For simplicity's sake, the fifth oldest place was marked with the year of the first mention of it to be found, so I adapt to the idea of simplicity. My opinion on the age of golf courses differs fundamentally from Barney Stinson's opinion on everything ("New is always better!"). But is old always better?
I started the day quite relaxed and first did the long overdue laundry and during the waiting period I read in the political bestseller of the season. Fear by Bob Woodrow. After initial fascination - you know the effect which makes it difficult to keep one's eyes away from accidents on the other side of the motorway - I have now re-sorted it further down on my list of readings to be finalised. Trump is just a choleric egomaniac and not very interested in the world. The latter is certainly a surprising quality for the elected head of one of the most important countries on earth, but overall the surprise is not that huge, as this is exactly what is made clear in any article about this absurdity in the Oval Office. The former is more likely to be a typical, perhaps even necessary trait. I cannot judge whether it is really surprising that his colleagues prevent him from signing critical letters. I think it's quite conceivable that such a thing could happen to any top politician, because the permanent 24-hour presence would probably place insurmountable concentration hurdles on most people. All in all, the book is probably a journalistically clean and professional documentation of the current situation in the White House. But the fact that this man could even be elected to this position in a democratic country, I still find much more astonishing than all the nonsense that has been pouring out of this office day after day ever since.
But once again I am losing myself in my natural habitat, on the great stage of world politics, side by side with the powerful of our time. Back to the adventurous wonderland of the campsite in Montrose.
Once again the wind has a word to whisper and the night was quite restless. Little had changed in the course of the morning, but my tent remained brave in resistance. I had cancelled the breakfast or to be precise: postponed it so far that it was now lunchtime. Food was urgently needed and I found it: In Australia. Of course in an Australian restaurant in the middle of the golf club delta in Montrose, because the 36 holes of the course are used by three different clubs: The Royal Montrose GC, Montrose Caledonia GC and the Montrose Mercantile GC. Since I didn't want to prefer any of the clubs, because that would have only resulted in arguments, I decided on Roo's Leap. The burger... oh, what else can you write about burgers? Just a burger. But how yummie was the calorie-conscious dessert: Sticky Toffee Pudding. This is a dessert classic and consists of a very juicy cake with warm caramel sauce. With my trained gourmet palate I have always thought this cake to be a more or less normal chocolate cake, but I have just learned that it is actually a cake of dates. Well, at any rate I can warmly recommend this dessert to any friend of fat and sugar.
But then I finally went to the course. It was empty as so often and the largely uninvolved gentleman in the Pro-Shop said that the weather would probably stop most of the playing. I didn't think it was that bad, but it was all right with me. The route is quite varied and leads through the historic golfing grounds. First one plays the starting hole up a small hill towards the sea, which then on the second course shows up wonderfully to the right, memories of Machrihanish are awakened, only mirrored.
Two further holes followed this direction, which were played today with the strong wind from the back-left. This was quite compatible with my game and the golf spirits woke up again. Was there a reconciliation? Also, when the direction of play changed every few holes, it didn't stop the fun, because this is really a very entertaining course. From 250 meters par 4 with an exciting and hard to see bunker situation over various elevated greens with quite punishing slopes, varied par 3 with a length of just over 100 to just under 200 meters: Here you can really allow room for creativity.
The view to the opposite side of the course was slightly distracting, as there was a quite unattractive factory. But then again this wasn't all that bad.
A good round despite challenging conditions - the two best examples were the 210 meter 5 iron in one direction and the already mentioned long par 3 on which I took the driver and then had a 60 meter pitch to the flag: Had he breathed new life into our relationship, the wind? Well, not quite yet. But I definitely had a fun afternoon.
I spent the evening in a remarkably huge sports bar with Guinness and cheese macaroni. At Sky's expense, I even enjoyed a free beer, as Scotland beat Albania 2-0.
And the cycgo results 12 out of 259: 15, 62, 24, 36, 250, 4, 3, 100, 200, 210, 5, 60 and bonus number 2. Super number is 0.
PS: Old is not always better, but at least sometimes really good. Most of the time. In Montrose in any case.