Deano
Member
As some of you may have seen in the competition winners thread, I was lucky enough to win an all expenses paid trip to play the Old Course at St Andrews.
The trip was part of an annual tournament Allianz hold for their employees, clients and customers. BMW are a sponsor of Allianz and it was via a facebook competition, hosted by BMW, that I won my spot.
As mentioned, all expenses were covered; flights, transfers, two night stay at the Old Course Hotel, lunch both days, dinner both days, drinks, one round on the Old Course and a caddy.
Flying into Edinburgh I was greeted by a lovely lady who would be my chauffeur from the airport to the hotel and here was me arriving at the hotel, next to my ride:
Checked into my room to find a bag full of swag: hat, towel, balls, a few money off vouchers and a duffle bag:
Here was my itinerary for the trip:
Activities on the first day included one-on-one lessons, group lessons, a chat with a top psychologist and the opportunity to test drive the BMW i8 and M5:
Naturally I took the opportunity to do all of the above and had a lot of fun!
Dinner that night was a Kingsbarns distillery, where we were also able to try out the whiskeys and gins that are brewed there:
Then onto the golf.
The forecast for the day was 25MPH winds and rain pretty much all day. I tee'd off at 10.50am and the rain was holding off, but the wind wasn't. I was grouped with 3 other golfers, one who was local to the area, a German and a Spaniard, all of whom were great company. Met my caddy and away we went.
Now, I won't talk you through each hole but I've got to give a bit of commentary on the first hole. A decent drive, slightly left of centre left me with 80 yards to carry The Burn and with the wind going right to left and almost towards me, my caddy and I decided to hit an easy PW. I hit the shot perfectly, and it landed 7-8 feet from the pin.
Nerves were jangling at the thought of what could be but I used my routine to settle into my putt and buried it right into the hole. A birdie on the 1st at St Andrews, I was ecstatic. My caddy and I joked that, that was that and we should both just head to the bar.
The wind was really getting worse as the day went on and it was very, very cold - but I was determined to enjoy the day and the weather was just a part of the whole experience. I had a few bad holes but rallied well and rattled off 4 pars in a row, should have had 5 but for a sneaky little putt.
The tee shot on the Road Hole (17th) I absolutely nailed, I don't think I could have hit it any more perfectly. Messed up the second shot and ended with a double bogey 6.
The rain had been on and off all day but for holes 16,17 and 18 it really turned bad, playing up 18 the wind and rain were right into our faces. I finished with a solid bogey and got the all important shot:
Finishing my round, I just took everything in and tried to soak it all up.
My handicap is 14 and I knew I'd been scoring well, as they were using VPAR to keep live scoring from each group and as I was in charge of ours I knew I was in a strong position, the last groups were out a whole two hours after us and the weather just kept on getting worse making scoring much harder.
Here's my scorecard:
Had the most delightful lunch after and headed to the hotel's spa, sauna and steam rooms to try to warm up before dinner, which was being held in the Links Clubhouse.
And so, the final leaderboard looked like this and out of 63 people I finished 2nd!
I was genuinely shocked! Coming into the event I had been playing well and hoped I could replicate my form, but my main priority was to simply enjoy myself. Mission accomplished. But considering the conditions, the location, everything that had happened, I was absolutely over the moon and even picked up a nice little trophy:
It was the trip of a lifetime, a once in a lifetime opportunity and one I will never, ever forget.
The trip was part of an annual tournament Allianz hold for their employees, clients and customers. BMW are a sponsor of Allianz and it was via a facebook competition, hosted by BMW, that I won my spot.
As mentioned, all expenses were covered; flights, transfers, two night stay at the Old Course Hotel, lunch both days, dinner both days, drinks, one round on the Old Course and a caddy.
Flying into Edinburgh I was greeted by a lovely lady who would be my chauffeur from the airport to the hotel and here was me arriving at the hotel, next to my ride:
Checked into my room to find a bag full of swag: hat, towel, balls, a few money off vouchers and a duffle bag:
Here was my itinerary for the trip:
Activities on the first day included one-on-one lessons, group lessons, a chat with a top psychologist and the opportunity to test drive the BMW i8 and M5:
Naturally I took the opportunity to do all of the above and had a lot of fun!
Dinner that night was a Kingsbarns distillery, where we were also able to try out the whiskeys and gins that are brewed there:
Then onto the golf.
The forecast for the day was 25MPH winds and rain pretty much all day. I tee'd off at 10.50am and the rain was holding off, but the wind wasn't. I was grouped with 3 other golfers, one who was local to the area, a German and a Spaniard, all of whom were great company. Met my caddy and away we went.
Now, I won't talk you through each hole but I've got to give a bit of commentary on the first hole. A decent drive, slightly left of centre left me with 80 yards to carry The Burn and with the wind going right to left and almost towards me, my caddy and I decided to hit an easy PW. I hit the shot perfectly, and it landed 7-8 feet from the pin.
Nerves were jangling at the thought of what could be but I used my routine to settle into my putt and buried it right into the hole. A birdie on the 1st at St Andrews, I was ecstatic. My caddy and I joked that, that was that and we should both just head to the bar.
The wind was really getting worse as the day went on and it was very, very cold - but I was determined to enjoy the day and the weather was just a part of the whole experience. I had a few bad holes but rallied well and rattled off 4 pars in a row, should have had 5 but for a sneaky little putt.
The tee shot on the Road Hole (17th) I absolutely nailed, I don't think I could have hit it any more perfectly. Messed up the second shot and ended with a double bogey 6.
The rain had been on and off all day but for holes 16,17 and 18 it really turned bad, playing up 18 the wind and rain were right into our faces. I finished with a solid bogey and got the all important shot:
Finishing my round, I just took everything in and tried to soak it all up.
My handicap is 14 and I knew I'd been scoring well, as they were using VPAR to keep live scoring from each group and as I was in charge of ours I knew I was in a strong position, the last groups were out a whole two hours after us and the weather just kept on getting worse making scoring much harder.
Here's my scorecard:
Had the most delightful lunch after and headed to the hotel's spa, sauna and steam rooms to try to warm up before dinner, which was being held in the Links Clubhouse.
And so, the final leaderboard looked like this and out of 63 people I finished 2nd!
I was genuinely shocked! Coming into the event I had been playing well and hoped I could replicate my form, but my main priority was to simply enjoy myself. Mission accomplished. But considering the conditions, the location, everything that had happened, I was absolutely over the moon and even picked up a nice little trophy:
It was the trip of a lifetime, a once in a lifetime opportunity and one I will never, ever forget.
