Heaven On Earth

Things didn’t start particularly well for my team in the annual playing of the Madill Trophy on the sublime links at Muirfield last Sunday.  I know the captain of the club deserves to be accorded the odd privilege but I didn’t expect my team to extend that to allowing Gareth Baird, the current incumbent, to stroll to the 2nd and tee off one hole to the good, not having hit a single solitary stroke on the opening hole.

Yes, you’ve guessed it – one of our number played a wrong ball and if you haven’t quite worked it all out, the matches in question are foursomes, the staple diet of our hosts, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (HCEG).

it is an unbelievable thirty years since the first playing of this match and if I were the winning captain and still in possession of the trophy I would be able to tell you how many times “The Lads” have won and how many times “The Lasses” has been inscribed on said cup – but, I’m not, so I can’t.

Muirfield’s golf course is in such good condition it could host any tournament at the drop of a hat.

Our opponents drafted in a couple of newbies to bolster their team this year.  The net was cast wide to pull in a transatlantic addition of note, Jack Bonner, while the other rookie was the slightly more local, Colin “did I mention I was the Recorder of the club?” Dempster.  I’m sorry to say it turned out to be a bit of a masterstroke by team captain Stuart McEwen, the secretary of the HCEG.  Added to that formidable mix was the combined experience of  Michael Beamish, Tom Walker, (my host), Andy Irvine and next year’s captain Mark MacLean, which meant we found ourselves on the wrong end of a 5-3 scoreline.

Contributing two points to our total, Catriona Matthew may just merit another invitation next year.

We are no strangers to losing, of course, but it’s the first time I’ve ever witnessed one of our opponents check his yardage, come up with a number of 138 to the centre and then select his putter and calmly proceed to hop, skip and jump the ball to 35 feet.  I remember both Tiger and Mickelson using their putters from the fairway in an Open or two – but that was from 50 yards tops.

Stuart McEwen emulating Tiger by wearing red on Sunday and putting from miles off the putting surface.

Apparently, this is a speciality of Stuart, the secy, but it was to no avail on this occasion as our opponents required three further stabs with the flat stick and the hole was halved in fives.  As my Dad used to tell me,  “every shot is a joy to someone”.

Gill Stewart, one of the stalwarts of this match,  just adores this part of her native country and we invariably spend time having a wee look in various estate agents’ windows.  She calls this corner of the world “Planet Golf” and it’s difficult to argue with her.  Mr Google informs me there are 21 courses in the area, all within 30 minutes of each other – a veritable golfing and dog-walking paradise.

And I DO believe the locals when they tell me how dry it is.  In the 26 or so iterations of our match (we lost a couple of years because of snow and a couple to Covid), we have had at least twenty occasions when the sun split the sky from dawn to dusk as it did on Sunday.  There are some things that simply do your soul good – and, for me, this trip to East Lothian is one of them.

A further, slightly unexpected, treat this year was the opportunity to meet up with former Solheim Cup player and prolific tournament winner, Kitrina Douglas.  Kitrina no longer plays the grand old game but has scaled the heights of academia and this particular professor was visiting Edinburgh as an external examiner for a PhD student.

Rolling back the years with Gill Stewart and the Prof – Kitrina Douglas.

We had had a very brief encounter at Sunningdale last September at the Curtis Cup so it was lovely to reconnect over a more leisurely dinner and sweep the years away.

Finishing off this spring visit to Gullane was the opportunity to have a Nordic Walking lesson from one of my team, Pat Smillie, who had a Nordic Walking company for five or six years after she retired.  She put Gill and me through our paces up and down Gullane beach – and I have to say it was enlightening and exhilarating in equal measure – and if done correctly it does wonders for your posture!

Trust me, it’s much more energetic than it looks!

In the middle of all this indulgence, and up at the pointy end of the game where folk can REALLY play, I was gratified to see Viktor Hovland back in the winner’s circle after a lean eighteen months or so.  Mind you, according to him, his game is still “off” and not near where he wishes it to be.  Be that as it may, he was still thrilled to win the Valspar Championship, his seventh PGA Tour title, even without his best stuff.

After a phenomenal season in 2023 Viktor embarked on a few changes which took him down rabbit holes from which he couldn’t find his way out.  It seems to happen all the time to golfers and, sadly, some never do find their way back to what made them good in the first place.  Striving for perfection can be quite poisonous.

Earlier I mentioned last year’s Curtis Cup and one of the victorious members of that home side, so brilliantly captained by Catriona Matthew, recorded her first professional win on the Ladies’ European Tour (LET).  Huge congratulations to 23-year old Mimi Rhodes who, with her younger sister Patience, played such a pivotal role in that epic win.  Competing in only her fourth tournament as a full member of the LET, Mimi protected her slender one-shot lead by going bogey free in the final round, eventually winning The Ford Women’s New South Wales Open by two shots.

Sandwiched between the Rhodes sisters at the Curtis Cup. Mimi, the latest LET winner is on the left, Patience on the right.

That’s what you call a dream start for the Englishwoman and it was a lovely finale to a dream few days for me on Planet Golf.