Balmoral XXIV

Our annual trip to Balmoral on Monday would have been our 25th had Covid not intervened in 2020. Just 7 of us travelled from Banchory this year, including one non-player - Jas - who was unable to play due to his long-term shoulder injury but wanted to walk the course with us and, of course, take part in the social side afterwards.

This outing is our only "invitation" event. Until very recently Balmoral Golf Club remained fairly exclusive, restricted largely to estate employees, each of whom were allowed to invite 3 guests to make up a fourball. Our contact there is former Banchory Squash club champion and now Head Stalker on the Royal estate, Gary Coutts, RVM. He arranges for fellow members to sign us on as guests for a modest fee of £15 per head. These days the club is more open but the standard fee is much higher - £200 for a fourball.

It's always been a pretty boozy outing so we have favoured hiring a minibus to take us there and back which works OK when Gary can get 3 members to play so that we can have 3 fourballs. In fact, he once - in 2023 - managed to get 4 members to sign us on - our largest ever attendance.

Gary Coutts has had knee problems and had to miss out last year - and this year. In fact, he has only played twice since 2018. He did, however, manage to get regular Brian Lees to play with us and he was joined by Michael Muir so we had just 2 fourballs this year. This, however, made hiring a minibus unrealistic financially. Fortunately we had 2 willing volunteers to drive - Keith and Ken.

Here's the team photo in front of the clubhouse on a warm but overcast evening:

Back row - Gary Coutts, Ian Dring & Michael Muir.
Middle - Nigel Meany, Ken Black & Brian Lees.
Front - Keith Gray, Hugh Riches, Ian Stewart & Jas Bhagrath.

Unlike last year we did manage to find the handicap adjustment chart - and what a shock we all got - reductions in handicap of 4 strokes each, which meant that Ian D was playing off one!

Individual and team scores were:

Michael's 36 points off 14 of a handicap was good enough on the day and he became the 12th person to win this event. Not content with that he also got one of the Nearest the Pin prizes (at the 14th), the Longest Drive and naturally he was a member of the winning team too.

Ian Dring got 2nd place with a commendable 34 points and I took the other Nearest the Pin prize at the 11th hole.

The course was looking pretty smart - tidy, well-tended fairways and rough that wasn't as horrendous as we've seen it in the past - but oh, those greens - like putting on Velcro (or through treacle).

As ever, the post-match social went down well. Keith had organised the food and Nigel the drinks. Gary, in accordance with tradition, brought a bottle of malt - Isle of Jura - and very nice it was too. We had thought that, as we didn't have to wait for a minibus, and, with 2 cars outside it might be an earlier than normal night - but it wasn't really. Not as bad as the very early days but in line with more recent years, arriving back in Banchory about midnight. 

Michael's winning score was the lowest in a decade. He's the 5th Balmoral member to win - Banchory has 7 winners so far and the pecking order now reads:

13 Balmoral members have taken part in the outing over the years, and 21 from Banchory. Incidentally, the club has now officially changed its name to Royal Balmoral.

Balmoral XXIII

What a scorcher of a day for our 23rd annual outing to Balmoral. We gathered at Banchory Golf Club car park and boarded our coach at 4 pm prompt, heading westwards through Deeside. Our host, Gary Coutts was waiting at the Balmoral gates to greet us and escort us in to the estate.

Due to further knee injuries, Gary was unable to take part in the golf this year, but he had recruited regular Brian Lees plus Michael Muir and Richard Tait - the latter a low handicapper (4.5) from Braemar. We had been coming to Balmoral since 2001 and the guest green fee had stuck rigidly at just £10 throughout this period, but this year saw an increase of 50% to £15.

The King has already made a number of changes at Balmoral, not least at the golf club, which is now run by the members, independently of the estate, which now supplies - at a cost - various services to the club, including greenkeeping. The course was definitely looking much better than last year and the fairways and rough were much more playable. They still have issues with the greens to sort, however.

