JVJ-He's a Mudder

This one's for Heil...You know it's coming down when the Scottish caddy says, "it just doesn't rain this hard in Scotland.". Royal Troon started out cold and wet which was the exact opposite of the 64 and sunny that was forecast an hour before our tee time, but like we've been told many times, if you don't like the weather just wait 15 minutes. The first 8 holes were played in those nasty conditions before it got incredibly nice the rest of the day.

As if we didn't know this already, even in crazy wind and rain golf is considerably easier down wind. We were able to hit long irons off the first few tees (Neal almost all 18 tees). I was getting all the good bounces and was starting to put together a solid round heading on to the famous 8th tee (Postage Stamp). The hole was playing 117 yards but to give you an idea of the wind we hit our 145 clubs. DP hit the green, the winter green. It was pulled a wee bit left. He then hit a brilliant shot onto the proper green before watching it roll agonizingly off the green and almost as if it were in slow motion the ball rolled around one of the monster pot bunkers as if to tease Dave that it might not roll in before dribbling in leaving him with a nasty lie against the lip. We don't need to mention his score, but he didn't hole out for par. I hit a pure 9 iron and it didn't move off my line as it fought the wind. It landed right in the center of the green. I was thrilled and as I walked to the putting surface I've never wanted to make a 12 footer as badly as I wanted to bury this putt. I gave it a chance, but it missed on the right. A solid par and some confidence was fine by me as I was keeping a solid round going.

I didn't want to tell my playing partners or the caddies, but I really didn't want it to stop raining. I was now officially a mudder. My game had been junk when I was dry, but now the rain had cleansed me and washed away the bad swings. The last 11 holes were played in semi-sunny conditions which was actually quite nice. In the end I kept it together, never got into a single bunker all round long and posted a 78. Life is good again.

To top it off I got to talk to my wife and babies before bed. Life is really good again.