We headed westwards last evening through thundering downpours with inches of standing water on the roads, and with our hearts full of gloom at the prospect of potentially missing out on one of our favourite outings in our extensive golf calendar. We all reckoned that Jas, an ever-present at this event until now, was doing a rain dance on his way back from London to make sure he didn't miss out after all.
Oh we of little faith - by the time we got to Balmoral, the rain had stopped - in fact, there wasn't that much evidence of there having been much rainfall down that way at all. We had fully expected that the best we could possibly get would be 9 holes on rain-sodden fairways, but it was much better than that - we managed 18 holes in the dry and barely got our boots muddy. It was, however, ideal conditions for that traditional pest, the midge - damp and still - but even here we were pleasantly surprised at how little they bothered us - normally I get eaten alive at the slightest sign of the dreaded bug, but I didn't get one single bite last night.
So, it fell to Ken Black to step in to Jas' shoes and make his debut in this, the 11th year of the event. Gary Coutts was joined, as usual by Norrie Thain, and the two of them signed the rest of us on. Gary didn't make the best of starts, duffing his tee shot at the 1st. Here he is, just in front of the tee, as Malcolm walks back to look for spare scorecards:
The next group out had a little more time on their hands to compose themselves for a team photo:
After the round, back in the clubhouse, and in the midst of our self-catering feast, we posed for a team photo of all eight of us:
Apart from Gary of course, the only ever-presents now are Bill and I - although Bill blotted his otherwise perfect attendance card a bit last night when he had to retire hurt at the halfway point.
Winner on the night was Gary with 37 points - his first win since 2003. Gary's score included three birdies in a row. Malcolm was 2nd with 35 points, just beating me on countback.
Dick got the longest drive - in fact, only he and I hit the fairway at the 16th hole. Malcolm picked up nearest the pin at the 11th, and Dick was initially awarded the prize at the 5th hole. He 'fessed up later however, once he had been presented with his prize - he had played off the yellow tees, which were just one yard in front of the white tees we were supposed to be playing off - and gave the ball to Ken, who had been just outside where Dick had landed.
So another wonderful sociable evening, with drink flowing freely - mostly down Gary's neck, judging by his speech afterwards. It was midnight and time to go home - Gary would be back up on the hills of the Royal estate in just over 3 hours' time!
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