First of all, the team photo on the first tee:

Brian Lees was a little too late and missed out but the rest of the line-up, from l-r:
Richard Tait, Ian Stewart, Nigel Meany, Jas Bhagrath, Michael Muir, Dick Taylor, Ken Black, Hugh Riches, Keith Gray, Ian Dring & John Waddell.
Photo taken by Gary Coutts.

A few other photos taken by me on the way round:

Prince Albert on the right of the 1st fairway, looking across at Queen Victoria on the other side

Crathie Kirk from the 2nd tee

Estate house on the left of the 18th fairway, famously once clattered by the much-missed Les Gray

Three fourballs started but Jas, not having played for the last year, had to retire at the turn after 9 holes. We could not initially find the course scoring adjustment chart so decided to just play off full handicaps. We later found out that we should, on average, have reduced our handicaps by 3 strokes, so the following individual stableford scores should be taken with a little pinch of salt:

Richard and Hugh got the NP's at 5th & 11th and John W the LD at the 16th. The team competition, based on the best 2 stableford scores at each hole, was declared null and void by me. The first team out - Richard, Nigel, Keith and Ken - were mortally offended by this decision as their score of 89 points was 6 points better than that of the last team out - me, Brian, Ian D and Jas. However, as earlier stated, this wasn't a level playing field as Jas could only play half a round. The team scores for those first 9 holes was level at 44 each.

Precedent has it that an appropriate adjustment is made to a 3 man team's score when playing against a 4 man team. On a pro-rata basis this would have made my team the winners but I felt this would have been totally unfair so the only - and easiest - way out was for me to scrap the team prizes. No doubt this decision will not be forgotten by some. Have pity on the poor organiser who picked the teams.

Anyway, we had a good laugh in the clubhouse afterwards, as witnessed by this selfie:

This was only the 9th time that Brian had taken part in the event but he became the first player to have won 4 times. There have been 11 separate winners so far:

 A total of 34 players have taken part in the 23 events played to date - 21 from Banchory and 13 from our hosts. Nobody has played in every event but Dick, Jas and myself have each only missed one. Our host Gary has taken part 20 times.

We departed Balmoral just after 11 pm and all were safely home shortly after midnight.

Boat of Garten LXXV

Many thanks to Rob for his excellent organisation and congrats to Ian D on his win at this week's Boat of Garten outing. Rob has already circulated details of the event but I'll include his team selfie at Boat of Garten on Monday here for the blog record:

Here's the presentation of the trophy to Ian:

The full pecking order from the event shows:

Malcolm and John M, of course, only played the one round at Boat of Garten.

A few more photos I took:

Rob and I on the 14th tee at Boat of Garten, backdropped by the Cairngorms

Another selfie at the 15th green. Harry putts, Nigel bends and Rob watches while I waited patiently after recording yet another blob!

Hugh and Rob pose as Twa Auld Mannies at the 7th tee at Grantown yesterday

It's almost 40 years now since our group first went to Boat of Garten in September, 1984. That outing and the subsequent two in 1985 don't appear in the official stats which go back to the first time the trophy was awarded in May, 1986, but, for the record, the first 3 pre-trophy winners were Dick Taylor, Bill Miller and Bill Craven.

So officially this was our 75th outing in the 39th year since the trophy started. It could have been 77 had Covid not intervened in May, 2020 and had we not been rained off in September, 1992 - amazingly, the only time this has ever happened (to date!)

My records of the winning scores only go back to 2004, by which time we had decided that 36 holes at Boat of Garten on the Monday, after golf and a boozy evening on the Sunday, was becoming too much for us and we reverted to the current format of just 2 scoring rounds - one each day.

We only played one round in May 2021 when Ken B won with a very respectable 36 points, but the lowest 36 hole winning total since 2004 was Dan's 62 points in May, 2007. Syd won in May, 2023 with 63 points and this year's total of 64 was the 3rd lowest - shared now by Ian D, Jas (May, 2012) and Harry (Sep, 2017). Conversely, the highest points total (79) also came from Ian D in September, 2015.

Ian D now joins the ranks of multiple winners. Our now 85 year old elder statesman remains amazingly competitive and it will be some time - if ever - before anyone overtakes him at the top of the all-time leader board:

Current regulars yet to get their name on the esteemed trophy include Hugh, Nigel and John M.

