Golf
I first learned to play golf back in the early 1960s, when I became a junior member of Cowal Golf Club, Dunoon. At first I went round a few times with my father, hitting some shots with one of his clubs. Later on I had a few lessons from "Old" Davie Peel (as distinct from his son, "Young" Davie Peel) who was the club pro and greenkeeper. Soon I was playing with some of the other local youngsters in bounce games and competitions. As soon as my handicap came down low enough I started playing in the full Club Medal competitions and eventually got my handicap down to 6. I remained a member at Cowal until I finished at University.
Once I had started working in Lanarkshire, I joined Calderbraes GC, a club with a 9 - hole course just next to Calderpark Zoo. During the couple of years I spent at Calderbraes, I played in a number of Lanarkshire League ties, against clubs like Hollandbush, Blairbeth and Bothwell Castle. I also managed to get my first hole-in-one, at Crow Wood GC. It was a dreadful shot, a topped 7-iron which bounced and trickled downhill at a short par 3, eventually stumbling on to the green and falling into the hole. It wasn't quite the sensation I had imagined!
In 1974 I moved to a new job in East Lothian, one of the great golfing counties. I didn't join a club at first but was lucky enough to play in two social golf groups - the Domads, which was based on staff of the then County Council and slightly later on, the Goatfield Club, which was a social golf society based in Haddington. With both of these societies, I played over courses such as Gullane, North Berwick (East and West Links), Royal Musselburgh and even Muirfield.
In about 1980 or so, I joined Dunbar Golf Club and from then on enjoyed more than fifteen years of golf over the wonderful Dunbar East Links course. Over the years, my handicap crept up from 5 to 12, but I had some wonderful tussles with this windswept, rolling links. It was at Dunbar that I had my second hole in one. This one was a memorable shot, a five iron into the teeth of the wind at the short third hole - middle of the green, two quick bounces and straight in the hole. The third green is close to the first tee and pro shop and the head professional at the time, Derek Small, saw the shot and rushed out to give me a wave and a "thumbs up". Magic!
In 1997 I took early retirement and we moved to Crieff. The club there had no vacancies so I joined Comrie GC, a wonderfully welcoming and friendly club with a delightful nine hole course set on a hillside amongst amazing scenery. Occasionally people would query why I bothered with such a "wee" course - until they tried a round and discovered it's as long and demanding as many a "championship" course, the only difference being that you play over it twice to make a round.
For the past few years, since moving to Perth, I've been a member of Murrayshall Golf Club, which plays over two fine courses, Murrayshall and Lynedoch, on the braes above Scone.
However my home club is now Crieff Golf Club. Crieff has one of the finest 18 hole inland courses in Scotland. The course and clubhouse are excellent and the reponsibility for the poor scores is all mine!