Balmoral 2023

It was our 22nd outing to Balmoral last night - and the first time we had managed, courtesy of our host Gary Coutts, to increase the number of Banchory guests to 12, signed on by 4 Balmoral members, each of whom played in one of the 4 fourballs.

Nigel volunteered to acquire the drinks for our post-golf celebrations:

We piled that lot, plus the food that Keith had prepared/acquired, in to the team bus along with 12 bodies and sets of clubs and set off to Balmoral, where Gary met us and took us in to the estate (back entrance this time).

We were threatened with an early shower but it came to nothing and soon we were back to blue skies again. Balmoral had lost their regular greenkeeper golfer, Duncan Stewart, who had been "poached" by the King and had moved to Dumfries House. The course this year wasn't in the best condition but the surroundings are lovely. The rough, however, was lethal, and there were many lost balls which kept the scoring lower than usual.

Jas hasn't been able to play golf this year but decided to give it a go last night. He had a somewhat embarrassing start when his opening drive rebounded behind the tee back almost to the clubhouse:

 As well as the above, Ian Sh sent me a few more photos he took last night:

Scorecard

Clubhouse

Either side of the 1st fairway, there are statues of Albert, Prince Consort and Queen Victoria looking over at each other

View from 2nd tee of Crathie Kirk

Of course, there had to be a team photo as well:

Gary Coutts standing between Ian D and Jas, with the 3 other Balmoral members - Brian, Peter and Brendan - on the far right

Now, the scores. 10 of our group of 16 had stableford points in the mid-20's - only 6 managed to reach the respectability threshold of 30 points and 3 of them were Balmoral members. I scored 31 points, Ian D had 33 and Harry 35.

The winner, for the 3rd time, was Balmoral member Brian Lees with 37 points. Harry took 2nd place. Nearest the pins were Gary and Brian whilst Ian D got the longest drive. The team prize went to Brendan, Harry, Hugh and Rob with a total of 107 points, taking the best scores 3 at each hole.