Boat of Garten LXXIV

What a great weekend for our 74th (official) outing to Boat of Garten and very well done to Rob who will now be the 27th name to be engraved on the prestigious trophy. Both Boat of Garten and Spey Valley were looking great and the weather was lovely - well organised, Syd!

There will now actually be 76 engravings on the trophy as September, 1992 appears as "rained off" (the only time this has happened) and May, 2020 has a Covid asterisk against it.

Prior to the trophy being introduced in May, 1986 there were actually 3 outings which don't appear in the official records. The very first outing was in September, 1984 and was won by Dick.

Defending champion Syd remains well ahead at the top of the all-time leader board. Multiple winners of the trophy are:

There are solo wins from another 16 players - Bill Miller, Bob Cooper, Keith Murray, Peter Street, Mike Brogan, Bobby Fyfe, Dan Corbett, Keith Gray, Jas Bhagrath, Chris Dickinson, Ian Dring, Steve Fulford, Jack Simpson, Ken Black, Hugh Riches and now Rob Pollard.

Rob patiently waited for his first win but remember it took the maestro Syd 14 years before his first win. From those that took part back in the 1980's, Malcolm took 17 years before winning it, but the record goes to Jas, whose 2012 victory came after 27 years and over 50 attempts.

Anyway, back to this weekend. Here's the team at the start:

l-r: John Davies, Gordon Moir, Rob Pollard, John Meaden, Syd Freeman, Hugh Riches, Dick Taylor, an unusually camera-shy Harry Salter, Nigel Meany, Keith Gray, Ken Page and Ian Stewart

Boat of Garten was in great nick and was much more playable than it normally is in September when the heather and the gorse usually cause mayhem. This time the greenkeepers had been hard at work and had cleared a lot of the worst of it, so if you strayed off the fairways you could always find your ball and it was usually playable, which was reflected in the scoring. Rob scored a magnificent 41 points with the nearest challengers being me and Keith, both with 36. Rob was so good that he could even play left-handed:

Back to the Grant Arms in Grantown - some ale while watching the Boks destroy Scotland. Dinner was good as usual and then it was back to the conference room for some to watch the Wales - Fiji match.

Monday morning didn't look promising. We awoke to heavy skies, low cloud and rain. There had been altercations overnight with some of the residents experiencing the rain coming in to their rooms. The hotel were having some work done to the roof and the contractors had merely tarpaulined it over the weekend. Cue angry tourists.

It's a fairly short drive to Spey VALLEY golf course in Aviemore - 20-25 minutes south west - but there was a major faux pas from Gordon, who had never played there before. He keyed his destination in to his SatNav - Spey BAY golf club. After driving north for 20 minutes or so, he was a little alarmed to see that his SatNav said there was still another 50 minutes of driving in front of him. Urgent phone calls to various members of our group put him right and he quickly u-turned back south again - unfortunately not quick enough to make our start time.

Rob, Keith and I set off as a 3-ball in the last group and Gordon joined us on the 3rd tee having purloined another buggy from the starter. Our champion elect thought it was time for a photo to prove he had made it:

Tremendous views at Spey Valley. The greens were considerably slower than Boat of Garten's and, despite almost 2 decades of growth since it first opened, the fairways haven't completely knitted yet. The bunker sand was beautifully white although a bit deeper than ideal - that didn't stop Rob, who loved them and managed to get up and down each time he was in one.

After a slightly shaky front nine, when Keith briefly got within 2 shots of his overall total, Rob recovered on the back nine with a very tidy 19 points to give him a total of 31 and an unbeatable aggregate of 72. Rob became the second oldest winner of the trophy at the age of 74. Syd, of course, has already beaten that 3 times - at 75 in 2014, at 78 in 2021 and at 84 in May this year.

