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Turnberry
 |
Western Gailes |
Prestwick
Royal Troon-Old Course
Royal Troon-Portland Course
St. Andrews-Castle Course
Kingsbarns
Carnoustie
St. Andrews-Old Course
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Videos
Check out these videos to see some of the sweet shots that were hit during the trip.
Neal hit a perfect tee ball at Turnberry with the famous lighthouse in the background after consulting with his caddie Tommy "Leadbetter."
Jeff at Turnberry
DP at the signature 15th hole at Kingsbarns. He hit a great shot and stuffed it in to a difficult pin position.
Harrington at the signature 15th hole at Kingsbarns.
Harrington in the greenside bunker at the par 3 13th at Carnoustie.
Mowing the green at 18 on the Old Course at St. Andrews as the sun starts to come up.
Cutting the cup at 18 on The Old Course at St. Andrews.
Neal hit a perfect tee ball at Turnberry with the famous lighthouse in the background after consulting with his caddie Tommy "Leadbetter."
Jeff at Turnberry
DP at the signature 15th hole at Kingsbarns. He hit a great shot and stuffed it in to a difficult pin position.
Harrington at the signature 15th hole at Kingsbarns.
Harrington in the greenside bunker at the par 3 13th at Carnoustie.
Mowing the green at 18 on the Old Course at St. Andrews as the sun starts to come up.
Cutting the cup at 18 on The Old Course at St. Andrews.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
The Final Round
We had perfect playing conditions for our last round of the trip and Neal and DP took full advantage as we played the Old Course for a second time in two days. Neal was steady as can be off the tee and with his irons. He screwed up the par 3 11th the day prior and made amends his second time around by stuffing his tee ball to four feet before burying the putt for a birdie 2. Knowing he was going to break 80 after a solid par at The Road Hole 17th, he needed to simply avoid barfing all over himself and he'd have a round that he would consider the best round of his life. He understood the pressure that tour players feel as they are trying to close out a major when he stepped up to his ball in the middle of the fairway on 18. A short iron and two putts was all he needed to do, but now the blood was rushing through his veins a little quicker, the hands gripped the club a little tighter and the beads of sweat on his brow were now a little larger. He addressed the ball and proceeded to lay the sod over it. He chunked it 50 yards up the fairway. Now it was up to his faithful caddie, who he had requested after a great partnership developed the day before, to calm him down and talk him through the simple half wedge shot that was needed to give him a chance to save par or worst case a bogey. Neal executed the shot, missed the par putt and tapped in for bogey to cap off a round of 77. It was a hell of a round that just nipped DP by a stroke for low round of the day and low round of the trip. Dave was solid all day long and you won't hear him complaining about that 78 any time soon. Harrington was slightly off from the day before and we all blame his caddie whose second hand smoke caused Ryan to smoke a pack and a half. I shot 84 with the crazy hole being #6. It's a short par 4 and I hit a tee shot right down the middle leaving me 70 yard to the pin. We walk up to my ball and my caddie pulls out the putter. He said he saw Jack Nicklaus putt from 120 yards out in the British Open ten years ago and he made par. I reminded my caddie that I'm no Jack Nicklaus and told him that he should be well aware of that by now since he's been carrying my bag for 5 holes. I told him it would make for a great story regardless of what I scored so I grabbed the putter, stared down the line I was given and hammered a putt like never before. It snaked up, over and around mounds of grass and fescue before eventually making its way onto the front of the green. I was able to two putt from there and for a moment in time play golf like Jack Nicklaus.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Day 8 (Old Course)
Mmmmmmmm, sleep. It’s a beautiful
thing. You don’t realize how important it is to get a good night of sleep until you spend an evening trying to get some shut eye on concrete. We got about 7 cherished hours of sleep and woke up to our customary complimentary breakfast – Dave, Ryan, and I got a toned down version while Juvy still went for the full boat tasting order. Refreshed and rejuvenated, we made our way down to the shuttle for our ride to the course.We rolled in like we were on the Tour. Our personal driver drops us off right at the tee box, we stroll right past the people in line to the front, and we set our bags next to the first tee box like we own the place.
