Edzell & Cruden Bay

Our Midsummer Outing at Edzell was again very well attended and, despite a couple of late changes, we managed to have a nice, neat group of 4 fourballs, which allowed us to run 3 competitions simultaneously - individual stableford, team (best 3 scores) and match (OAP's v Youngsters).

There were a lot of shorts on display at the start but it was starting to get a bit cooler and a few chickened out. The temperature dropped again later and sweaters had to be donned, but generally conditions were good.

The Edzell greens were a little disappointing and relatively hairy but the major change with the course was the huge deforestation to the left of the 13th hole. It felt slightly strange and, visually, the short 14th looked particularly odd.

The scores were very close in all 3 competitions. In 3rd place in the stableford (on countback from me) was Jas with 36 points. One point better were Malcolm and Dan, with the latter losing out on countback again. At the other end of the table, it was yet another hard-fought battle between Gordon and Ken P for DoD. Here's the full results:

1	Grigor, Malcolm	37
2	Corbett, Daniel	37
3	Bhagrath, Jas	36
4	Stewart, Ian	36
5	Grant, Gary	35
6	Salter, Harry	34
7	Gray, Les	33
8	Sharp, Ian	33
9	Black, Ken	32
10	Riches, Hugh	32
11	Cook, Archie	32
12	Gray, Keith	31
13	Freeman, Syd	29
14	Street, Peter	25
15	Page, Ken	22
16	Moir, Gordon	21

Keith and Archie got the Nearest the Pins and Malcolm got the Longest Drive.

The team competition also went to countback with Team 3 (Malcolm, Les, Hugh & Keith) emerging victorious with 120 points.

The OAP's v Youngsters match was also close, with the latter winning 3 of the 4 matches, each by one hole, but the determining match was the first out with Syd & Jas against Gordon and Ken P. There's no prizes for guessing the result, but the key was the margin of victory, which was 5 holes up - enough to give the overall match to the OAP's.

Apologies for the lack of photos of the various winners, but there was a lot of relief taken on the course and here's a couple of examples:

Today (Sunday) was the Cruden Bay Texas Scramble and we had 2 teams entered. After a drizzly drive up, we had excellent conditions for our round, and the course was looking terrific. Here's the A team on the 4th tee:

This shot of the B team was taken looking back from the 4th green:

To reach the 10th tee, it's a long haul up "Heart-attack Hill", but there's lovely views from the tee when you eventually get there. This one is looking north towards Slains Castle in the distance:

This is also looking down from the 10th tee at the B team playing the 9th below:

Relief had to be taken on this course as well:

The results? The A team - Ken B, Harry, Jas and I - shot a gross 2 under par 68 - one better than the lower handicappers in the B team. Beer afterwards at the Tolbooth, Ellon. Great day out.