After soup and sannies in the clubhouse, Syd presented Rob with the trophy:

Here's all the aggregate scores:

The prizewinners were:

Interesting to note that the average points scored at Boat of Garten was 29.1, whereas it was just 24.8 at Spey Valley. Rob alluded to that back at the Boat Inn in Aboyne when he reminded us that next year - surprise, surprise - we'll all be a year older and he therefore thought it might be appropriate to revisit Grantown rather than Spey Valley. Watch this space.

Another big anniversary for the Boat of Garten outing is coming up in the next year or two - our 40th anniversary. Next September (2024), it'll be exactly 40 years since the first (pre-trophy) outing, although it'll only be our 39th official year. The proper 40th anniversary will be in 2025 - ten years after we had our 30:60 celebrations. Maybe 40:80 shirts then - if we're spared! 🤞

Terry Edmonds' Memorial XXII

Another glorious day at Aboyne yesterday - and well done to Ken Black who notched up his first win with a magnificent 42 points, equalling the record for this event, previously held by the late Les Gray (2006). Ken is now the 11th name on the trophy. The event has been played a total of 19 times now, with 2 further occasions when it was rained off and once Covid cancelled.

The all-time list of winners still shows Malcolm well ahead with 5 wins, followed by Paul, Les, myself and Keith with 2 each. Solo wins from the late Dave Edwards, Archie, Harry, Ken Page (who drove from his home in Spain to take part yesterday and at Boat of Garten), Gary and now Ken Black.

I've copied Gary's detailed match report below, but first, here's the photos from yesterday:

The starting 10 - l-r: me. Harry, Gary, Rob, Dick, Ken B, Ken P, Malcolm. Nigel and Syd

Regrettably, only 9 of the above managed to finish. After a good front nine, and despite Ken B supplying me with paracetomol on the 10th tee, playing 2 days in a row was too much for my knee and I had to walk in after 12 holes. I was, however, able to join Linda on the balcony and photograph each of the teams as they finished their rounds on the 18th:

Rob, Malcolm and Gary

Harry, Nigel and Dick

Syd, Ken P and Ken B

Here's the team photo, including Linda, before the meal:

Gary then did the prizegiving and Linda presented Ken B with the magnificent trophy:

Now Gary's match report:

"Well what a day - the sun obviously shines on the righteous! 

Thankfully some clouds passed over to cool the ambient temperature on the course.

Despite some early protestations and murmurings from certain quarters of team fixing, the end result vindicated my team selection. Average stableford score for the geeks was 32.88.

A new format was introduced in testing ones ability to hit a green in regulation - this was closest to the pin with a second shot at the 17th. However, a pin positioned close to the front of the green proved very difficult with only myself and Syd managing to succeed with the latter winning.

Rob hit the pin at the 8th having also done the same at the Eden course a few weeks ago. Perhaps we should have a special prize for this in the future.

There was great altercation about Ken B and Ken P's score. It appears everyone knew what was going on apart from moi.  Everyone was shouting at me and I am only small!!!

Overall winner was Ken Black ( not Page!) with 42 points; second place was Harry Salter with 36 despite hitting a wrong ball on the 2nd!

Team prize to Syd, Ken Page, Ken Black and Ian with total of 111. ( Ian Stewart retired early)."

Braemar 2023

Organiser Malcolm failed a late fitness test but still turned up at the start today to see the remaining 11 of us off. Braemar used to be a regular stop on BSV's outings but today was the first time we'd been back as a group for a few decades.

Ball in the bag start in 3-4-4 formation. Here's the first group driving off:

Then a team photo:

Who would wear these ankle bracelets - and why?:

The course was in good shape - the greens were sticky but true and, overall, scores were pretty healthy - only 2 were in the 20's. Ian D won the NP at the 5th (with the help of a fortuitous bounce) and Rob won the 18th. The longest drives at the 15th were won by Gary and Syd (70 +).

Syd won the individual stableford with 40 points, with Rob 2nd on 38 and Gary 3rd with 37. The clear team winners were Syd, Harry, Brian and Rob with an impressive average of 36.25, well ahead of the others. Their win was duly acknowledged but insufficient prize balls remained.

Good day out and it was generally agreed that this was a much better option than Blairgowrie. 

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.