DATES FOR WINTER TOUR 2013/14

GOLF DATES 2014/15

WINTER TOUR DATES

ALL DATES AND COURSES ARE PROVISIONAL

September 21st Elmwood GC- Summer Championship

October 12th Drumoig GC booked for 20
October 26th Falkirk Tryst booked for 24 CANCELLED -Rain
November 9th Kittocks booked for 23
November 30th Whitekirk GC
December 14th Torrance (Xmas outining) Dunvegan Hotel for dinner afterwards. booked for 24
January 25th Falkirk Tryst booked for 24 CANCELLED-RAIN
February 8th Scotscraig G C CANCELLED- FROST
February 22nd Falkirk booked for 24 CANCELLED - RAIN
March 15th Scotscraig booked for 20
March 29th Ladybank GC booked for 20 -






Sunday 27 October 2013

DRUMOIG UPDATE


Hackers Winter Tour
Rd 2
Drumoig Golf Club
November 3rd

First time 10.04am

DRAW 9.40AM 

Cost

Golf     £16.00
Buggy  £7.50
Food    £13.50

Food includes bacon roll before and a 2 course meal after.

PLAYERS ENTERED

R Chalmers
G Sinclair
N Keir
A Smart
D Drew
J Cullen
G Cullen
G Leadbitter
D Revie
M Drummond
T Nicholson
S Jessney
S Gibson
B Gibson
I Fox
S McPherson
C Weir
I Baird
B Murphy
J Nugent
P James
D Mitchell
A Alexander
G Dickie
D Graham
B Newall
R Aitken
J Wynn
S Wylie
C Graham

30 players Entered

We have 28 players in the draw. Big Davy and his son are going out in a 2 ball before we tee off. They are at a wedding on Saturday night in Fife and are going to join us up there.

As I said in Sunday nights post if you were not at St Andrews at the weekend and want to be entered for the next 2 rounds text or email me. The dates are all at the top of the site.



FINAL PHOTOS FROM FLORIDA

THE FINAL 
PHOTOS 
FROM 
FLORIDA


TAMPA TPC ALEX ON THE 1ST HITS HIS DRIVE 10 YDS NEVER EVEN MADE THE LADIES TEE
HIS FACE SAYS IT ALL



AS WE LISTEN TO THE RAIN BATTER THE WINDOWS TODAY THE PHOTOS BELOW ARE A WEE REMINDER FOR THE BOYS WHAT WE LEFT BEHIND. 

TILL NEXT YEAR ??




View from lounge balcony

Up the beach towards the $28 million dollar house

Looking over towards Clearwater in the distance

A NICE FLORIDA SUNSET FROM THE BEACH TO FINISH


FLORIDA HACKERS 2013









TAMPA TPC

TAMPA
TPC
ROUND 8













This was our final round and the greens here were the best we played on this trip. Running at over 11 on the stimp they were lightning fast. This is a course we play regular as it's a great layout and always kept in good condition.
We were all feeling it after the 36 holes at World Wood but bi Davy continued his great form and easily won the Florida Championship. He had 185 points for his best 5 scores and beat Sinky by 13 points. I finished 3rd from a tight bunch chasing me.
A fantastic weeks golf.

Rd 8

Results

Davy     36
Tommy  32
Gordon  29
Alex      29
Robert    28
George    28
Brian      25
Gerry      19

Pairs Total

Smarty and Davy      65
Sinky and Tommy    61
Robert  and Dodi      56
Brian and Gerry        44

Overall Championship 

Champion

Davy       185
Gordon   172
Robert     163
Tommy    160
Alex          158
George     157
Gerry       155
Brian        142


ROLL ON NEXT YEAR !!



SOME DRINKS AND DINNER AFER 36 HOLES


THE 2013 
FLORIDA 
CHAMPION
BIG 
VJ



Big Davy had won the Singles Championship even tho we still had a round to go

In BACKWATERS for our dinner after getting back from World Woods
with our favourite waitress Heather

SIMPLY THE BEST -WORLD WOODS


WORLD WOODS 
FLORIDA



We have been going to World Woods since about 2006 I think and for me it just doesn't get any better than a day up at World Woods. It;s about 1hr.20mins from the condo and we always make a day of it and play 36 holes on their 2 Championship courses. I usually drive up if Craig is over with us and we spend the day there also.

