Scotland Golf Days 0 and 1

Here it is. The blog entry everyone has been waiting for. More than six hundred words on Scotland golf – and this is just the first entry in a series. I would have gotten this done earlier, but work has been really busy.

I think this all got started when I mentioned that my biggest potential regret about living in London would be to move back to the U.S. without playing golf at St. Andrews. Tiff filed that tidbit away and got me a round of golf at the Old Course for my birthday. I became even more inspired in January when I was reading a book about Bandon Dunes called Dream Golf and went to Ireland and played golf. While I was on the course in County Wicklow (see earlier entry) I emailed David Wayne Totten (aka DWT or DW) and said – buy your ticket, we’re heading to Scotland for a golf tour. A strong effort by DW led to 6 days of golf in Scotland and London.

Day 0 – Monday 25 February
DWT and I are exchanging emails on the final logistics when he informs me that he pulled an abdominal muscle while playing soccer – leading to a hernia. I probably should have been worried that he could have bailed on the trip but I found the news quite funny and I’m sure he appreciated my uncontrolled chuckling on the phone. Honestly, it probably improved his golf but I did notice he was walking rather gingerly and cringing when I would drive through the roundabouts.

Day 1
Plan was to meet DW at Heathrow and then fly up to Edinburgh (pronounced Edinburrah). Unfortunately, he picked about the worst week possible from a work perspective for me because the deal I led in Tel Aviv was scheduled to formally close on Friday so I was pretty busy getting all the final details wrapped up. In fact, the lawyers that I worked with on the transaction asked me to be in Tel Aviv on Thursday and Friday, but I declined. Then, on the train to Heathrow I get an email from the VP in Palo Alto saying “I think it’s critical that you be in Tel Aviv this week. Please confirm.” No good. The thing is that I really didn’t believe that I needed to be in Tel Aviv. So, I said I would be available on email and by phone but couldn’t be there in person. The final decision was to send one of my co-workers in London in my place, although not sure what he could have done since he had none of the background on the deal. Anyway, I made it to Heathrow a little stressed and literally ran into DW sitting down, looking tired but very English in his Hampton style cap and tweedish coat. Coincidentally, Tiff had a business trip in Edinburgh and she had taken the train up earlier that day – actually she decided to use my suitcase to pack so I was left with hers with the bag tag that says “careful: my shoes are inside” – anyway DW and I circled downtown Edinburgh a bit before finding Tiff’s hotel and we were off to a great dinner at The Grain Store. St. Andrews is about 90 minutes outside of Edinburgh, so we arrived at the Fairmont (got a great £99 deal by inputting a code on their website) about 1am. As we are unloading our bags, DW notices the “careful: my shoes are inside” bag tag and gives me some crap. I was dreading that moment and in retrospect was glad to get it out of the way early in the trip. After working for a few hours, I was able to sneak in a little sleep prior to our 8:30am “links golf lesson”.

Didn’t break out the camera until the next morning, so here’s a couple of teasers from later in the trip.