We’d paid our dues the night before and had made the ballot. There’s a certain level of respect and sympathy for the current group of people in the line who are desperate for a tee time and worried with fatigue and anticipation of the day’s round. We know the feeling. But having your own tee time that you worked so hard to get makes it better. It’s a cool feeling when the starter of the Old Course says “Welcome back gentlemen” and the caddies come over and say hi before heading to get their daily assignments. You feel part of the whole experience on the most famous golf course in the world. Nothing matches this in golf.
The round was great. First of all, it was great to get back on that course with everyone in the same tee time. We
had a great time the day before but comparing notes after the fact with the foursome isn’t the same as talking about shots that you saw a guy hit. Second, playing the course a second time was so much better than the first time. We had a much better idea of the trouble on the course and had much better goals set for ourselves. Dave and I had personal goals of redemption at the 11th hole, which we had both doubled the day before. Third, our caddies were awesome. Dave and I had the same guys from yesterday (they requested to get us again) and both were the best caddies we had the entire trip. Great guys with funny personalities and a level of golf intelligence that was top notch. Everything was set up for a great round, we could only get in the way of ourselves.I’ll let the fellas go
into the details about their rounds and add the color commentary since there was a lot of it. We had some great shots and some amazing plays early. Jeff and I birdied the 7th hole and Dave barely missed his birdie putt. I finished the front nine even with a birdie, a bogey, and seven pars. Time to get some course management on the back nine. It was a constant battle with my caddies to keep the driver out of my hands. I didn’t need it most of the time and was having a tough time hitting it straight. I scored a birdie on 11 and Dave made a ridiculous two putt for par from like 100 feet that almost went in – redemption accomplished – to go one under. I had two bad shots – both shots were missed drivers off the tee – and putted really well for the first time on the trip. I took a double and a triple on the two holes. I grinded out a 77 (two birdies, twelve pars, two bogeys, a double bogey, and a triple bogey) on the most
famous course in the world and felt ecstatic. My nerves were so raw by the end I had a slight headache and my hands were shaking. Nothing a celebratory whisky wouldn’t cure however.After taking pictures and exchanging contact information with our caddies, we headed back to the hotel in the shuttle to watch the Walker Cup players play #2 and #3 from our balcony. Sightseeing, shopping, spa, dinner and a little crib to end the night. Trip of a lifetime.
Friday, September 2, 2011
We Won the Ballot!!!
We get to play The Old Course again tomorrow before we fly home Sunday! What a great way to end an unbelievable trip.
We Can Die in Peace
DP got to hit the first shot of the day at The Old Course. Dave and Neal got paired up with a twosome that had the first tee time of the day. Dave said, "let me show you boys how to do it" and bombed a drive down #1 fairway. Much more to come, but here are the scores...DP 84, RTN 87, RH 85, JVJ 93.
Day 7 (Old Course, Carnoustie)
- 2:30am: arrival at the Old Course starter shack… first in line… no one else in sight… huge. 
- 2:35am: we await anxiously for the flood of people we expect to show up, be jealous at our amazing spots in line, and kick themselves for not getting up 15 minutes earlier to beat us to the course.
- 3:00am: single Canadian guy arrives. Procedes to tell slightly uncomfortable stories about Niagara Falls strippers and steals coffee and pastries from a local hotel (I only stole coffee, he was over the line).
- 4:00am: the concrete around the starters shack starts to feel comfortable. Or I’ve officially lost all feeling in my legs and ass.
- 4:30am: single Finnish guy arrives. Can’t understand that we showed up at 2:30am. Not sure if it was the language barrier or the fact that it was incomprehensible that someone would show up that early for golf.
- 4:45am: Canadian guy starts to bug me so I batten down the hatches and try to catch some z’s by sitting on my golf towel on the concrete and leaning against the concrete starters shack. Bad idea in retrospect. Got a couple “You’re a dumbshit” calls from my caddy early in the round as I couldn’t finish my swing without my back seizing.
- 5:15am: cool Midwest couple show up. Harrington gets adopted by the rich couple. He’s now in their will.
- 5:45am: weird Asian dude shows up in matching top and bottom track suit rain gear. No engrish. Tries to cut in line. Dave tackles him.
