Scotland Trip

Well now that I've been home for a little over a week, my sleep is mostly back to normal, and I feel refreshed enough to fill you in on all of our adventures in Scotland. The head coach, Rise', myself, Jackie Booth (my college coach and the NMSU assistant), and the BYU coach all went to Scotland to recruit at the British Junior Amateur Championship. We were there for 8 days and were able to spend some time playing a little golf as well!

The trip over started very abruptly, as on the flight from JFK to Edinburgh, about an hour and a half after take-off, a passenger on the plane passed out in the aisle right in front of where I was standing. It was very dark on the plane as most people were sleeping and I really froze for a second and wasn't sure what to do. I ended up running to the back of the plane to get the flight attendant, and after about 30 minutes, with a doctor's help (he was on the flight), they determined that he was going to be ok and we didn't have to turn around. Wow, what a start to the trip! I didn't sleep the entire 6 1/2 hour flight as my adrenaline was really going!!! I was in charge of the driving...and yes, it's on the other side of the road, with the driver on the other side of the car!! Needless to say, the first few minutes in the car were eventful!!! I figured it out pretty quickly and actually had some fun with it. I only turned into the wrong lane once, and thankfully it was a quiet road. Our little car...and I stress the word LITTLE (you should have seen us trying to get 4 people and all of our luggage/golf clubs in this car!!), was a stick shift...so that made it even more eventful. There were a few times when I shifted into the wrong gear, once from 2nd to 1st instead of 3rd...very funny!!!

I was lucky enough to have met a friend through a friend that was a member at Carnoustie and I got to play there on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately they have had an abundance of rain over there and there were a couple of holes closed due to flooding. It was still a cool experience to be on that course and know what has happened there in the past. Thursday we all played Kingsbarns...a course I would recommend to anyone going over there...and it was fabulous. It is right on the ocean and all of the holes have fabulous views. When we got back to our bed and breakfast Thursday night we got the good news that we had been lucky enough to get on the Old Course at St. Andrews. There were 54 people that didn't get in that day, so you can imagine how many people want to play that course each day. Wow, what a neat experience!!! You can't beat the history of that course and those holes. It felt surreal and I took a lot of pictures!!!

We stayed in 2 different bed and breakfasts, one in Arbroath and the other in St. Andrews. The one in St. Andrews is a very well-known Bed & Breakfast and pub, located about 300 yards from the 1st tee at the old course. It's called the Dunvegan. We ran into Rosie Jones one night. She has started a new business, taking groups of women on golf trips. This was the first time to Scotland, but we happened to run into them. We continued to see them the next couple of days, and they came back to meet us for dinner and drinks on our last night. Small world!!!

I got back really late last Saturday night into Portland and have been recovering from the time difference ever since. I really didn't have a problem going over, adjusting very well. Coming back was a different story. I would be exhausted about 5 or 6 pm and wake up in the morning about 4:00!!! YIKES!

We watched some excellent golfers at the tournament and hopefully got some good names and information for the next couple of years. I really enjoyed watching some of the shots those kids have...no flop shots!!!

I am playing in the Albuquerque Open September 15-16, so I have to get my game ready for that! I enjoyed playing in Scotland and have been able to practice a little since I've been back. I'm excited to be able to compete again. I'm also very excited for the girls to be coming back in a couple of weeks and for the season to start! Our fall schedule includes our home tournament, Washington's tournament, Stanford, and Hawaii...yeah!!!

Hope to talk to you all soon, and if you'd like to see pictures from the trip, you can go to this website. http://www.photoshow.com/watch/HE5rr4cs

GO BEAVERS!!!
~Kailin