Dumfries 2002

 

The 2002 holiday took us back to Scotland. This time the venue was Dumfries in the south-west of Scotland. Once again we were not having a full week but four days (Wed-Sat). The weather was mainly fine if recollection serves me well!

An excellent turnout saw pretty much the full squad of; Keith, Fritz, Tony, Gavin, Andy, Dave, Steve, Stef, Keith Millar and this year the welcome return of Albert and Colin. Colin used his Presidents Privilege and brought along Kimie (the only woman ever to have been on a golf holiday (twice!). The only people missing were Davie, who had sprained his ankle and was bedridden in Singapore and Alan who was stuck in Cheltenham entertaining his mum and her toy boy!

After roughing it last year we went up-market this year and stayed in the Cairndale Hotel (possibly Dumfries's finest). The facilities were excellent but I have to say that the weight room was not used very much!

Our first game of golf was on the Wednesday afternoon afternoon at the Pines Golf Club. A cheap and cheerful little course - just the job to get things going!

Thursdays games were at Dumfries and Galloway GC which is a lovely course - once we found it!

Friday saw us at Dumfries and County playing for the famous 'Room Trophy'. As usual this was an extremely hard fought competition with only a couple of points separating all of the teams. For the fourth year running Gavin scooped the weeks major prize. This time partenered by Steve. It was unanimously decided that Gavin would not win anything next year!

On Saturday we played Lochmaben GC - although the Liverpool dynamic duo of Dave and Keith Miller almost didn't get out of the hotel car park. This was another lovely course and our numbers were reinforced with the arrival of Ket from Newcastle. Ket was unfortunately paired with Keith, Dave and Stef. Stef managed to play the wrong ball for his second shot on the first hole - the chap who's ball Stef had played was subsequently disqualified from the club competition! Good start for Stef! The highlight of this round was on the eighteenth green - Dave A had a 10 foot putt for a birdy (now that doesn't happen to often)! However, I had raced ahead to the green and swapped his ball with a trick ball that was weighted on one side. Dave's expression as he hit his put and watched it shoot off at 90 degrees was a sight to behold!

The 'still standing' trophy was won Andy - of all people! He is in the process of changing his swing (although the rest of the society would be happy with his old one!) He was instructed to go back to his pro and ask for a refund!

The social side of things was excellent. We had a few pints in Robert Burn's old drinking den, a couple of lock-ins and a couple of curries - can't ask for more than that! Saturday night saw the trophy presentations - almost a clean sweep for Gavin - including this years Moaning Bastard Award!. While there was some valiant attempts to wrest this key award away from Gavin, none could match the depth and range of Gavin's moans - Well Done Gavin.

And then it was Sunday and time to go home. I think everyone enjoyed themselves - everyone said they would come back next year. Several proposals were made for the 2002 venue. But as usual Keith will just book wherever he fancies!

KD