So close....

I forgot to mention yesterday that while in Troon, Bill and I drove out to see Royal Troon Golf Course. On the way from there into town, I got to drive on the left side of the road (legally) and in a car with the wheel on the right side for the first time. Thought I did ok...at least the pedals and 5-speed shift was the same...that helped. I got up early this morning to head to the train station. Kind of got lost but recovered quickly. Caught the earliest train out to Gervin and found myself in Turnberry for Championship Sunday at about 9:00 or so. I went to the back nine first, and eventually settled in on a spot on a hill between the 10th (incredible hole next to the see and right beside the light house) and the 12th. I was able to watch approach shots from both fairways and saw alot of big names pass by. Probably stood up there for an hour and a half before moving on. I saw most of the big names today that were in the tourney hit at least one shot. Watson's tee off time was around 2:20 so I went up and lined the fairway about where I'd figure he'd hit to. Then I tried to make my way up to the green as he approached. I followed him around til after the 5th hole. By then, the traffic of people was so bad that I figured I'd spent most of the time walking and I wouldn't be able to see any golf, so I decided to go find a spot where I could see the approach shots to the 18th green clearly. On numerous occasions, their tee shots were within 25 yards of where I was. If they went a bit right into the rough, I was almost in their back pocket. I would mention that the best way to watch golf is on the t.v. The cameras are everywhere and they get in the way of the spectator (as do other spectators, the t.v. people, the marshalls, volunteers, etc. etc. etc.). However, there is no replacing the electricity that was in the air when Watson was up 1 and he put his drive in the fairway on 18. People around were saying "I can't believe he might do this!" I was right behind him on his approach at 18, staring down his line of flight and it looked perfect. He just "juiced" it a little I guess. Plus, he did have a strong wind that I thought was directly behind him. Too bad what happened in the playoff to him, but I was also happy for Stuart Cink. I stuck around and was able to watch him lift the "jug" and give his acceptance speech. Then I did pretty much the only jogging I've done on this trip. Back to the bus to take it to the train station in Gervin. I did make all the connections but I didn't get back to Glasgow til past 10 pm and then I had about a 40-45 minute walk to the hostel. I hate walking that late at night in unfamilar surroundings. Fortunately, that's the last time I'll have to do that. I've found the "Scots" to be wonderful people (but of course!!!!) and it is so nice that English is the language again. To quote Steve Martin, "it's like those French people have a different word for everything!!!!" and that does add a significant degree of difficulty to things when you are travelling. I'll move on tomorrow morning from Glasgow. Hard to believe I've only got 3 more nights left in Europe. Time to get.

SNorris
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