Castle Course and The Grange Inn

Today I played one of the wettest rounds of golf I have ever played, and it didn't help that it was on one of the hardest courses in Scotland. The morning started out sunny and beautiful at around 75 degrees. By the time we got out on the course for our 1 PM tee time it had clouded over and it looked like it was about to rain. Luckily I had put on a wind shirt, but unluckily it was not very waterproof, as it started raining heavily on the fourth hole. This probably would have been OK if we were not playing the Castle Course which is very hard even on a nice day. With wet grips and dampened spirits, it was a tough day. In fact two of our foursome dropped out after nine. However my brother and I soldiered on and finished the 18 in a little over four hours. As much as you would like to speed up in bad weather, it always seems to take longer to play. On one long up-hill par four, into the wind, we took four shots to get to the green. When we were finished everything was wet. I wrung my socks out three times on the course, but was still able to form a small pool of water when I took them off for good. This and the day we played Crail in hurricane winds are now my most crazy days of golf.

After that round of golf we were richly rewarded with dinner at the Grange Inn. It is one of the best restaurants in Scotland and serves consistently great fare. I had an excellent steak with the mushroom soup as a starter. The duck and the sea bass were also excellent, with the lobster being the only entree that was fair. The dinner was topped with some delicious deserts, I had the chocolate moose, and the cheese plate and the strawberry's were also great. As a bonus, there is a also a great view from the dinning room and on a clear summer night you will see an amazing sunset.