It's not all plain sailing. Sometimes you visit a course, just the once, and the weather is foul. These pictures of Elie in Fife are all that survive from a miserable wet day in August 1993. It was a privilege to play the course on which James Braid grew up and learned his skill - he made the most recent course alterations in 1921 - but wet grips, soaking clothes and frequent face-fulls of hail are nothing as compared with a shaking hand on the shutter, driving rain in all the electronic parts and nowhere dry in which to store the camera when not in use are hardly conducive to great photos. They reflect the reality of it, though. 6200+yards par 70, only two par 3s and no par 5s.
3rd green with clubhouse in background. Note ex-RN submarine periscope through which starter views 1st fairway to see if it is safe for players to drive. 3rd is ca 215 yards, par 3, long, into the wind but rather featureless.
4th fairway, heaving about in a strange no-man's land between two roads, a patch of ground shared with the 17th. Miserable light despite being high summer. 380 yards or so, par 4.
5th green. It's actually fairly undramatic ground, yet there's a challenge we all recognise. Unfortunately, we also recognise the oil rigs littering the Firth of Forth beyond. 365 yards par 4.
16th green. Weather ghastly down the coastal stretch (especially 11-13) so no photos. At 410 yards, 16th is one of 6 par 4s in excess of 400 yards, and rather awkward as it seemed to be downwind yet played to something more akin to 510 yards. I think I ran up a 7 without hitting a really awful shot.
17th tee. It all looks so easy now. The wind has died, the rain has stopped and a wee dram awaits in the clubhouse. At 439 yards the 17th is not too dreadful a length. True, the wind is straight behind, but the saturated fairways give no roll and a cold and damp golfer does not turn the shoulders fully. An 8 was too much to bear! A 6 on the last ensured a score into 3 figures. Miserable photos of a miserable round - but there's no merit in over-glamourising things.