- 6:15am: First actual tee time shows up. Everyone in line is burning with jealousy but doesn’t want to show it in the hopes they won’t deny us joining their groups. Cash bribes are discussed and we pool our quids.
- 6:30am: Starter shows up and Dave and I are in the first group with a twosome from Nigeria. We hug and weep. People uncomfortably avert their eyes.
- 6:45am: I realize that sitting on concrete for 4 hours isn’t good for your swing. All of the sudden, the road left of the 18 fairway comes into play…
- 7:00am: Our tee time is called from the R&A and we both pipe our drives down the middle. Not so much for our playing partners who just picked up the game 5 years ago.
- The Round: Being the first guys out of the gate, we ended up finishing in 3:30. Average rounds from both me and Dave and a need for some serious redemption on many of the holes. I was a circus and my caddy loved pointing it out. Dave and I had great caddies, both great guys. My guy was actually pretty professional until I told him that I heard the St. Andrews Club members were a bunch of assholes, of which he’s a member. After that, I got the “Great shot for a little shit” or “If you Americans knew how to play real golf, you might actually score well on this
course.” The worst came when, after going into my seventh pot bunker of the day on the 16 green (getting out in one shot on all but one) I felt bad for my chain-smoking caddy and decided to rake it for him. He
tried to stop me but I insisted. As I was getting out, I leaned on the rake to help climb out and the damn thing snapped at the head. I’ve never seen a big man laugh that hard. I took a picture of him and told him I wanted to show everyone I had Shrek caddy for me today. I asked him if he played Rugby in high school and he said, "no, street fighting." I believe him. Dave and I ended up finishing the round well, both scoring pars on the final hole to shoot in the 80's. Not bad for never playing the course and preparing for the round like a homeless person.
- 10:30am: Our caddies tell us they’d try to get us on tomorrow and would caddy for us again. Bryan, my caddy, tells me to take some of the shit out of my heavy bag tomorrow if I could. I open my bag and pull out the four small bottles of whisky, a cribbage board, four cigars, and the two sets of rain gear I was packing. He didn’t think it was as funny as I did.
- 10:35am: Chatted with our playing partners, real estate developers in Nigeria and abroad. Exchanged email addresses and listened to the pros and cons of having two wives.
- 11:00am: Hustled back to the hotel and went to the suite to watch Juvy and Harrington come up 16 and tee of
f on 17. Decaf coffee and beer are poured.
- 11:30am: Still no sign of the guys. The other half of the Nigerian contingency was playing so slow, their caddies were openly talking about it. Walking past us, I overheard a caddy tell a lady that he couldn’t stop and take her picture because he was on “Caddy overtime”.
- 12:00pm: The fellas appear. Juvy shanks his approach OB on 16 and proceeds to try to give us sign language to tell us where his ball went… We saw dude.
- 12:10pm: Harrington bombs his drive over the “O” in Course. Juvy takes it over the logo. Both great drives on the Road Hole.
- 12:15pm: Clothes change. Race off to see the fellas finish.
- 12:45pm: Juvy gets a filthy up and down for par out of the deep rough on 18. The crowd literally went wild. Biggest roar of applause we’d heard the entire trip on that hole when he drained that putt.
Off to Carnoustie for the afternoon round.
2:30pm: Arrive at Carnoustie. No one is looking forward to the beating we’re likely going to take on this course. The smell of fear permeates the car.
2:45pm: Old guy from the hotel blows me off completely in the Carnoustie pro shop after I say something about his hat. Some people just can’t take a joke.
2:46pm: Juvy disappears for his 3rd deuce of the day. This guy destroyed more bathrooms in the UK than the Germans.
3:10pm: We get our caddies. I ask who wants the heavy bag without realizing the only caddy without a bag was the oldest guy of the bunch. He realized he was in for a long day.
3:20pm: Tee balls fly on one of the most spectacular courses in the world.
4:00pm: Old Course ballot results are posted for Saturday… 7:10am: D Parrish, R Neal, J Jiovanazzo, R Harrington – West Seattle Golf Club. And there was much rejoicing.
