Day #124 - Golfing at Turnberry

Signature Hole at Turnberry

Looking down the fairway

View of the lighthouse from #9 fairway

Players had to hit over the ocean in the British Open

Looking back at the tee box

Friday, July 16th

Today we took a train from Carnoustie, departing at 7:30am, to Turnberry. This was a long ride. Turnberry is located on the other side of Scotland - the westen side of the country. It's also much further south than Carnoustie. We had to change trains a couple times. Once, in Glascow, we had to change stations as well. We had 15 minutes. We literally ran out of the terminal, grabbed a taxi, and made it to the next station with 2 minutes to spare. It made the day a little more exciting.

We arrived at 11:15am at the Maybole train station. We had set up a transfer to the course at 11:30am. Turnberry is logistically difficult to get to without a car. It's a 15 minute car ride from either of 2 train stations (Maybole or Girvan). Our ride arrived a little late - but we were just thankful they showed at all. We arrived at the course around noon - our tee time was 3:10pm.

Turnberry was the location for last years British Open Championship - won by Stewart Cink. It is often times referred to as the "Pebble Beach of Scotland". Whenver we talked to anyone who had been to Turnberry or played there, their first comment was always: "It's a beautiful place". We weren't disappointed. We were not staying here tonight, so we checked our bags into the locker room and walked around the clubhouse. Turnberry has hosted 4 British Open Championships. Winners include: Stewart Cink (2009), Nick Price (1994), Greg Norman (1986), and Tom Watson (1977).

We sat in the lounge area and had a couple drinks and ate lunch while waiting for our tee time. I again rented clubs. Today was a totally different set than yesterday - I had to relearn things again. Keeping it interesting.

I went to the driving range and hit some balls. Today, it was an actual driving range. Not great. I got to see where the balls where going. That direction was far to the right. I couldn't reign it in. I hit ball after ball and finally was getting things straightened out before I had to get going to the putting green.

We then headed to the first tee. We met our playing partners. A couple guys from England - Andy and Terry?. Randy and I went without caddies today while the other 2 both had them. The weather was pretty nice as we teed off. It was mild teperatures with slight winds at first. I wasn't as nervous as yesterday. I put a good tee ball onto the first fairway. I would again play up and down today - but score about 20 shots better than yesterday - ending somewhere around 120.

The winds came strong toward the late holes making conditions more difficult. No rain today. It was sunny with great clouds. The scenery was spectacular. Awesome. Several of the holes in the middle part of the round ran parallel to the ocean. I have never played in a more scenic location. At the ninth hole, the signature light house made for incredible pictures. The course didn't play as difficult as Carnoustie (few would). I lost another 3 balls today - but was still pleased with this performance.

The round was really enjoyable. I didn't have a single par today but I did have 4-5 single bogeys. Randy and the other guys we played with all were pretty impressive. Randy scoring a 93 - solid on a championship course.

We completed the round at 7:45pm. Today - there was no time for beers in the clubhouse. We had an 8:50pm train leaving Maybole for Edinburgh. We gathered all our gear and waited for our transfer. Things went smoothly - we arrived at the station at 8:30pm. We met up with a guy at the station who had played Turnberry today as well. He was also from Canada. He had went to St. Andrews earlier in the week. He was similar to us - interesting to hear his perspective.

A long train ride to Edinburgh got us there after 11pm. We checked into a new hotel and crashed for the night We will be going to St. Andrews tomorrow morning -- how awesome is that going to be!