Party after the Party ...

After dinner we retired to the Bar at the Park Hotel. On strict instructions from last year, Martina brought her guitar and did a wonderful job of entertaining us all evening. We were both very hoarse after about 10 minutes ! but no matter, we soldiered on and I think everyone enjoyed the craic !

Here's a look at some of the fun from the bar ..




And here's how it should be done .. a very authentic Flower of Scotland from Martina, ably assisted by Kenny, Scott and Robert (proper Scots !!).




And that's the end of the Carnoustie Country Classic for this year. Another wonderful week's golf and great fun. I think everybody who's played this week is planning to come back next year, so we look forward to another great week next year, meeting up with old friends, playing on great golf courses and generally having fun and enjoying the wonderful Scottish hospitality.

A huge Thank You to Angus Council, to Stuart, Jan and Jean and to everyone who's been involved in organising the tournament.

Haste Ye Back .. see you next year.

Martina & Kate.

Classic Prizegiving and great craic !

Thursday evening at the Park Hotel saw the post tournament prizgiving dinner, which again proved to be a fantastic night for all.

After a lovely meal, Stuart amused us with some interesting stories of the week before the main prize giving. We heard about the sorrows of the Celtic supporters ! the doomed fate of the junior greenkeeper at Panmure who organised the wonderful pin placement at the 13th .. ; Marshall's confusion with boxes .. and you'll see Ashley's escapades later on !!

Then it was down to the main business of the night - the presentation of prizes. I almost managed to retain my Lady Champion title ..but lost out by a single point to Jenny .. Well Done Jenny. I was second overall and I won the Lady's competition at Carnoustie .. a really great day - so I was pleased.

Robert was runner up in the Men's competition and the Men's Champion was Rusty from the Mountain Aire Golf Club in the US. Rusty had a wonderful week's golf on his first trip to Scotland and amazingly, he had never played Links Golf before this week .. Well Done indeed Rusty !!!

Rusty spoke for all of us when he thanked Stuart and all the organisers of the Carnoustie Country Classic for a fantastic week's golf and fun, in his Champion's speech.
Another wonderful week where we all had a great time and yet again, no rain .. unbelieveable. I think the folks at Angus must have a direct line to the weather man above ..
Here's some highlights of the dinner and fun ..

Mediterranean Montrose ...

Please do not adjust your screen .. this is not the Mediterranean .. it's the magnificent beach at Montrose, as seen from the side of the 2nd Tee Box.

Today we played at Montrose and had another wonderful day's golf. Montrose feels like our home club as we stay in Montrose and just have to drive for 5 minutes to get to the club. As before, everyone at Montrose Golf Club was extremely welcoming and we had a really nice round.

Today, we played with Annie. Here we are at the first with James who was in the group behind us. First out was the other Ladies 3 ball, Denise, Jenny and Jean (and the lucky leprechaun !).

It was very windy at Montrose today and there was a huge difference between having the wind behind and playing into it .. I'm not sure which was better .. as I found it very hard to judge distances and run on the greens (that's my excuse anyway for terrible putting !).
We relaxed over lunch in the clubhouse afterwards (after a little retail therapy in the pro shop !), and returned to the hotel to prepare for the closing dinner and prizegiving tonight.

Glorious Carnoustie

Today was a very special day indeed. It's a huge privilege to play a wonderful course like the Carnoustie Championship course, but to play it in glorious sunshine and in great company and comraderie, was indeed special.

Here's our intrepid 4 ball on the first before we tee'ed off. We played today with James and Tom and had a really lovely game. The sun shone all day and I'm sure you couldn't find the course in better condition. It was wonderful.

It wouldn't be Carnoustie, however, without a little wind. It was really nothing to write home about, but enough to make club selection interesting ! and we had a few fishing expeditions to the Barrie Burn !!

Today was one of those very special golfing days that will remain with us for a long time.

Here are some highlights of our wonderful day out at Carnoustie.

Sunshine and a few Hailstones at Panmure ..

Today it was back to the lovely Panmure clubhouse and another great day's golf. Here's Martina's goup on the first, with Denise and Jenny, and today I played with Annie and Jean.

Panmure is a very interesting course, with a few scary blind drives where you hit out over the gorse and hope for the best. It was at it's best today and the round was mostly in sunshine, although there were occasional bursts of very strange hailstones. They came thick and fast and in a few seconds you were white, covered in these large white spots .. but they appeared to be dry and you could just brush them off .. so we didn't actually get wet at all !

After the round however, while we were enjoying lunch in the clubhouse and waiting for the coach to collect us, the hailstones really started. These ones were very wet indeed and we were very glad to have escaped the worst.

If we weren't at the Races with our golf today, we had a second chance tonight at the Race Night at The Park Hotel. Here's a flavour of some of the fun and games from the horse, pig and duck races !!!

Carnoustie Country Classic

On Sunday evening, we gathered at the lovely Panmure Golf Club clubhouse, for the registration and opening ceremony of the 2010 Carnoustie Country Classic. This is a really great golf tournamant for all levels of amateur golfers. We get to play on 4 wonderful golf courses : 3 Open Qualifiers : Monifieth, Panmure and Montrose, as well as the jewel in the crown .. the Championship course at Carnoustie. The organisation is terrific .. basically, we just have to turn up ! The hotels, golf courses and transport every day are already booked for us and it's a real holiday from having to organise ourselves.


At the get together tonight, we were delighted to meet some old friends whom we'd met and played with last year and we look forward to another terrific week's golf in this wonderful part of the golfing world.


Our first action of the week was at Monifieth and once again we were blessed with good dry weather ! and had a lovely round. I played with Jenny and Denise. Here's our 3 ball on the first.

Monifieth Golf Club was founded in 1858, although golf was played in the area since the 1640s ! There are a number of golf clubs in the area but Monifieth is the oldest (and some like to think the best !!).

Martina was in the first group off today and enjoyed her round with Annie and Jean.

One of the best things about the Carnoustie Classic, is that we don't have to do anything but play golf ! All the arrangements, hotel bookings, golf and transport are made for us and we have a bus to bring us to the courses each day and back again. So we arrived back to Montrose on the coach and relaxed for a while before dinner. Tonight we went to the Australian Themed Roos Leap restaurant, beside Montrose Golf club and had a very nice meal.

Tomorrow we're back to Panmure and look forward to another great day.