St. Andrews in Fife

Mom and Dad arrived last weekend bringing some much needed sunshine to Aberdeen. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't quite as excited by their arrival and the sunshine quickly went away and the threat of Aberdeen's first snow storm loomed ahead for the end of the week.  On Thursday we escaped the bad weather and piled into our little rental car with an Alan, an Allen, a Karen, and a Kara (so confusing) to head south to discover Scotland's game: Golf.  Before some of you readers immediately say, "Golf is so boring, I hope she doesn't go into detail about the game," stay with me!....

(Fine, you can skip to paragraph three.)

The famous Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole of Old Course

The game of Golf is proudly claimed by the Scots as their legend, even though the Dutch were playing "Kolf" on ice in the 14th century (I'm sure it was something entirely different).  The "Old Course" at St. Andrews is the first golf course built around 1400.  Turns out golf wasn't as quiet of a game back then since it was banned in 1457 by King James II because it was interfering with mens' archery practice.  He was a kill joy.  The Scottish, being the wonderfully resilient people that they are, politely ignored the ban and kept on playing on their courses.  The golf ban was repeated several times by different monarchs until finally King James IV tried the game himself and declared the ban be magically lifted.  Now, there are two stories over how golf courses derived to have 18 holes.  The original golf course actually had 22 holes (and you thought the game couldn't get any longer!).  There were 11 holes going out and then you turned right around, did the hokey-pokey, and played the same 11 holes right back in towards the club house (hence the two different colored flags, white going out and red going in, so you didn't get confused).  The first story says that the golfers at Old Course in St. Andrews decided that the first four holes (which are also the last four holes) on the course were too short and they therefore combined them to make two holes.  Thus, we have the template by which all other courses were made, 18 holes.  Of course, I like the second story better.  In 1858 a member of the St. Andrews board suggested that the reason there should be 18 holes is because it takes exactly 18 shots to finish off a fifth of Scotch.  So, when the Scotch ran out, the game was over.  18 holes.  I like that story much better.  

Dad at the first tee

Anyway, we decided that it would be a true shame if we didn't actually play golf at the original birth place of the game.  The sun was peaking through the clouds and the wind was whipping at our backs as we rented clubs and balls to conquer the historic greens laid out in front of us.  Dad took his place at the first tee, and after studying the unique hills, taking into consideration the speed of the wind, and the thickness of the grass on the green, he hit a soft putt out onto the putt putt course.  That's right.  We played putt putt.  Not just any putt putt, though.  This is the warm up putting greens that famous golfers have practiced their finishing shots on.  Unfortunately, none of their talented charms were gracing me as my score would have rivaled any good golfer on a full golf course.  

In front of the Putt Putt Course

After our fun on the greens, we called it a day and headed south to Edinburgh where we would learn that construction and wrong side of the road driving, leads to trying whisky followed by Banoffee pie (a magical concoction of bananas, toffee, and cheesecake).

More later.  

Warming up after an
intense game of putt putt