The Round: Carnoustie turned out to be one of all of our favorite courses of the trip. It had so much character, so much history, and wasn’t as unfair and difficult as everyone had said. There’s a great potential to score and the course was in such great shape. My caddy was in my head. He was not that great of a c
addy when it came to reading putts and shot selection, but he was dead on accurate with distance and was an amazing guy from a personality standpoint. We talked about everything Scottish from his family Burn’s Night traditions to his 
daughter’s Scottish cooking on Hogmanay. Great time and great scores. The tradition out at Carnoustie just blows you away. Despite the fact that Dave and I both yanked our drives OB left on Hogan’s Alley, it was pretty cool to get a picture of the commemorative stone (even though I had to send my old caddy running back there to get the shot since I forgot the first time – he earned a little extra for the 
effort) and very cool to walk by Nicklaus’s bunker. The layout was superb and the greens were fair. All the makings of a great golf course.
6:35pm: We ask the caddies to take our picture. Billy, Jeff's caddy asks if we want clubs. Dave says no clubs. Billy says, "Well I just didn't want you to look like four gay boys on holiday." We took the clubs.
7:30pm: Tee off on 18 at dusk with Doc Brown’s clock tower in the distance.
7:40pm: Juvy gets a neck cramp from sleeping like Vivi in a car seat with his head lolled to the side.
8:59pm: Juvy gets second neck cramp from passing out on the arm of the couch. Forgot to write that Juvy and I lightened my bag by drinking the scotch and smoking a cigar on Carnoustie.
After finishing the most exhausting day of golf we’ve ever played, we hit the sack early with Road Hole wishes and Hell Bunker dreams.
- 2:35am: we await anxiously for the flood of people we expect to show up, be jealous at our amazing spots in line, and kick themselves for not getting up 15 minutes earlier to beat us to the course.
- 3:00am: single Canadian guy arrives. Procedes to tell slightly uncomfortable stories about Niagara Falls strippers and steals coffee and pastries from a local hotel (I only stole coffee, he was over the line).
- 4:00am: the concrete around the starters shack starts to feel comfortable. Or I’ve officially lost all feeling in my legs and ass.
- 4:30am: single Finnish guy arrives. Can’t understand that we showed up at 2:30am. Not sure if it was the language barrier or the fact that it was incomprehensible that someone would show up that early for golf.
- 4:45am: Canadian guy starts to bug me so I batten down the hatches and try to catch some z’s by sitting on my golf towel on the concrete and leaning against the concrete starters shack. Bad idea in retrospect. Got a couple “You’re a dumbshit” calls from my caddy early in the round as I couldn’t finish my swing without my back seizing.
- 5:15am: cool Midwest couple show up. Harrington gets adopted by the rich couple. He’s now in their will.
- 5:45am: weird Asian dude shows up in matching top and bottom track suit rain gear. No engrish. Tries to cut in line. Dave tackles him.
- 6:15am: First actual tee time shows up. Everyone in line is burning with jealousy but doesn’t want to show it in the hopes they won’t deny us joining their groups. Cash bribes are discussed and we pool our quids.
- 6:30am: Starter shows up and Dave and I are in the first group with a twosome from Nigeria. We hug and weep. People uncomfortably avert their eyes.
- 6:45am: I realize that sitting on concrete for 4 hours isn’t good for your swing. All of the sudden, the road left of the 18 fairway comes into play…
- 7:00am: Our tee time is called from the R&A and we both pipe our drives down the middle. Not so much for our playing partners who just picked up the game 5 years ago.
- The Round: Being the first guys out of the gate, we ended up finishing in 3:30. Average rounds from both me and Dave and a need for some serious redemption on many of the holes. I was a circus and my caddy loved pointing it out. Dave and I had great caddies, both great guys. My guy was actually pretty professional until I told him that I heard the St. Andrews Club members were a bunch of assholes, of which he’s a member. After that, I got the “Great shot for a little shit” or “If you Americans knew how to play real golf, you might actually score well on this
course.” The worst came when, after going into my seventh pot bunker of the day on the 16 green (getting out in one shot on all but one) I felt bad for my chain-smoking caddy and decided to rake it for him. He
tried to stop me but I insisted. As I was getting out, I leaned on the rake to help climb out and the damn thing snapped at the head. I’ve never seen a big man laugh that hard. I took a picture of him and told him I wanted to show everyone I had Shrek caddy for me today. I asked him if he played Rugby in high school and he said, "no, street fighting." I believe him. Dave and I ended up finishing the round well, both scoring pars on the final hole to shoot in the 80's. Not bad for never playing the course and preparing for the round like a homeless person.
