three: Kingsbarns Golf Links.

We have played plenty of the big name courses in Scotland and we have learned to mix in plenty of lesser know gems in with the big boys. Kingsbarns is one of the big ones. It ranks up there with The Old Course, Carnoustie and Royal Dornoch. In some ways it out paces many of the older, historic course and one of those is its price.

It is not cheap to play the highly ranked courses in Scotland. In fact the Old Course is a relative steal as it costs only about $250 where Kingsbarns gets over $400 for a round. Add in a caddie with a tip and your talking over $500! That ain’t cheap…and remember were are Scots so thriftiness is in our nature.

But each trip we try to get on at least one “Big Kahuna” course…this year it was Kingsbarns.

In all the course rankings, media articles and online reviews Kingsbarns always rates very high. Few golfers have any complaints about the course and it’s mostly Americans bitching about the weather. Weather is part of the game here and if you don’t like wind, rain, cold and more wind…you wasted your money.

So a mid-morning tee time had us on what many call the best modern links course in Scotland. Even though golf has been played on this ground since the 1790’s this course is a recent (2000) creation by developer Mark Parsinnen and architect Kyle Phillips. And it’s a different business model from the majority of older established golf clubs in Scotland. Kingsbarns limits membership to only 50 golfers who must live in the area and therefore to generate its revenue it operates as an American style “daily fee course” which is rare over here.

But when you stand on this linksland it certainly looks like Old Tom Morris himself could have smacked his niblick here.

We got our first bit of rain as we teed off but we were well prepared with our damn expensive rain gear. We elected to take caddies to help us navigate this behemoth of a course and they were a great help… to George.

You see George can, most days, get is ball to land where he wants. Me,,, it’s hit & hope and try and find it.

The first hole is a welcoming par four, well at least for some golfers, my caddie warned me about the bunkers down the right side and I hit what I thought was a damn good ball. But link golf is full of surprises. And all that extra roll I got put me in one of those bunkers. Brother meanwhile had a wedge to the green, carded an easy birdie with a nice putt and I was one down before I knew it.

I resigned myself to a day of losing, losing big as George always rises to the occasion on big courses (82 on his first try at the Old Course) and I would enjoy the day wandering these great links.

As luck would have it I got what I wanted at the second hole, a mid range par three that has you hitting right at the Firth of Tay. I love holes like this with the “infinity green” where is appears any long shot will be finding the sea. A solid shot had me putting but still not inside big brother. A pair of two putt pars energized me but it truly was the views of the firth… rain be damned.

Kingsbarns is all it is cracked up to be. Rolling, rollicking linksland with scattered humps and hollows that direct a golf ball in every direction. Many American golfers balk at links golf thinking that there is too much luck in this style of game. Ah,, there is luck in links golf but never too much. The vagaries of this game is what challenges us and what makes it so special.

I needed some of that luck as George was putting the hammer down on me and I was four down after eight holes. I got one back at the ninth and another at the tenth which had no fairway bunkers to catch my shot. It seemed like I had spent the front nine at the beach rather then a golf course.

By the twelfth hole the rain had stopped the sun shone and we stripped off our rain suits. And for me the real fun began. The finishing holes at Kingsbarns put you back next to the sea and we both enjoy this kind of golf. The wind and the sea and the links really get us going.

And it was at the signature fifteenth hole that made our day…our whole trip actually. The fifteenth is a challenging par three with the green edging out into the firth with a rocky coastline bordering the entire length of the hole down the right side. I was three down but had the honor although I much rather have had George go first on this tester of a hole.

My five iron, aided by the breeze found solid ground barely on the green. George stepped in after his caddie re-clubbed him to a six iron and he had at it.

A high draw that he bravely started out over the water and he looked anxious as it flew but his caddie said “it’s fine, coming back, no worries.” No worries indeed.

It followed his direction, landed on the green, bounced twice towards the hole, struck the pin and fell straight down into the cup. An ace! A hole in one and none of us could contain ourselves. Social distancing be damned…high fives and hugs and back-slapping and more of the same.

Big Brother had carded his first hole in one. It was as glorious a shot as one could ever imagine, challenging the water, a brave shot indeed. And his caddie certainly earned an extra tip for dropping him to a six iron. A tip well earned.

From that point on we never touched the wonderful linksland as we were walking on a cloud, reveling in G’s big moment. The finishing holes here are as lovely as you’ll find in Scotland and I didn’t care that I got waxed 4&3 I was overjoyed for George.

It’s a story and a shot that we be retold and relived for years and years and definitely the shot that made our trip.