Scott,
Okay, I'll try and go easy on you...
1. Firstly, as Tony Muldoon points out, it seems congratulations are in order? Is there a story worth telling? How big a factor was her acceptance of your constant golfing that made you pop the question, as it certainly helped in my case? 
Yes indeed, I got engaged last Wednesday night! The story is not that exciting, the question was popped at home after we'd just polished off some Indian takeaway (anyone in south London, try Holy Cow - great food! Tandoori Mixed Grill and Mirg Marsala, you can't go wrong). It might seem strange, but those who know me/us will realise it's the perfect place.
In my fiancee Kerry's case, it is much more than a mere "acceptance" of the golf. When we were planning to spend Easter in Bruges this year, it was her who asked if there were any good golf courses nearby for me to play and she was also the one that ensured I played TOC.
Some plans an R&A member aquaintance had made for me fell through the afternoon before I was to play TOC, and I headed back to Edinburgh from North Berwick to join Kerry and her folks in a pretty despondent mood. I knew lining up as a single could be a time-consuming thing, and with only four days "oop norf", I didn't want to force us to waste a whole day in St Andrews. So I basically said "forget TOC, I don't want to waste everyone's day". Anyway, she gave me a pretty stirring pep talk, told me to leave her folks to her and said we had to go and try our luck at TOC. So we got up the next morning and drive to Fife and lo and behold, I was on the tee 30 mins after we parked the car.
She was there with a smile bigger than mine, snapping pics as I teed off and cheered like it was a putt to win the Open when I holed a 10ft putt on 18.
It was one of the best days of golf I've ever had, and were it not for her it would never have happened.
She really is the most amazing, generous and understanding person I have ever met and treats the things that are important to me as though they are equally important to her. In short, I have been absolutely blessed!
2. I seem to recall you mentioning that you saw a picture of Burnham and Berrow in a magazine article and this was one of the things that inspired you to come to the UK to play golf? If I'm not imagining things, then please tell this again, along with giving other reasons for why you decided to come over here for a couple of years?
Kerry and I travelled through Europe for eight weeks in 2006 and loved every minute. We decided on the long flight home that we really wanted to live in the UK one day, so we could sample even more of the UK and Europe.
We started planning another trip in early 2007, and after a few weeks we realised we just couldn't fit all the things we wanted to see into an eight-week itinerary, so we just though "Bugger it. We want to live there one day, why not now while we are young and have no mortage or kids to stop us?"
That day I went to the paper shop to buy a UK golf magazine. I forget if it was Golf World or Golf International, but it had a series at that point with Ronan Rafferty talking about the "hidden gem" links of GB&I. That month's course was Burnham & Berrow (I still have the magazine article in a folder at home) and I just got so pumped sitting there in our flat in Penrith looking at this double-page-spread picture of this wild, foreign golf course, so B&B became a poster child for this great adventure I was going on.
3. What is the Australian system like for golf courses and visitors, especially with regards to your top courses like Royal Melbourne, NSW, etc? Is it like here where you can pretty much play anywhere, or is it more like the American system where you need to be a guest of a member?
For international and interstate visitors, the only courses I know of that are inaccessible in the UK style are Ellerstone (private estate of the country's wealthiest family, the Packers) and Capital in Melbourne. But if you live in Melbourne, it's my understanding that accessing some of the top clubs down there is more akin to the US system. Not being from Victoria, I am far from an expert on this, so any of the other Aussie posters can feel free to jump in and elaborate on this.
NSWGC is available a couple of days a week to golfers who are a member of another club, and for AU$170 or so is pretty good value. My dad and I share the same birth date, so each year for our birthday we shout each other a game of golf at NSW! I'm hoping to join when I get home so I can do all the shouting from then on.
4. Are you joining us for Buda 2010? And I'll avoid making any Australian / Welsh / Sheep jokes...
I really want to, but some things are up in the air re: our departure date from the UK. I'm 90% sure I will be there. Save the sheep jokes, that is New Zealanders!
I just went to Wales for the first time this weekend, and have to say - at the risk of causing offence - I have never seen a greater concentration of ugly women in all my life than I did in Cardiff. If the men are up in the paddocks rogering sheep, I can't say I would blame them!
5. As a member at RCP, what are your favourite 3 holes?
In no order:
The 3rd - built on amazing land, with one of the coolest greens I have ever seen, options aplenty on every shot and without an easy two-putt from greater than 20ft.
The 6th - Again, lots of options on every shot - attack the green or choose a lay-up spot, great natural undulations and a unique green. Just like the 3rd, you look at the length on the card, look at the par and decide it must be a good birdie chance, then play the hole and realise par is a really, really good score.
The 16th - Another hole that is "too short" for its par in many people's eyes, but whether the wind has it playing as a two-shotter or a three-shotter, the approach is one of the most fun shots in golf, with so many ways to get the ball where you want it - using sky, land or both - and the intreguing green complex is endlessly enjoyable/frustrating.
Those three holes are a combined 1240 yards, with a par of 14, and if you can find me a golfer capable of playing them under his handicap more often than not I would be shocked. They are all just so unique and perfect for the land they are on.
6. On a similar theme, if you were Gordon Irvine, what hole would you like to change at RCP and why?
Gordon is the consultant greenkeeper. I wouldn't claim to know enough abou the dark arts to suggest anything to him! But to our consultant architect Martin Ebert, I guess I would have a few suggestions!
1. The 9th needs attention. As it stands, you can take the risk of driving over a cavernous fairway bunker and then have a second over two more traps, or drive safely to the right without risk and have the A1 approach in. The risk and thrill of the drive is too good to lose, so I'd be looking at re-bunkering the green to encourage more people to take it on.
2. The 10th is a great short par 4 where you are tempted to take the short line down the left, which brings in the angled green with a steep drop, rather than the longer, tougher route down the heavily-bunkered right that gives you a choice angle in, but by removing the LHS fairway trap, more people would be suckered into going down the left to be faced with one of the toughest 100m shots in golf.
3. The 13th would be improved, IMO, through the removal of the RHS one of the three cross bunkers, so the golfer who is really ballsy and flirts with the ugly RHS rough is given more of a reward.
7. Ricky Ponting or Kevin Pietersen?
I think both of them are awesome to watch and I love the killer instinct they both have, along with a complete disregard for what the opposition thinks of them. If I had to choose, I'd say Punter, though KP's Oval innings in 2005 was pretty amazing for the series situation and the fact he was so raw and had had his selection criticised. It was all there for him to fail, but he shone.
8. Aussie Rules or Soccer?
Aussie rules. The diving in soccer is ridiculous and causes me to not care about the result or respect the athletes. Was there a more farcical moment in sport in the last decade than Zidane headbutting Materazzi in the 06 world cup final?
9. Revetted Pot Bunker or Rough Edged Blowout?
To quote the great Thom Yorke: "Everything, everything, everything, in its right place..."
10. Newspaper Journalist or Golf Course Architect?
Journalist. From the thrill of chasing a story and nailing it to the satisfaction of looking at a paper/edition you've edited and seeing how well all the different elements have come together, it's endlessly rewarding.