I have effectively become a full time caddie at The Castle Course by being put on the caddie list there. This is a lot more convenient in that I will now be allocated a time the day before.
It has been an eventful week and it’s lovely to be back in St Andrews. I kid myself that thirty years haven’t passed since I ambled round here as a young student. For things are essentially unchanged. Fisher and Donaldson’s still sell the best fudge doughnut in town and Salvatore in The Coffee House the best americano.Tesco’s still has pretty checkout girls, Luvian’s a vitally important landmark in Market Street. Ma Bells, The Whey Pat and the Dunvegan are still going strong, students still walk purposefully towards the library, while tourists wander down Granny Clark’s Wynd to The Old Course and midnight faeries can be seen in the garden of Deans Court.
Other caddies are still curious of my background as I’ve kind of pitched up well into the season. I start off saying what I have done in my life , get going for a bit and then consider that it might be better telling them what I haven’t done. I get quite worried about having to do a CV ever again as no one is really going to believe it now.
Anyway I am presently a caddie and enjoying it. I like being outdoors and meeting people. Well most people! I had quite a boorish american chap a couple of days ago who was taking his golf far too seriously and never asked a thing of me. At that point I just turn off and admire the scenery. But I wonder about someone like that. I mean not being able to share and find out and explore another person. I mean I might have been a fascinatingly bright PHD student at the Uni, doing unbelievable things in string theory and on my way to an early professorship and a prize from Sweden. And he has missed out.
Anyway I did meet a nice American chap the day after who I got on royally with and who invited to me his chalet in Big Bear mountain. And that is cool because I’ve never been to America, albeit I’m wary of bears.