A dark and stormy day

It's not easy being a golf blogger right now; the skies are grey and the courses are boggy or closed, and try as I might I can't get excited by who said what in the Monty/Nick saga. There may be events taking place in glorious sun on the other side of the world, but frankly, am I bovvered?

But here's a story to gladden any winter golfer's heart.

Last week , four doughty Golf Monthly Forum members took on four GM staff in what turned out to be an epic encounter on a windswept (and apparently deserted) Jubilee Course at St. Andrews. Now that's what I call golf!

Reports suggest it was a great match generously sprinkled with birdies, and the result was a fair but memorable draw. Since the staff team had some inmpressively low handicaps, I think that's a moral victory to the forum lads, who may have been a bit more acclimatised to East Coast conditions, but could you play like this in front of an official photographer?

Please note these pictures belong to Golf Monthly and should not be reproduced, transmitted etc etc ... you know the score (i.e. hands off, you blagging bloggers!)

The full match report will be in April's Golf Monthly (next but one issue, which just happens to be the one where a certain blogger is also appearing in print!) and I'm ordering my copy now, but meanwhile a big thank you to Mike Harris the editor for letting me give you a sneak preview here.

Well done, boys, and roll on the next event on the GM challenge tour!

Hugh Grant - where have I been?

It's no good, I must keep up with society gossip. As it is I nearly missed the furore (or stushie as they say in Scotland) over Hugh Grant. Just when I was discussing the elegance of his swing on Golf Monthly Forum, he was living it up in St. Andrews with a bunch of students half his age which resulted, surprise surprise, in his being 'outed' on Facebook.

Still, while this kind of behaviour might explain why Shuggie (as Principal's Nose likes to call him) doesn't seem to hang on to any of his up-market girl friends for long, I hardly think it's a scandal. And who would blame the students for landing a bit of a coup? I imagine it's the most exciting thing to have happened there since Wills and Kate moved on. Of course in my day it was never like this. The biggest excitement I recall from my student days was the chip shop on South Street burning down. Those were the days!

Anyway, I am indebted to golf girl for bringing this to my attention all the way from New England and directing me to more pics in the Daily Mail.
And where was I when all this was going on? (On the golf course, actually.)

St. Andrews - where I used to live

I’m ashamed to say I’m not too well up on the women’s tour, partly because there isn’t much T.V. coverage in this country. But this week it’s different. The girls are on show at St. Andrews in the Women’s British Open. St. Andrews is dear to my heart because I lived there for four years as a student, and even though I wasn’t playing or following golf it was a great time in my life and there’s nothing MOH and I like to do better than watch them play up the eighteenth, towards that ugly red hotel, formerly the student residence where I used to live!
Last year we went back on a sentimental journey and had our photo taken on the Swilken Bridge. Sadly I can’t find that picture, but there are lots of great views on the St. Andrews Links Trust site. Here’s another from flickr with my old room marked. What you might call a room with a view!

Photo by Herman on flickr