We were out with four lovely blokes from Kansas yesterday. And what a very decent bunch of people they were and a complete joy to be with. Dave Jack, our excellent man from Dornoch, had the bag of Jamie who was the mellowest and most good natured Attorney that I have ever come across. Not that I have come across that many I dare say, but this guy was just one very sweet and collected dude. Dave got on famously with him.
I had the bag of Mike who was a witty, retired insurance man who was having a mixed day with his golf. However, on the par 3’s he showed moments of brilliance. The eighth at The Castle was playing very tough with a strong down wind and the pin positioned just over a ridge, and precariously placed at the very back of the green. I said to play it in from the right and use the up slope to try and check the ball. Anyway he did just that, hitting the most marvellous shot which looked in all the way, only it rolled up and lipped the cup, to end up two feet past the pin, at which point I shouted ‘you missed it!’ A great two though.
The next, the tenth, was playing about 180 and Mike hits a lovely shot straight at the pin, at which point I shout ‘that has got to be in’, but unfortunately it goes to three feet. So expectations are high on our signature hole par 3 seventeenth which is playing a 210 shot into a stiff breeze. Mike hits a superb three wood over the cliff to about twenty five feet and I exclaim ‘that has birdie written all over it’. (At this point I think Mike thinks I’m on something). We go for a cup to the right and Mike hits a lovely putt which looks like it is just going to stop on the edge but falls in. Mike has assuredly established himself as the par 3 wizard from Kansas.
He tells me a lovely story of how he was playing Old Head with his wife a few years ago (Old Head is a golf course in Ireland by the way) and there was a par 5 at which he hit two good shots, and was left with about a hundred foot long, meandering putt for his eagle. He discussed it with his caddie and then proceeded to sink it. He said that an ‘old codger’ had been watching all this on the sidelines and immediately shouted across to them, exclaiming ‘good line caddie!’.
Well I suppose you don’t fly three thousand miles and spend all that money for nothing.