Day 15: Carnoustie with Kerr

This trip has been filled with great golf on great golf courses and even though I am against tour-bus-courses, we have played a few this time. All that said, we booked Carnoustie for the second time in two years because we truly enjoyed the variety of holes and layout of this course. Expecting to be disappointed because of bad weather in the forecast, it turned out that the 30-minute car-ride was the only rain we got. Hooray!

This is #9 at Carnoustie, the railway Hole, because right behind those trees in the distance, a passenger train comes roaring through, every 15 minutes or so.

Kerr, our wonderful caddie from yesterday, agreed to work for us again today. Dave, a single, and his caddie were there, but the fourth player, Steve, phoned in that he was on his way from the airport in Edinburgh. It turned out that he’d just flown in from Boston, then straight to the course—and he’d forgotten to put his contact lenses in! The greeting he gave his young caddie was, “Watch everything! I can’t see a thing!” He had a wild game and was delighted with his one par on #10. Go Steve.

Carnoustie! And Kerr was able to join us for another terrific round of golf on a championship course.

I could not find my stride for the first several holes. In fact, it wasn’t until the 8th hole that I had my first par. The pace was rigorous, but the weather was dark and dramatic. John was doing great. In fact, despite the deep rough and occasional water, he lost no balls today. Hooray, John! He also had many good holes. I have to give a lot of credit to Kerr for my game improvement. As he patiently told me where to put the ball, I found my stride. Mostly pars and one birdie on the back—ah, to play this way all the time…

After the game, we ate heartily at the Carnoustie Rookery (because our very lovely B&B does not do a tasty dinner.) The name “Carnoustie” as legend has it, (code for “might be true”)… There are crows around here and crows make a cawing sound. In Scottish, that might be a “caar” sort of distortion. And crows live in nests, changed to “Noust”—together Car-noust-ie. So there you have it!

The Rookery Restaurant is rather new and gives an eagle’s view of the first tee box and fairway. Their salmon is quite good too!

During the Senior Open (held here just a few weeks ago), I memorized all the names of all the holes on the course—ask me to recite them sometime. Ha ha! (Cup, Gulley, Jockie’s Burn, Hillock, Brae, Hogan’s Alley…). It was fun to learn the stories behind the names from Kerr. He was a delightful person. We were so glad to have “played” golf with him for two days and will do our best to keep in touch!

Walk up 16 at Carnoustie, the dark sky and golden grasses…

Love the bunkers, nicely placed so they’re right in your way. “Would someone please move that sand!”

Taken from 11 looking back at the green of 10… fondly known as “the burn at the turn.”

And that’s it. Apologies to non-golfers, but today we only talked about local sights. There is the Red Tower nearby, apparently falling down and very scary. And the 18th c. Boddin Point Lime Kilns which are supposed to be bleak. There is also the Arbroath Signal Tower Museum, which gets great reviews. Which would you choose? We shall see what tomorrow brings. Good night.

Kerr with friends at 15 (Lucky Slap)