A Father-Son visit to St. Andrews, Scotland ~May 2007~

Neither of us have ever played golf in Scotland, but Lee's company has customers at the University of St. Andrews and he has visited there several times. This time M.L. was able to join Lee and stay over the weekend in Dundee (near St. Andrews) with time for a golf game in St. Andrews and a little sight-seeing.
	The red arrow shows the approximate location of St. Andrews; it's near the tip of the small peninsula shown. Click on the map to see an enlargement of the area and the driving route from the Edinburgh airport to St. Andrews. The large body of water that is crossed is called the Firth of Fourth, and the bridge is the "Fourth Bridge". A toll of £1 is required to go north across the bridge; there is no toll to cross back going south.
All of the photos below are "thumbnails"; you can click on them to see a large version.
The visit starts at the airport in Edinburgh, Scotland. The photo below is inside the airport — the "bus" is a coffee shop where M.L. waited for Lee to come get him. You can see M.L.'s golf travel case and luggage. Lee had spent the first part of the week in Durham (northern England); he took a train into Edinburgh.	The guys rented a car at the airport and drove to St. Andrews, only about 45 miles but it takes 1.5 hours due to the really small, twisty roads involved. This photo of us driving down the left side of the road looks harmless. But wait until you are traveling fast on a narrow road and meet a bus, or try to negotiate one of the MANY roundabouts with heavy traffic!

This is M.L. and Lee in a chemistry lab at St. Andrews University, which owns lots of Rigaku equipment.

The Road Hole: No. 18 on The Old Course
	These pictures were shot on the famous Road Hole (the 18th) at the Old Course. The name comes from the little paved road that crosses the fairway about halfway between the bridge and the green.
	M.L. followed these guys as they played the hole.
	"A man from the USA asked if he could take my picture with the clubhouse in the background. "Right after that, I watched a man hit the green three times ...
	...and roll back into the 'valley of sin' just short of the 18th." Since the course is on public land, it is completely open to locals who often walk or drive across the fairway on the road hole. (This leads to a beach.)
	This is the view up the 18th hole towards the tee box, which is overlooked by the course hotel. The bridge over the "burn" is a landmark of the course; TV cameras always seem to find a way to show this during tournaments.
	Between hole 17 and 18 is a little gate, and there is this sign warning you to pick up your dog's poop. Anyone may walk his dog on this public property! M.L. met two boys from Ohio who asked him to take their picture on the famous bridge. Then they asked if they could take his picture with his camera.

18 Holes of Play at St. Andrews

	Lee tees off on the 1st hole of the Eden course. If you slice the ball here, you end up on the Old Course. The "red top" house is known as the "Shepherd's Cottage", just past the 1st green, and near the 10th tee. It contains the nicest, cleanest toilets we have ever seen on a golf course.
	Lee and M.L. after 1st hole green, with the city of St. Andrews in the background. This rock wall separates the Eden course from the Old Course. Those men are playing hole no. 15 or 16 on the Old Course.
	Lee standing in front of a cluster of gorse. You do not hit out of gorse! M.L. sits in one of the pot bunkers. The highest walls in these are always on the side of the bunker that is nearest the hole; i.e. good luck hitting out going the right direction!

It was not an unusual day at St. Andrews, which means that the temperature was in the the high 40s to low 50s, the wind was blowing, and it misted on us a few times. Even though it got very uncomfortable a couple of times, I don't think either of us really felt it! We had a St. Andrews resident playing with us, Dr. Luke Hunter, and his "caddy" (spelled "caddie" in Scotland), Dr. Sahrah Parveen. Luke is a post-doctoral fellow in the Biochemistry department and Sahrah is a post-doc in Chemistry. Sahrah had originally planned to play also but she is a bit of a novice and was embarrassed to join us — maybe she should have watched Lee play before making that decision! Unfortunately we forgot to get a photo of Luke and Sahrah. Residents of St. Andrews get a really good deal on golf there. For about £100 per year they can play all they want on the St. Andrews courses — but you must be a St. Andrews resident to get that deal. Lee played pretty well considering that he's only played once or twice in the last 5 years — par on one hole and bogey on a few more. If it weren't for those "pot" bunkers his score would have been almost respectable. Then there's M.L. — he had a great day and shot par on 9 of the holes! Luke was quite a help in that he was very familiar with the course and suggested appropriate strategy on most of the holes.