- 10:30am: Our caddies tell us they’d try to get us on tomorrow and would caddy for us again. Bryan, my caddy, tells me to take some of the shit out of my heavy bag tomorrow if I could. I open my bag and pull out the four small bottles of whisky, a cribbage board, four cigars, and the two sets of rain gear I was packing. He didn’t think it was as funny as I did.
- 10:35am: Chatted with our playing partners, real estate developers in Nigeria and abroad. Exchanged email addresses and listened to the pros and cons of having two wives.
- 11:00am: Hustled back to the hotel and went to the suite to watch Juvy and Harrington come up 16 and tee of
f on 17. Decaf coffee and beer are poured.
- 11:30am: Still no sign of the guys. The other half of the Nigerian contingency was playing so slow, their caddies were openly talking about it. Walking past us, I overheard a caddy tell a lady that he couldn’t stop and take her picture because he was on “Caddy overtime”.
- 12:00pm: The fellas appear. Juvy shanks his approach OB on 16 and proceeds to try to give us sign language to tell us where his ball went… We saw dude.
- 12:10pm: Harrington bombs his drive over the “O” in Course. Juvy takes it over the logo. Both great drives on the Road Hole.
- 12:15pm: Clothes change. Race off to see the fellas finish.
- 12:45pm: Juvy gets a filthy up and down for par out of the deep rough on 18. The crowd literally went wild. Biggest roar of applause we’d heard the entire trip on that hole when he drained that putt.
Off to Carnoustie for the afternoon round.
2:30pm: Arrive at Carnoustie. No one is looking forward to the beating we’re likely going to take on this course. The smell of fear permeates the car.
2:45pm: Old guy from the hotel blows me off completely in the Carnoustie pro shop after I say something about his hat. Some people just can’t take a joke.
2:46pm: Juvy disappears for his 3rd deuce of the day. This guy destroyed more bathrooms in the UK than the Germans.
3:10pm: We get our caddies. I ask who wants the heavy bag without realizing the only caddy without a bag was the oldest guy of the bunch. He realized he was in for a long day.
3:20pm: Tee balls fly on one of the most spectacular courses in the world.
4:00pm: Old Course ballot results are posted for Saturday… 7:10am: D Parrish, R Neal, J Jiovanazzo, R Harrington – West Seattle Golf Club. And there was much rejoicing.
The Round: Carnoustie turned out to be one of all of our favorite courses of the trip. It had so much character, so much history, and wasn’t as unfair and difficult as everyone had said. There’s a great potential to score and the course was in such great shape. My caddy was in my head. He was not that great of a c
addy when it came to reading putts and shot selection, but he was dead on accurate with distance and was an amazing guy from a personality standpoint. We talked about everything Scottish from his family Burn’s Night traditions to his 
daughter’s Scottish cooking on Hogmanay. Great time and great scores. The tradition out at Carnoustie just blows you away. Despite the fact that Dave and I both yanked our drives OB left on Hogan’s Alley, it was pretty cool to get a picture of the commemorative stone (even though I had to send my old caddy running back there to get the shot since I forgot the first time – he earned a little extra for the 
effort) and very cool to walk by Nicklaus’s bunker. The layout was superb and the greens were fair. All the makings of a great golf course.
6:35pm: We ask the caddies to take our picture. Billy, Jeff's caddy asks if we want clubs. Dave says no clubs. Billy says, "Well I just didn't want you to look like four gay boys on holiday." We took the clubs.
7:30pm: Tee off on 18 at dusk with Doc Brown’s clock tower in the distance.
7:40pm: Juvy gets a neck cramp from sleeping like Vivi in a car seat with his head lolled to the side.
8:59pm: Juvy gets second neck cramp from passing out on the arm of the couch. Forgot to write that Juvy and I lightened my bag by drinking the scotch and smoking a cigar on Carnoustie.
After finishing the most exhausting day of golf we’ve ever played, we hit the sack early with Road Hole wishes and Hell Bunker dreams.
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