Sunday Bloody Sunday

So viewers I left the last blog with me euphoric at making the cut in the Aberdeen Asset Ladies Scottish Open BUT with no where to stay!

Love it when a plan comes together. 

Now followers of my mindless ramblings may remember I struggled to secure accommodation for the Thursday and Friday nights, this was now 630 on the Saturday night! FUBARED sprung to mind!

Now I have said in the past, a lot in the past, I love Archerfield.

Best clubhouse in Scotland, brilliant pro, 2 good courses and brilliant staff, boy was I right about brilliant staff.

The bar manager, Francis, is a total sweetheart, always has been. She clocked the look on my coupon and asked me what was wrong, so doing my best Mary & Joseph I explained my predicament.

Francis was simply looked at me, smiled and explained she was selling a flat in Gullane, would I like it for that night !!

FAN DABBY DOZZY

Speak about being in the right place at the right time!

So we got settled into the flat and I tried to calm down.

Then the plot began to thicken.

I got a text from Kenny, Kenny works for the prison service so I cant give his full name, saying he had just had a text requiring him to caddie at 11, was it me??

Now my tee time was 11 but I have NEVER used a caddie in my life, quite frankly I am not good enough and I certainly don’t have the confidence to use one. All week Donna had just pushed my clubs in her power caddy for her to get close to the action.

Panic was starting to set in, so I texted Alan Minto of golf east Lothian see if he knew what was happening.

My worst nightmare was about to be unleashed!

For the final day we had, yes HAD, to use a caddie!

I have 2 games, reasonable and shite, no in-between.

Apart from my glaring obvious technical failings I have zero confidence in my self as a golfer.

Yes I know I talk a good game, I blog a good game, I tweet a good game but all the social media is just a shield I use to protect my self, in real life I lack the gusto the cyber me has.

All of a sudden this was getting real, very real.

I slept about 2 hours Saturday night partly down to the shoulder but mainly due to fear! Fear I was going to make a total fool of myself in font of hundreds of people.

6 am on Sunday morning all I wanted to do was get in the car and go home.

I then looked at my twitter time line. it was full of well done and good luck messages! 

Sad to say twitter is my life, it is, I love it, I love the people I interact with. Suddenly these people who I love were real to me, the sheer joy many had for me got to me.

If I could not do it for me I owed it to them to get out there and try my best.

Thankfully Kenny requested my bag, pretty sure he regretted it after the 2nd when I thinned a wedge and almost took out a cameraman behind the green! But to be honest Kenny got me through it, I honestly think I would have fallen to pieces if he had not been holding me together.

Conditions were tough on the Sunday but I had 2 great highlights, birdie net eagle on the 6th with a 10 foot but with a 2 foot right to left break and a sandy par net bird on 17.

But it was also comical listening to the disbelief in Andrew Cotter’s voice as he announce me on the 18th green, PRICELESS.

So THANK YOU WSM, Golf East Lothian, Archerfield, Kenny, Alan, Andy, Stuart, LET and Aberdeen Asset Management for the best 3 days of my golfing life.

BUT the real moment of true class belongs to winner Catriona Matthew, but not only for her win.  

Amongst the media scrum of her win Donna kinda forced her way through to say well done, Beany’s immediate response to Donna ??

“How did Ray get on?”

That made my week !