Friday night didn’t go exactly as planned. As we were getting ready to leave for the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo, Peter tripped over a small ledge at the doorway of the flat and face-planted onto the sidewalk. I was in the living room when I heard a crash and when I ran out to see what happened, I saw him sprawled out on the sidewalk with blood pouring down his face. Since there were two small steps leading into the flat, he fell quite a distance. I got him off the ground and into the bathroom trying to stop the bleeding. Luckily, we already had a taxi coming for us and 15 minutes later we were on our way, not to the Edinburgh Castle as planned, but the Royal Infirmary A&E (accident and emergency) department. This is where we sat for the next 8 hours (think 90’s hit tv show ER) until it was our turn to see a doctor. Peter’s face bled for the first 2 of those hours. Luckily I had grabbed the roll of paper towels on our way out the door.
A very long story short, by some miracle Peter managed not to break anything even though I would have bet money his nose was broken. He’s face looks like he went 5 rounds with Rocky Balboa and he has a couple of sprained fingers on his left hand, but other than that he came through unscathed. After we saw the physician at 6:30am (we’d arrived at 7:45pm the night before), I had to leave to get back to the flat to finish packing and clean up the blood before the 8:00 taxi came to take me to get our rental car. Once the taxi came, it swung by the hospital to pick up Peter, who hadn’t yet been discharged when I left the hospital, and we headed to the airport.
Since the Royal Infirmary is a NHS (National Health Service) hospital, we saw the best and worst of socialized medicine. The wait was incredibly long in a lobby with people sitting on the floor and no fewer than 6 people in handcuffs escorted by Edinburgh’s finest (BTW, they don’t carry weapons). It was 2 hours before he was triaged and another 30 minutes after that to get a CT scan. Compare this to when he fell at Home Depot 3-4 months ago. He was in CT within 15 minutes of our arrival.
But on the flip side, all the staff were wonderful. And the most incredible part it didn’t cost us anything. Even though he had a head CT, hand XRAY and an EKG it didn’t cost us a dime.
There are private hospitals we could have gone to and it would have been a lot faster but who knows how much that would have cost. Of course, we have travel insurance that would have covered it, but I don’t even want to think about the hoops we would have had to jump through to get that settled, especially since we’re traveling for another 3 months.
Once the drama was over, it sunk in as to how very bad this could have been. From the height he fell and the way he landed on his face, the outcome could have been disastrous. He certainly dodged a bullet…again.
It was a very long night with no sleep for either one of us, but once we got our car we were in St. Andrews in a little over an hour. We stopped for a delicious breakfast in a café just out of town, then headed into town to find Peter a new pair of pants. His were covered in blood so there was no way he could continue to wear them.
After a successful shopping trip, we went to the St. Andrews Links Clubhouse to get tickets for the 2pm walking tour of the Old Course. The Old Course at St. Andrews Links is the most famous course in the world and recently hosted the 2022 British Open won by Aussie Cameron Smith.
As you can see from the sign, there are 7 courses at St. Andrews. You don’t see the Castle Course on the map because it’s a couple of miles out of town.
Alex was our tour guide and told some great stories about the course. We covered 3 holes (1, 17, 18). The beginning of the 1st hole (tee box) is adjacent to the end (green) of the 18th hole so it was easy to get from one to the next.
Peter only made it about halfway through the tour. He was understandably very tired and was having trouble walking so he found a bench at the 18th green and waited for us to finish the tour.
In the middle of the 18th hole is the famous stone bridge. It’s official name is Swilcan Bridge called that because it spans the Swilcan Burn (small waterway). Everyone stops playing to take their picture on that bridge. When no golfers are teeing off, tourists take their picture on that bridge. It’s also a popular spots for bridal party pictures.
Here’s a video I found of Tiger Woods, one of the best golfers ever, taking what is probably his last walk across this bridge as a competitor. This was just this July at the British Open and it was his last hole of that tournament.
The 17th hole at the Old Course (also called the Road Hole because of the road that runs along its side) is considered to be one of the hardest holes in golf. The way the pros play the hole is to take the most direct route from the tee box to the green but it’s a blind shot because of the wall of the hotel. That’s the way the pros play the hole. We mere mortals would follow the fairway instead of trying to hit the monster shot past the hotel.
It also has a wicked bunker. At its tallest, the wall is about 6 feet and bunker isn’t very wide which makes getting out very difficult. Its nickname is the The Sands of Nakajima for Japan’s Tommy Nakajima who was tied for the lead in the final round of the 1997 Open before running into the bunker. He ended up with a quintuple bogey (5 over par which unheard of for a pro; even I don’t usually have that bad of a hole) and lost the championship.
Here’s an interesting 5-minute video I found about this hole. If you’re not that into golf feel free to skip it. Actually since the rest of this post is all about golf, you might want to stop reading all together. But if you do, you’ll miss the story of my greatest shot ever.
After the tour, I picked up Peter and we headed for our new flat. It’s a pretty little 2-bedroom bungalow with a nice backyard. After dinner of delicious tomato basil soup we brought home from the café where we had lunch, we headed back to St. Andrews for my lesson with the pro, Mike. It was wonderful and I learned a lot. Whether or not I’ll be able to incorporate any of it into my swing is an entirely different matter.
It should come as no surprise that we had an early night as by 9pm we’d been awake for almost 40 hours.
Today (it’s Sunday) we played the Strathyrum Course, which is a par 69 course intended for the non-expert golfer (that’s us). For the non-golfers that means that in order to “play par”, a golfer will take only 69 shots (including putts) to get the ball in the hole for the entire 18 holes. Our course at home is a par 72 and my best ever round was 82, which is 10 over par.
It was a chilly, damp, cloudy morning but we still had a great time. Peter didn’t think he’d be able to play because of his swollen left hand so we only took one set of clubs. But it turns out he had no trouble swinging the club so he played all the shots.
Here’s Peter’s first tee shot.
And here’s mine. It was my best drive of the day…169 yards. My longest drive ever is 178 yards. My average drive is probably about 135.
To speed up the game, we played best ball which means we both played from the shot that went the farthest. We played my ball on this one but Peter had a very nice round so we played plenty of his balls as well.
I had my best shot ever today. It was on the 7th hole and we were about 89 yards from the pin. I used my 8 iron and hit a very nice shot which landed on the green and continued to role until it dropped INTO THE HOLE for a birdie (one under par; we shot a 3 when par is 4). Of course I gave a big shout and threw my hands into the air. The pair in front of us, with whom we’d been chatting, asked if I dropped it in. When I said yes, the woman came over and handed me a ball on which she’d written “chipped in at 7 on Strathtyrum; 28 Aug 22.” She wrote it on a ball from her home club here in St. Andrews. It was such a nice gesture and it will be one of my most prized treasures. When we get home it’s going into my golf ball display box.
We finished our round with an 81, only 12 over par which is great. Neither one of us on our own would have had the good of a score but playing best ball combines the best shots of both players. We had an incredible time and are so glad we were able to play.
After turning in the cart and clubs, we had a very nice lunch at the Eden Clubhouse. The Eden Course is one of the par 72 expert courses, and is adjacent to our course. Lunch was delicious (mac and cheese for me; burger for Peter) and was a great way to cap off a very special round of golf.
After stopping at the Old Course Store for some essential (and very expensive) souvenirs, we headed home. It will probably be another early night as it will take another good night’s sleep to catch up with what we lost Friday night.
Tomorrow we’re going to do a little sightseeing in the town of St. Andrews. It’s supposed to be another cool, cloudy day but as long as it doesn’t rain we’re good. Thanks for following our adventures. Talk soon.
