Was out on The Old Course yesterday at 610, and that was 610 in the evening! I think the Links call these ‘dark tee off’ times for obvious reasons. Yes, we played the last two holes in the complete dark, which was pretty majestic actually, as the town nestled in for the night, with the R&A splendidly lit up next to the illuminated dome of Hamilton Grand, which looked rather, well, grand.
Had a very amusing and interesting round with Richard Jaffe and his son Brett, and Dean who works at Pittormie Castle. Richard had the most wonderful short game, especially putting, that I think I have ever witnessed. I inquired about it and he said that he was highly competitive, and was fed up being beaten and jibed at by his friends. So he has spent fifteen years perfecting his short game. He had twenty nine putts round The Castle Course in the morning which in my mind is a near miracle, and went on to putt brilliantly on The Old Course. He sorted out Dean’s putting in the process. Anyway, all I can say is that Richard is going to be an awesome player after he puts that effort in to his longer game.
Dean was recounting how they’d had John Daly staying for a few days the previous week, after The Open. He seemingly gave a clinic alongside Fred Funk. Fred started off and explained all his helpful routines and thoughts about the golf swing etc and handed on to Mr Daly, who started his warm up by lighting a fag which he says was to give him an idea of the wind direction, and then pulled out his driver and proceeded to blast it three hundred yards up the middle. And the warm up was over.
Dean was saying that he kept ordering pepperoni pizza’s from Domino’s in town, and was not swayed by the fact that Pittormie Castle has five excellent chefs on board. Yes, I think we can say that Mr John Daly is his very own man.