funky_nomad

Ooof, a move to Gullane, that's living the dream! Get yourself on the waiting list for Gullane pronto... Royal Musselburgh is pleasant enough, but you pay over the odds for the name (that grand old clubhouse is really only there for the pictures, it's soooooo not fit for purpose...), and the parkland course is closed due to the weather more than anywhere else in the area. Craigielaw often comes across as trying too hard, but it's a lovely stretch of land and the practice facilities are good. If Longniddry was a full 18 holes of links it'd be a no-brainer, but it might well be a coin-toss.

I'm rubbish at pretty much any sports Fantasy stuff, but will be all over this like a rash - shame there's not a booby/Boaby prize for us fantasy hackers as I'd fancy my chances there...

That particular bribe pre-dated Boris, although the principle stands: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-dup-deal-brexit-legal-mps-parliament-vote-a8226056.html

Winter golf is pretty farcical, and as such is a great laugh. I'd rather have mats to full greens than turf to winter greens any day of the week, however as I haven't picked up a club since August and won't be hitting a thing until March, I'd take any option in a heartbeat...

Back in pre-Buffer Zone olden days, when handicaps only ever went down, it was pretty commonplace for juniors to get to low single figures - a combination of playing golf every day during the summer holidays and there being at least 3 junior medals every week at my club meant that, cone August, maybe a third of the 50 or so juniors playing competitive golf would be generally be playing off 5 or less. 5 was also the cut-off for being eligible for the County team - as there was only 6 clubs in Clackmannanshire, this opened many doors to mediocrity (I once got cuffed 9&8 playing against Stirlingshire at Dunblane, and had played pretty solid golf - the twat I was playing didn't even offer to complete the round, just walked off the course to ensure everyone could see how early he'd won. I'm not bitter, though...)

Pffft, wasn't everyone???

Bugger, I'd totally forgotten about that!! Thanks for the nudge.

St Andrews members consider the Old Course to be the most scoreable of the courses they play their medals on, so I can't imagine a fourball with those handicaps would find the medal tees too intimidating tbh. Enjoy, and keep it left!!

The Hot Potato thread really gets under the skin of Scottish football...

Our winter sweep at Tulliallan employs a Leaf Ball system - agree with your playing partners that the ball has been lost in the leaves and it's a free drop from the approx position. As long as you don't play with new balls (and why would you?) it's a reasonable fix and saves time looking for lost causes.

Do you want comments as we submit (eg lovely course but the bacon butties come with generic tomato ketchup), or keep them for the post-list debate?

Anytime I've played The Dukes, I've had issues with the set-up to the point that I'm not sure I'd ever play it again. I once played it in a captains/secretaries invitation thing - they played it off the Black tees on a baking hot day with penal rough and the winning score was 24 stableford points - just ludicrous.

Yeah, we are extremely blessed, but I've turned down a few games at Carnoustie over the years for reasons I wouldn't even think of doing now (including opting for a game at the Dukes instead, FFS... )

Looking forward to this

I bloody love Carnoustie, but I just don't play it as often as I should for some reason. I reckon I had my best-ever ball-striking day on a golf course there a number of years back, but kept smoking my driver into wee pot bunkers that I wasn't even looking at. Felt like both a champ and a chump that day, shot mid-80's with about 10 or 12 fairway bunkers found; I was walking on air coming off the 18th.

Yep, I've heard of a fair few clubs considering this option.

Tulliallan adopted a policy of keeping full greens all year round a few years ago, and changed their annual maintenance/coring programme to make this possible. The upshot of this is that the greens tend to be better in November and December than they are for a couple weeks in August, but visitor fees are far higher than they were a few years ago. Any drainage works on the greens don't take place until March as the greenkeeper doesn't see the point of digging trenches/drains when the grass isn't growing over the winter months to repair the damage - the greens have never come on until mid-May anyway, so this makes perfect sense. It has worked really well, and those of us who play year-round golf are delighted at results. I think Strathmore near Alyth is another club that tries to keep the course on full greens, but they're geared up mainly for visitor greens fees anyway.

Shocked to my very core!

Cheers!

Suffered a nasty dose of sepsis and they found some other stuff in there while poking around. Better oot than in, though!!!

Started on 6.0, went up to 7.8 early in the season, hit some consistent form over summer and got myself down to 5.6 in early August, before drifting back up to 6.0. My season finished towards the end of August and I won't be able to pick up a club until around Xmas, which will be the longest I've ever gone without a game. And, yes, it sucks - I had high hopes of getting down towards 5.0 before winter.

Annual "Fan Engagement" target met 5 months ahead of schedule - a stunning triumph for the Board.

I see Connor Syme is paired with Pierced Morgan. Hopefully all the booing will be good practice for any future away Ryder Cup fixture...

I don't mind Leven as it happens (I play there fairly regularly in Handicap League matches), but the course condition (other than the greens) is pretty patchy - you can be in the middle of the fairway in a bare lie with the ball jammed up against a really lush patch. It used to be in far better nick, tbh. Lundy is generally in tip-top condition.