Day 3, St. Andrews

July 19th..
Decided to play the Old Course again. You were surprised? Alarm went off at 3am.. got to the starters building at 3:40am.. #3 in line again. Much cooler than yesterday.. had to put ear muff headband on plus opening a pack of handwarmers.. 2 hours before the starter arrives!

Looked like I was going to go at 7:20am with a 2-ball as the first 2 guys would get the available openings at 6:40. Then an unbelievable thing happened.. the 2-ball said they didn't want anyone to join them! Essentially screwed 2 guys from going earlier (one of them me!) That's OK. The 7:30 was a 2-ball.

The 2-ball was a guy celebrating his 70th Birthday and his wife. Great guy.. hit the ball very well. Our 4th was a guy from FL... good golfer. My caddieywas Willie.. a veteran of 23 years. Willie was everything you have ever envisioned as a Scottish caddie... thick accent. Apparently, he has caddied for some well known Pros. Hands down, much better than Phil (although Phil was outstanding).

Parred #1 . You can't par 'em all if you don't par the 1st. A slightly more diffficult day than the 1st because Willie had me putting from as far away as 100 yards from the green.. no chipping allowed! He could read the greens incredibly well and was definitely spot-on. Still hit the ball solid, though. Willie said we were going to play The Old Course as one should. I loved it. Had 4 or 5 pars and lots of bogeys.

Hit #18 in regulation for 2nd day... almost in exact same spot above the hole at back of green. Yes. I 3-putted again. 1st putt was, once again, woefully short. I will say the greens were much slower than they looked.

The sun was out all day.. an absolute beautiful day.. warmed up a little. We played in 4 hours again. Not bad... we were on the heels of the 2-ball most of the day (they were behind a 4-ball as all the groups were a 4-ball except them).

Went to the pub at 1 Golf Place to wait for my taxi for the 1-hour ride to Edinburgh Airport. Had a few Belham Best.. a very good Scottish Ale.

Flight to Dublin was uneventful. First experience of driving on the wrong side of the road.. from the passenger seat! Luckily, my Hotel was only 3-4 miles from the Enterprise rental location and the streets were wide. Got to my Hotel in Dublin by 9:30pm. Small bite to eat.. then crashed hard at 10:30pm as I'd been up since 3am.