It was back into the sport today with a day at the Women’s British Open golf at St Andrews – the birthplace of golf. It was a 1.5hr picturesque train/bus ride to the course and after a wet night it was a bright sunny day, if a bit windy and cool.

Even though they invented golf here, they don’t seem to know how to layout a golf course. The photo below is the par 3 11th hole. The bunker on the right is where players lay up on the par 4 7th hole which crosses over in front of the 11th green. It meant huge delays with players constantly waiting for other groups – crazy design. I guess they have only had 300 years to get it right so I’ll cut them some slack.

It was good to walk around the whole course and see the Aussie major winners in action – Karrie Webb (7 major titles), Min Jee Lee (2) and Hannah Green (1). Unfortunately, they all missed the cut.

It was very picturesque and would be a challenging course (particularly the pot bunkers). The 1st hole however was dead flat, dead straight, perfectly manicured and miles wide with no bunkers. You could putt from the tee if it wasn’t for the creek just before the green.

However golf is much better as a spectator sport on TV. It is sooo slow watching live and you are only watching one group of players (maybe 2) from each viewpoint.

It has been a theme on this trip that Europeans are scared to come to Australia because of the dangerous animals. I can believe it as the golf marshals just dropped their backpacks and paddles and ran when I jumped up on a post.

We took a break from watching the golf to visit the World Golf Museum which was quite interesting with some old golfing gear and the history of the game.

It was then a short walk around St Andrews town including St Andrews Castle, St Andrews University (oldest in the UK) and the Witches Lake (where witches were thrown in the Middle Ages).

I also found some friends to hang out with.

We then travelled back to Edinburgh and walked up to Calton Hill for the sunset.

We then saw a couple of shows as part of the Fringe Festival. First was a free performance of telling a story through movie dialogue and song lyrics from the 80s. It was worth the money we paid. The second was a compilation set with 7 different comedians and most were really funny so it was a good night out.

This day in sporting history (23 August)

2008 Australian diver Matthew Mitcham wins the men’s 10m platform gold medal with final dive at the Beijing Olympics; prevents Chinese from winning every diving event; achieves highest score for an individual dive in Olympic history (112.10)