It is in the middle of nowhere yet people travel for miles just to play the courses. Golf Digest has Pine Barrens in 4th place for the whole of Florida and Rolling Oaks in 8th place.

How much do you think we paid to play 2 of the best courses in Florida ?

$49.00 !!!!

Yes forty nine dollars for 2 rounds incl buggies.

I got a special email a few days before and we mamaged to get our booking changed on the day to get this rate. At the height of the season (Jan - May ) it's $120 for 1 round.

That is the cheapest we have ever paid to play there.

2 years ago we play decided to play as 2 teams all seeded depending on your position in the points table.

Pairs in the morning and singles matches in the afternoon.

As usual both courses were in stunning condition and the whole day was just magic from start to finish. We got the first rain of the holiday that morning as we left and in the morning round got a few heavy showers that soaked us but we all dried out as we played. It was still 90 degrees in the rain.


A SELECTION OF BOTH COURSES







SCORE FOR THE RYDER CUP MATCH 
3-3

RESULTS

Rolling Oaks

Davy    44
Robert   39
Gerry   38
George    36
Tommy  35
Gordon   34
Alex    33
Brian   28

Sinky and Gerry beat Brian and Smarty 1 up
Robert and Dodi got  a half against Tommy and Davy
Sinkys Team leading 1.5 to 0.5

Pine Barrens

Gordon 39 
Davy 37
Robert   33
Alex   31
Gerry  31
Brian  30 
Tommy  29
George   26

Sinky beat Brian   4-3
Robert and Smarty half match
Tommy beat Dodi  3-2
Davy beat Gerry ?

Final Result 

3-3

A fantastic day once again on 2 great courses.






CRESCENT OAKS GOLF CLUB



ROUND 5
CRESCENT OAKS
FLORIDA






This was another new course for the boys and is owned by the same people who bought Wentworth. This was a good layout but wasn't in a good as condition as all the others we had played. The fairways let the course down but the greens were fine. A good layout needing a wee bit of cash spent on certain areas. I have played it a few times and this was the only time I have seen the fairways like this.

Rd 5

Results

Davy     34
George  34
Alex      32
Gordon  28
Robert   28
Brian     27
Tommy   25
Gerry      18



A DAY OFF FROM HACKING ABOUT


A WALK ALONG THE BEACH


Just 2 miles along the beach is this house that is getting built on the beach front. The build costs are $28 million with
the pool costing $500,000 alone.


The house from the beach. The plot was made up of 2 small beach houses that
got together and created 1 large plot and they both got $4 million each for their old decrepit
wooden shack.

Sand Key beach runs all the way to St Petes some 25 miles away


Miles and Miles off beach 

Stepping down onto the beach from our building
This was our rest day and the boys disappeared off up to Tampa to the International Mall for some shopping the called by The Wing House for some beers and then into Golf Smiths for some of the usual rubbish.

I decided not to go shopping and spent the afternoon on the beach waiting for them to return. Plans were made to go up to Clearwater that night.
Waiting for the bus on Clearwater Beach

Dodi and Sinky outside Clear Sky home to the best pizza on the beach


WATERLEFE LAYOUT

WATERLEFE


This the 9th a 231yd par from the back tees. Every single yard of the
hole is carry. The green is the wee surface in the distance.

We played off 154 yds and it was all carry also.

SCORE CARDS SHOW YOU JUST HOW MUCH WATER THERE IS ON EVERY HOLE

THE 9TH IS THE PICTURE ABOVE 



WATERLEFE AND LOTS OF WATER

WATERLEFE 
GOLF COURSE
FLORIDA


A wee par 3 over the bundi

Dodi is on the green

Built around the Manatee river and its tributaries 

A stunning course from start to finish

Par 5 the 10th straight over the water. We played off the middle tees
that this picture was taken from. The back tees were miles back.



A new course for everyone

Robert, Brian and Tommy on the 10th

This was our first trip to Waterlefe. I had been told it was a great course by numerous people and 2 years ago we played the River Strand just a few miles away and they also said it was a must play. Built around all the water from the Manatee river is is a fantastic course especially the back 9 which goes further out into the mangrove swamps with some great tee shots over the water and swamps.

