SUCCESS!!!

Well, I guess it pays to get up at 3:30 AM, walk a couple blocks to the car to get your clubs with your wife practically in her pajamas and her teeth barely brushed, and walk four more blocks to sit outside in the cold to find you are third in line after another American couple for two hours until the starter for the Old Course at St. Andrews Golf Links shows up at 6:00 AM...all to see if there is even a possibility of walking on that day since you didn't have a tee time that you made in advance one year ahead and also couldn't enter the lottery to play as a single player.

I guess all that pays off because....HE GOT TO PLAY! :-)

And I got to walk the course with him!

That's us while he waits to tee off at Hole 17. This is the most nervewracking shot for him because he has to hit the ball over a portion of the hotel are posing in front of. 

Getting to play St. Andrews was a big deal to Mike because its basically the "home of golf". We came all the way over here hoping he would be able to get on, but not knowing for sure. To reserve a tee time at St. Andrews you need to book it one year ahead, but one year ago Mike had just ruptured his quad tendon and we didn't know for sure when he would be playing again. So he didn't make a tee time then. The next option would have been to enter a lottery a couple days ahead to get a time, but you can't enter the lottery as a single player. So the last option is to show up early the day you want to play and see if they can fit you in a slot, first come-first serve. 

We showed up in line at 4:00AM behind a nice young couple from St. Louis, Missouri which put Mike third in line. It was a fun wait...we were all Americans so we sat and swapped stories bat our experiences so far in the UK. After us came a man who grew up in Monterey and is in the Air Force. He ended up being in Mike's group later on and his wife and I walked with them as they played all 18.

He joined a foursome. Mike, the US Air Force guy from the early morning line, a German girl who is attending school in St. Andrews, and the girl's mother visiting from Germany. 

Here are some shots:

The back of the starter hut.

Mike getting ready at the first tee.

The view of the city of St. Andrews from about the second or third hole.

I loved how the ground was so rolly.

Mike with his caddy, John. Very nice man.

Mike's ball almost went into this bunker, but landed just above it.

Some caddies waiting to pick up a bag posed for me outside the caddie pavilion. :-)

So now that's checked off the list. Yay!