Yesterday was a double looper and I had times at 1110 and 4pm on The Castle. This I knew was tight and was proven as I left the 18th green after a five hour round, and had to leg it up the first fairway to meet my duo. Turns out it’s a lovely American father and son pairing. They are most forgiving as the second caddie, a young medic Angus, sheepishly pitches up on the fourth green.
Turns out they are staying at The Dunvegan which is strange, because nearly every person this week I’ve asked have said they are residing there, and it’s small. Four rooms I think. But a great hostelry.
Anyway Frank, the father, was saying how Will is reading the golf book ‘An American Caddie in St Andrews’ by Oliver Horovicz which is rather hot at the moment. And they were sitting in the bar last night and Frank says ‘Isn’t that Oliver over there?’. And yes it was. He was in with some bloke from The Golf Channel (who was also staying at The Dunvegan!). Anyhow they got the book down and it was kindly signed by Oliver. It was surmised that Oliver was not caddying anymore but Angus coolly negated this, by saying that he had been out with him yesterday on The Old Course!
It’s a wee place St Andrews
But not that wee in my book and this is why. I am living in a much smaller place called Crail and I’ve never met a man called Stan. Now I have been coming here on and off for twenty years and never come across him. He is a lecturer at the Uni and a good pal of my buddy Eileadh from Edinburgh, whom he supervised for her PhD years ago. Pygmies or something.
He by all accounts can be seen in The Golf of an evening, is quite distinguished looking, and likely to be wearing boots of a fashionable variety. Well I have never seen him. Everone else has, even Joe, and he is blind.
Anyway this week my mate from Edinburgh Professor Holligan, or Chris, was up. And we were having a coffee outside Costa and somehow we got chatting about Stan. Chris had done some research with him years back. Small world I thought as Chris doesn’t know Eileadh!
Next day I met Josh on the bus into St Andrews. He is doing a PhD in something medieval. Oaths I think. Anyway, we were having a lovely chat about various sports and we got on to cricket, which is obviously a passion of his. He said he played for the University Staff team. Now I am kind of drawn a bit to get the old whites out again. I used to be a good swinger. I enquired if they were a reasonable team and he said yes not bad, being in quite a high division, and he said they have this guy in the side who nearly played for Middlesex. And yes it was Stan!