I is a lucky boy!

[slugger]

I've managed to get myself invited along to play at Muirfield this afternoon!!! YIIPPPPEEEEEEE! Christmas has come (very) early.

Who's played it and what are your tips, apart from the very obvious one of avoid the bunkers! Having done a wee fly over on google maps, i don't think i've ever seen so many sand traps on a course before!

Having just returned from holiday and only played 9 holes in 3 weeks, i'm not expecting to rip the place apart, but i don't care.... I'm playing Muirfield!

 

[19th]

You is! You is!!

Stay on the short grass or you will be unable to finish due to a pro-v shortage.

Enjoy what can only be described as a super golfing experience.

 

[slugger]

well.... i have now bagged my first of the Open championship venues on the list.

Muirfield is stunning - simply stunning. A brief run down on how the afternoon went.

We arrived late (not my fault) and were chucked on to the tee as soon as we arrived through the beautiful, heavy, cast iron gate! No warm up, not one practice shot, no putting practice, just straight onto the first tee. Not how i would like to have started.

Started off with a nice enough drive though that hugged the left hand side of the first fairway... i can't even remember the rest of the first hole, but i know i walked off with a bogey. Bogey on the 2nd too and then the remainder of my front 9 fell apart. Could have been jet lag, but it may just as easily have been the lack of warm up that made me suffer. My driving was the worst it's been for a long time and at Muirfield, you just can't afford to be wayward of the tee...

the rough is as penal as i have ever played. It was 4ft long grass in places and anything past the first cut was a test of will more than anything. There's some magnificent course design and the views are brilliant, but i think the course turns it up a notch after you reach the 8th hole. I have never seen so many bunkers in all my life, and yes i found one, twice!

The 9th is a nice challenge into the wind on the way back to the club house. It looks like they have finished construction of a new back tee for when the open arrives which is about 100 yards further back that the current one. It's so far back they've had to rebuild the wall that bounds with Archerfield next door.

I was playing so bad by that point that i felt like walking off, but then, in an instant, most things with my game clicked into place. After a poor drive left of the first fairway i suddenly remembered how to play golf again and although i wasn't any where near a world beater, i managed a few pars on the back 9 on some really tight and challenging holes with greens and bunkers and mounds and dips that seem to get bigger as the course goes on. I have certainly never seen anything the likes of the fairway bunkers on the par 5 17th!!! They are monsters. I decided to lay up and play on to the green in 3. Didn't quite make it but walked off with a bogey. The pros will birdie this easy though.

The 18th is as lovely a final hole as you'll find i think, but for me, the best hole was the par 3 13th, picture below. I played a length perfect tee shot and two putted for par. Very pleased with myself and it reminded how good a game golf can be after that torrid opening 9 holes.

In the end i walked off the course with an 83 plus those two NRs. I scored 42 on the back nine, which considering we played off the back tees (apart from the 9th) and i've recently had my handicap given as 20, i think i did ok in the end. Really disappointed with the front 9 though and wish i could go back once i get a bit more golf under my belt and have the time of day to prepare properly.

One major disappointment is the lack of soul, or anything really, in the clubhouse. We didn't get to go in, retiring instead to the clubhouse at gullane. The clubhouse at Muirfield was dead. Very very sad.