Golfer’s Paradise

You can’t go to Scotland without playing a round of golf, and boy let me tell you, we stayed in the right place to do so. Here’s a course map:

Though time constraints (we needed to finish before the bus left that morning) forced our group of five to take a shortcut.

 

 

 

That didn’t change the fact that this course, though, is gorgeous. Here’s a picture right before we tee’d off from the first hole.

 

Green, green, everywhere… It’s not hard to imagine why golf was invented in this country; the landscape is basically one big golf course just waiting to be partitioned and groomed. Yet even more greenery awaited us as we finished the second hole and played up the side of the adjoining pasture. Damn, but Geoff’s swing is good.

 

We then took a shortcut over to the 13th tee, which played up and down before bending around the lake and hopping across a stream to finish where we started. The whole time, the palace itself loomed in the distance like some golf player’s version of a fairy tale.

 

Here’s my tee-off from the 13th (and final) tee. I didn’t trust myself with a driver, so I played a 5-iron that led me straight and true without overshooting into the pond. Can’t say much for my stance, though…

 

Our last golfing shot for today takes place during the 13th fairway as we are skirting around the lake. I managed not to fall in, but wasn’t so lucky when I reached the stream and smaller pond at the far side. Oh, well.

 

A quick bag-grab-and-loading session later, we were on the bus and headed north. More to come detailing both more shenanigans at the palace and our final journey north to Glasgow.