This for me was the best course of the holiday apart from our favourite World Woods which we play every year and would be our 36 hole Ryder Cup Comp in a few days time.

Waterlefe was great value at $45 and afterwards we stopped off at the Bradenton Outlet Mall for the guys to get all their shopping.

Rd 4

Results

Gordon     35
Robert       32
Tommy     31
George     31
Davy        31
Brian        30
Gerry       29
Alex        27

George on his first trip with us to Florida



WHERE IS THE VAN KEYS ?

ROUND 3
WENTWORTH GOLF CLUB


The 12th a trick all or nothing par 3

Par 5 the 17th

Another view of the 12th
WHERE IS THE KEYS OF THE VAN ?

LOCKED OUT THE VAN

WAITING TO BE RESCUED 

GOING NOWHERE 
Round 3 was at the once private golf course Wentworth. Up until a few years ago Wentworth was only playable if you lived on the upmarket gated community but the recession in the States has changed this for many private courses.

It went bust and a company came in and bought 3 private courses in the Tampa are. Wentworth was another new one for the boys and I had warned them that it is one of the tightest courses in the area. It was in great condition and our rate here was $35.

The greens and fairways were superb and the layout very good also but as I said earlier very tight especially the first few holes.

Dodi lost a brand new sleeve of ProVs in the first hole ! I had my new driver after a pit stop at Golfsmiths on the way home yesterday. Got it in the second hand rack and things can only get better with the new one.

As we finished the golf I passed the van keys over to Brian as he came off after me who proceeded to tell Gordon the keys were sitting on the seat as Gordon changed his shoes. After a snack in the club I asked for the keys as we made our way out to the van.

Where were the keys sitting on the seat inside the locked van.

This van had no central locking on the fob but you could set it by pressing a button on the door as you left the van which is fine as long as you had the key outside the van.

We didn't and it took a phone call to Dollar Rental and a $80 call out fee for us to get the van opened. It took the 2 guys who appeared 2-3 mins to get it opened.


Back to the beach and another nice sunset

Round 3

Results

Davy      34
Tommy   31
Robert     29
Gerry       29
George    28
Gordon    27
Brian       27
Alex        23


CYPRESS RUN FLORIDA

ROUND 2
CYPRESS RUN


Cypress Run was another new course for the guys and once again it was a private course I managed to get access to. I had played it a few years ago via a friend who knew a member and is very good. I knew the guys would like it. Any other time I have tried to get on I have been knocked backed.

A few weeks before going over I tried again and the person who answered the phone was the owner and once he heard we were coming over from Scotland he was happy for us to have access to his course.

So this was our second round and the final round my driver hit a ball off any tee. Having lost 2 ball in the first 3 holes it literally bit the dust on the 3rd tee. From there on the 3 wood got me back on track and I got 30 points.

Round 2

Results

Alex       33
Davy      32
Tommy   31
Robert    30
Gordon   30
Gerry      28
George   24
Brian      23


Saturday 26 October 2013

ARRIVAL IN FLORIDA

OVER THE BRIDGE
INTO 
CLEARWATER

Sand Key is over another bridge on the far left hand side 
Sunrise looking out the kitchen balcony over to the inter coastal waters

Round 1 at the Bayou Club designed by Tom Fazio

Looking up the 18th

Bayou Club

First meal in Backwaters after a long day
Sunset on our first day from the front living room balcony

Round 1 Results


Gordon        34
Alex            28
Davy           28
Brian           26
George        25
Tommy       24
Robert        20
Gerry         17

We made a mistake in playing off tees to far back giving us 6600yds. Due to some heavy rain the week before the course was giving us no run at all and it was a tough opening round. Especially for me as I lost 7 ball with a driver that was starting to do my tits in.

Bayou Club is a private club but I took summer membership out on it for a few months and they gave us 2 complimentary tee times and we split the cost.

This round cost us $35 for everything. All golf in Florida includes a buggy unlike over in Europe were it's a extra if you want one.

More to follow

What happened to the driver that was not behaving ?