	There's a part of this trip that can't be shown in photographs, and only barely put into words. There is something magic about driving into the famous little town and seeing "St. Andrews" on the sign as you enter. Then, there it is, right there on the left (and I mean right there) — the Old Course. It has been one of M.L.'s life-long dreams to visit here; getting to actually play on one of the St. Andrews courses is really the stuff of dreams. But even just standing on the courses where we've seen so many British Open tournaments on television implants a memory of a lifetime.

Carnoustie

Carnoustie is the site of the 2007 British Open (in July). M.L. and Lee didn't play there but spent a morning visiting the course. You can see in the photos below (taken May 12) that they have already started putting up the spectator stands around the course. The tiny town of Carnoustie is just 8 or 10 miles up the road from Dundee, where Lee and M.L. stayed (which is about 13 miles from St. Andrews.)

	It's not easy to even get to the Carnoustie course: it's not really visible from the main road (and it's a tiny one) due to elevated train tracks between the road and the course. Then to get to the other side of the tracks, there are two or three tiny, low, one-way tunnels, certainly not large enough for the legions of television equipment trucks that will be traveling there soon. (Apparently there is a way to cross over the tracks further up the road.)
It was obvious that this can be a very demanding course. This "burn" (creek) wanders thru most of the course, and causes much misery to the golfers. The clubhouse had a picture of Sergio Garcia walking along with a man holding a sign showing Sergio to be 30 over par!
	It was really cold and windy that morning, but we were amazed how lightly some of the golfers were dressed. The men in this photo are playing the first hole (on the tee).
While we were standing there shivering, it was hard to believe these guys were not wearing hats, and note the one guy in short sleeves! This is the green for No. 1, which is slightly elevated and completely obscured from view from the fairway. A tall pole behind the green helps golfers find the green when approaching.

Here's M.L. next to the thick thorny gorse found all over the course. This is the clubhouse and 18th hole. The pole in the water to the right of the bridge is for plucking your ball out of the water. There was another one just left of the picture. While we stood here, an approach shot came in that should have gone in the burn. But it hit one of the stones in the wall short of the green such that it bounced up and about 50 yards back on the fairway!

Scone Palace (pronounced approx. like "scoon" but with a bit of a Scottish brogue)

This is the entrance to the palace. The man in the kilt was very friendly, and told us what to look for while in the palace. He said he had been to Houston. The peacock noticed us and others, and thus showed us his fine plumage. (Proud as a peacock?)

The palace as seen upon entering the grounds, and Lee at the palace door.

A nice woman asked if she could take our picture at the front door. One of the many rooms (hallways) in the palace. An organ sits at the very end of the hall, but no one asked us to play it!

This "cottage" is where many Scottish kings were crowned. Some of their bones lie within.

On the grounds of the palace is the Murray Star Maze, built in the shape of a pentagon. It was designed by international maze designer Adrian Fisher. A lot more information about Scone Palace can be found HERE.

Finally, what would a collection of vacation photos be without a good picture of a COW ?!? This one happens to be one a group of "Highlands Cattle" (one would suppose this means the Scottish Highlands). But I have no idea about what these strange creatures do or provide. Take a look at the full-size photo of this to get an idea of how fuzzy they are. This one doesn't show it, but the face is reminiscent of an Ewok.

THANKS FOR LOOKING! M.L. and Lee had a great time, certainly better than all those vacations when Lee was a pimply-faced teenager and complained about having to sit in the back with his sister while we drove all day to get to Snot Mountain, Arkansas.