In August, the Ricoh Women’s British Open will return for a second occasion in six years to the famed Old Course at St. Andrews.

However the media, and all thanks to Ricoh, IMG and the Links Trust at St. Andrews, had the privledge of playing the course earlier this week.

The wind was strong enough to blow a dog off a chain but it didn’t diminish the pleasure of playing this golfing gem.

I had the enormous delight of playing alongside Alan Hogg, the CEO at nearby Kingsbarns, and Tim Taylor, Editor of The Journal magazine who made his way from County Durham to enjoy the day.

Alan plays off scratch and is a former European Challenge Tour player.  Prior to moving to Kingsbarns, Alan had been at the Golf and Vital Park in Bad Waldsee in Southern Germany where in 2002 he was named ‘Coach of the Year’ by the German PGA.

After the usual first tee greetings, Alan was overwhelmingly generous in offering this struggling 15-handicapper a shot a hole as the wind continued to nudge near   ‘Force 10’.

I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow account of the day but suffice to say Allan finished slightly in front to win our bet, a ‘pot of tea’ … I hope you like enjoy that bottle of Bordeaux I dropped into your office, Alan.

However I can’t let Alan get off that lightly.

After starting with a superb first hole birdie but then losing the second to yours truly, the esteemed Kingsbarns CEO pulled off what had to be one of the most outrageous pars seen for some time on the Old Course.

Rumours suggest Alan had arranged for his mother to be present at the end of a bitumen footpath running down the right side of the 16th.  I say this because as Allan’s tee shot sailed out-of-bounds it landed on the path and close to a woman walking from the direction of the Old Course Golf Hotel Resort and Spa.

Alan played a provisional but this time his gleming new £4 Titleist easily cleared the fence to the right of the path to join thousands of yellow practice range balls on the practice range.

However upon arriving at the green ‘Mrs. Hogg’ proudly announced Alan’s first ball had indeed ricocheted off the path and back in-bounds, and was now lying pin-high and just a handfull of feet from the flag.

“Nice deflection back onto the course, Mrs. Hogg”, “Great timing, Mrs. Hogg” and “Wonderful footwork, Mrs. Hogg” were just some of the comments I think I overheard.

All jokes aside, it was a wonderful day even if we were blown off the map around turn, and to walk off 18 with a par made it all worth it.

Thanks especially to IMG’s Michelle Mair, who continues to spoil the European Tour media.

As well, thank you to my caddy, Phil Lawrie.  Phil pointed out lines off the tee in the conditions I never knew existed on the Old Course.  He was a wonderful help and a good companion for our time together on the course.

Hereunder is a selection of snaps from the media outing.

* Click on photographs to open and then click again to enlarge.