A Change of Plan

When I started this blog, I'd imagined that I'd go round the remaining courses in Scotland alone or with Polly, my wife. However, when I told a few friends and work colleagues what I was intending to do after I retired in a few weeks' time (hooray!), one came forward to say that he and his friend were doing exactly the same, but for a Cancer Research charity. We quickly saw the advantages in teaming up our efforts and to use our various friends to obtain access to individual courses when necessary and more generally, save on travelling expenses. Accordingly, look out for references to Craig Watson and Stu Fleming, both of whom are members at Swanston New GC, in Edinburgh. Although I'm still intending to play all of the courses that I've not yet played, Craig and Stu have started from scratch and intend to play every course in Scotland, keeping photos and score cards as evidence of their progress, with postings on their own website.

We know that Ernie Payne has already done 611 courses, basing his own definition of a golf course as a course with at least 9 holes, of which 2 or more must be par 4s and including courses on private estaes that are not normally open to the public. We intend to try to play any course that has its own score card, irrespective of the minimum number of holes, so we'll be trying to play all of the pitch and putt courses we can find as well as private courses and those with less than 9 holes.

We expect that one of the challenges will be to identify all of the courses and where they are in private hands to persaude the owners to let us play them. However, that is the challenge and we are determined to do our best to achieve our goals. Craig and Stu are also developing their own website where donations to help cancer research can be made. This blog will in due course connect to that site and highlight my own progress round those courses I've not yet played.