Hoping that the BBC Weather centre was still on its extended pre Christmas Hols and therefore not inclined to give the rest of us a hard time Huttonian snuck off to Duns Golf Course for a final round before being sucked into the festivities-serial washing up, table laying, snow clearing, last minute cards, parcel wrapping and watching the Queen's Speech. What looked nice and inviting from the comfort of a well heated Focus C-Max was not quite so pleasant on the first tee looking down the frosty fairway. The course was deserted and it was quickly apparent why. North wind 35 knots. Wind Chill factor -7C. Ambient Temperature: no. Sun: not yet. We Huttonians are men of iron and although brass would have been more appropriate in the circumstances so I struggled around running between shots and giving myself 75 foot putts to speed up the proceedings. The Cardiac 4 who play in most weathers were not in evidence nor were the Pringle clad couple of Wednesday fame. It was even too frigid for the gnarled old greenkeeper -weather beaten literally.
Smugly I returned to my car and I was heartened to see a male four ball emerge from their vehicles. Oh Heroic people-so Duns is not a load of fair weather wimps after all. I greeted the senior newcomer with a cheery comment about the quality of the climatic conditions and volunteered the information that I had enjoyed my round. He looked at me, looked at the sky, held up an experienced finger to the wind and said loudly to his companions something that sounded like 'Duck this for a lark' -difficult to be sure with the banshee howling of the wind. He then got back into his car and drove off with his friends in hot pursuit. Captain Oates would not have approved.
