It was a wonderful evening last night for our annual trip down Deeside to see Gary Coutts again - much better, in fact, than most of us anticipated. Only Malcolm was dressed appropriately:
As usual, there were swarms of midges everywhere, but, for a change, we were relatively untroubled by them. The course was looking good - but woe betide if you strayed far off course - the deep rough was treacherous.
It was our 12th visit to Balmoral - the trip started in 2001 when Ian Dring arranged for myself, Les, Dick, Bill and Jas to be signed on by Gary and the late Ben Fernie. In more recent years, Norrie Thain has been the other Balmoral member. With Bill having to miss out this year due to the operation he had on his shoulder last Friday, Gary and I are now the only ever-presents. Les returned to the fold for the first time since 2008.
Local knowledge has played a part in recent winners, with Gary taking the honours last year and Norrie the 2 previous years, but it was all change last night, with Jas picking up his first ever win and the first by a visitor since my last win in 2008.
Nearest the Pin prizes were won by Dick and me, and Peter picked up the Longest Drive at the 16th - apparently the only one of us to hit the fairway. For Les' benefit, fairway is the short grass, not the first cut of rough. His spurious claims to the Longest Drive last night were repeated and insistent - and his defence afterwards that he was only trying to wind me up were hardly credible. Maybe he's more used to 3 inch long grass on the Algarve's fairways?
The team winners were Les, Dick, Norrie and I with a total of 128 - 6 ahead of the second team out.
Jas has been on a fine run in recent times, having picked up his first Iberian Cup and first win at Boat of Garten, although last night's win was narrow one - just pipping me on countback, with us both scoring 34 points.
There have now been 7 separate winners of this event - me (3), Norrie (3), Gary (2), with Ian Dring, Les, Malcolm and now Jas with one win each.
It's always a late night too - we never finish the self catered food, beer and drams until after midnight, so it's generally after 1 am before we're all home in bed.
Here's another team photo, taken in the clubhouse later in the evening:
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