Bud Nameck takes whirlwind golf vacation to Scotland with 11 rounds in seven days

In addition to being an avid golfer, Bud Nameck is the host of the Morning News on FM Newsradio 100.7 KXLY 920, and does the radio play-by-play for Whitworth Pirates football and basketball.

If you are a Mariners fan, you can go to a game at Safeco Field, but take batting practice there? Forget it! Still a tennis player? I doubt you will ever hit balls on centre court at Wimbledon.

That’s what I love about golf. You can play courses that host U.S. Opens or “The Open” that is going on right now. I can watch next year’s Open at Carnoustie and see the best players in the world play the holes I just did.

My wife calls it my bucket list trip, and you know, she’s right! I just returned from a 10-day trip to Scotland with my friend Pete Forsyth. Two full days of travel with eight days of golf in between.

I played 11 rounds in seven days on 10 different courses. It would have been more but we were rained out one day. One group of guys did play that day, and the caddies said “#*&$ Americans, they think they see this on the British Open and they have to play. They wouldn’t play the Bristish Open in this weather!”

The highlight was getting to play the Old Course at St. Andrews. After playing the Championship and Burnside courses at Carnoustie, we drove an hour back to the hotel. I got into bed at 8:45 to get up at midnight on July 4th to stand in line to play the Old Course. If this was my only trip to Scotland, I was not going to miss the Old Course.

I was first in line of what turned out to be a United Nations party waiting for tee times. The starter opened his door at 6 a.m., and I chose to join a threesome at 6:30. It drizzled the entire round, and poured for about four holes as we finished. My caddie said, ‘This isn’t rain, Bud, this is Scotttish mist!’

I hit the ball pretty well and shot an 83 in the wind and rain, despite making an eight on No. 15 thanks to a big, deep bunker, and a seven on the road hole when the wind took my drive and sent it onto the roof of the Old Course Hotel.

My caddie said it would take two good shots to the green on No. 18 due to the wind and rain. I hit a Scottish line drive off the tee, then the caddie took my picture on the Swilcan Bridge. I hit a nice iron that the wind pushed about 25 feet right of the pin. The green slopes back towards the “Valley of Sin” in front, making my putt a big breaker to the left. I got lucky, hit it high enough with the right speed for a thrill of a lifetime birdie!

We bought a pass that allowed us to play the other six St. Andrews Courses, as much golf as you are able to play in three days. I treasured my 36-hole day on the “New” Course. We also played Elie, where they started golfing in 1589. You look through a submarine periscope to see if the first fairway over the hill is clear.

The Balcomie Links at Crail is another ancient, fun, seaside links course. There’s a cave on the course where a Scottish king lost a battle to the Vikings in 874.

Seeing the ancient buildings and architecture was amazing. Our first two nights we stayed in a bed and breakfast called the Crail Golf Hotel, where the Crail Golfing Society (seventh oldest in the world) was formed in the 1580s. Lunch and a Scottish Ale at the Dunvegan with all of its Old Course history, and the Jigger Inn, just over the fence from the Road Hole need to be on your list. If you have some extra cash available, you can purchase a £5,000 (about $6,500) bottle of scotch at the Road Hole bar in the Old Course Hotel.

I highly recommend the Scottish Golf Diet: Carry your bag, walk 11 rounds in seven days and lose five pounds, even while enjoying a Scottish Ale after each round!