Veronica served us breakfast this morning wearing the new alligator gloves (or oven mitts) I gave her. When she opened up her thumb, we could see all the way down the alligator’s throat and count each alligator tooth! (I think she likes them.)
We’re in the middle of a 500-acre wood with very poor reception, so we had to borrow the house phone to find a starting time for today. We’re booked tomorrow at the renown Nairn Golf Club, but today we had choices. We could either revisit the sister course, Nairn Dunbar GC (where we played with the Baptist minister, Alistair, ten years ago) or go to Old Moray (absolutely fabulous, as well). After the first call, we found out that Old Moray was hosting a senior open and it was too late for John to sign up! So that meant Nairn Dunbar, which we were anxious to try again anyway. There were so many times open on the tee sheet that we didn’t even call, but just drove down there. Now, some of you know that I’m not always shy, so when the starter gave us a 12:40 as a “2-ball,” I immediately asked if we might be paired with another twosome. This left the starter a bit confused. He so wanted to help, but couldn’t. I decided to troll for friends and asked a woman in the parking lot who was putting on her shoes. Then a man who was putting on his shoes. Then gave up and went to practice putting. Two men were on the practice green, alone. Could it be that they were a two ball and would love to play with Americans? I asked and they welcomed us warmly! We had a 4-ball with two Scotsmen, Ollie and Brian, and lovely players both.
Nairn Dunbar is very close to the ocean and is a proper links course. Links is defined in several ways. The proximity to the ocean means that the land is useless for crops. The thin layer of grass grows over mostly sand and the fairways are often rippled like great dunes in the Sahara. Even though these courses all boast “designed by James Braid” or “Old Tom Morris” really what these greats did was to walk the land and say, “The tee box goes here, the green goes there.” The golf course already existed in their minds, they just portioned it out. Classically, the sheep dug out the bunkers as a way of hiding from the wind, then people moved the bunkers to trickier positions near the greens. This course feels absolutely perfect. I just love the roll of the fairways and the contours on the greens. We had some tricky pin placements, but Ollie and Brian saw them coming and told us, “Stay to the left of the flag and you’ll be fine!”
We played this course on our first trip, ten years ago. On that day, I was horrified when my approach shot on no. 7 landed three feet short of the flag, then seemed to look around and started rolling. Roll, roll, roll, right off the green into a very deep bunker! Not fair, I thought! Well today, the pin wasn’t on that side and the guys said, “Keep it right of the flag,” which I did. When we got to the green, I stood on the spot where the flag had been that day and saw how the physics worked. It had been a very tough pin placement. Today, not bad for those of us on the right side of the pin!
Two holes later, Ollie pointed out the dogleg and told me that I was strong enough to hit it right over the bunker, so I tried. Then he announced, “Upp! You hit the wall!” What wall, no one said anything about a wall! But sure enough, the burn (man-made river) had a wall. They told me I had a free drop (nice guys) so I took it and parred the hole.
No. 18 is a tough par 5 and everyone’s head-shaker. We were hitting into a very stiff wind, with a familiar burn running across the middle. The green seemed to be 20 feet above the fairway, 3-4 shots away. We fired away to see our balls curling in the wind, except John’s ball, which Ollie said was so straight, “You could hang the washing on that one!” But even John got caught by the wind up near the green. I was there in 4, not bad, but Ollie tricked us all. He was right next to the pin in 3, on a green that looked like pizza dough in midair— up and down all over the place. How did he do it? But even he was disappointed by a 2-putt for par instead of one for birdie. We All shook hands than consoled him with a beer in the clubhouse where we talked Scottish golf politics and what needs to be done in order to save so many dying golf courses. So this is my plea to friends. Come on over. The golfing is great, and especially good at all the courses you’ve never heard of before!
Back at the house, Veronica was hosting a tennis party. She has courts on her property and the local club likes to play here occasionally. We watched them come and go. We She likes to serve them drinks, which I think means more than tea!