Annual golf outing

Last year's winner, John McWhinnie, chose to take us to a new destination for our annual golf outing - Stonehaven. Spectacular coastal views, but hard work up and down the hills and long distances between greens and tees.

The weather held for us although at times the wind was cool enough to require sweaters:

I was out first with Dave (who hadn't held a golf club for 8 years) and Jack and I took a few photos as we went round:

View from 1st tee

No - Jack didn't miss the ball - this was his practice swing

Ever patient Dave waits

Dave watches as Jack putts out at the 9th

Some of paths and tees were in precarious clifftop positions - I tried a selfie here to give an impression of this.

Individual scores on the doors were:

Stewart, Ian	36
Mullins, Gerry	34
Sharp, Ian	33
Simpson, Jack	33
Gore, Andrew	32
McWhinnie, John	32
Black, Ken	31
Lodge, Malcolm	25
Williamson, Dave	17

The second team of Sharp, Black and Gore won the team prize and Jack and I got the Nearest the Pins, with John getting the Longest Drive. Tradition dictates that last year's winner hands over the famous "green" jacket to this year's winner - and John shows his delight at doing this:

Of course, there's the shield as well:

Jeb passed his apologies for absence - working in Egypt - but he will be delighted not to be the recipient of this year's DoD award - which could potentially have been his 6th in a row. Instead Dave Williamson was the (virtual) "winner" of the dreaded Filofax. The booby prize, formerly a car wheel cleaning kit donated by Brian Fitzpatrick, was trumped when John McWhinnie donated the leather bound Filofax at Tarland in September, 2004. Since then, there have been 7 "winners" of this not-so-prestigious award:

• Jeb Tyrie (7)
• Brian Fitzpatrick
• Ian McRae
• Andy Gore
• Steve Paterson
• Andy Marshall
• Dave Williamson

This was our 26th outing. The event started in 1991 at Spey Bay and the winners over the years have been:

Ian Stewart (6)

John McDonald (4)

Gary Grant (4)

Ian McRae (3)

Dave Williamson (2)

John McWhinnie (2)

Brian Fitzpatrick (1)

Ian Sharp (1)

Rob Dunnachie (1)

Andy Gore (1)

Geordie Ziegler (1)

Stonehaven was the 16th course we've played in that time.

Well organised John - a grand afternoon out - and special thanks to Andy Gore for making the effort to come up from Warcop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcop), near Penrith, where he now lives. He's still playing 5-a-sides too!