Greetings from Bonnie Scotland

Hi guys, I was thrilled to receive the e-mail and the news that I had been selected to be a brand ambassador for Bunkered Mentality for 2015. Nice to be part of the team and look forward to hearing all your golfing tales.

As a way of introducing myself. my name is Barrie and I have the unfortunate pleasure of playing my golf in St Andrews, I know, it’s a hard life but someone has to do it.

I am a member of The New Golf Club St Andrews where our honorary member is a man you all know, Mr Arnold Palmer. Another little fact that many people don’t know is that old Tom Morris who, in 1908 at the ripe old age of 86 died as a result of falling down the stairs on the way to the gents locker room in the club. It is reported he may have had a couple of half’s but alas there are no witnesses about to verify and corroborate this story

I used to play a lot of golf when I was younger then life, work, travels took over for a while and the golfing aspirations were never quite achieved.I didn’t pick up the clubs for four years until last year after suffering a bad back injury which prevented me from doing so. Being out of the game for that length of time was tough. Watching it on the television or hearing friends and families regales of their golfing adventures can only sustain the appetite for so long.

Despite this, I am a determined character and with the help of my physiotherapist, I was able to pick up the clubs, rebuild my swing and got back in the game. It was a long, arduous season. Many will be envious by my opening statement in this blog that I play my golf at St Andrews, and when asked how many times I have played the Old Course, I have to be truthful, not smug, and say I’m not sure of the exact amount but it contains a few zeros. However, the weather can sometimes (more often than not) be brutal and most of the medal rounds played could be best summed up as 4 club winds with sideways rain!

It wasn’t easy working my way back to single figures but I ended the season on a high and managed to pick up a few trophies along the way.

I have spent the off season working even harder and hoping that all that practice will pay off this year, whilst looking the part, wearing it well, I can play the part too.

As part of my ambition and targets for this year I am also playing in a few tournaments. I have signed up for the Mid Am Golf tour and hope to compete in the Scottish, English and Welsh opens. I have also signed up to play in the Trilby Tour and will be playing in the Scottish qualifying event at Dalmahoy in Edinburgh.

So these competitions coupled with match play events, normal medals and the club championship (should I qualify), should ensure a busy 2015 for golf.

What’s in the bag?

As part of the philosophy to put myself in the strongest position to achieve my targets, I had a custom fit session with Scott Gourlay and changed my irons to the Srixon z745 with the Nippon Modus 3 stiff shafts. It has taken a while to get used to them, but, I feel like we are getting there with much more confidence in the strike now and I am very much looking forward to using them this season.

As I hadn’t played for a while, the woods are a little bit of a mismatch, this needs to change and I have been testing some new equipment recently. In fact, the surprise out of the recent tests, for me, was the Nike Vapor with the Mitsubishi Diamana Blue. 60 g stiff. Haven’t put this one on the Trackman or GC2 to see the numbers yet but looking forward to it.

I have a few more drivers, fairway woods and rescues to test, but right now it looks like Nike is leading the way. Planning on writing a post about it, so if you are interested let me know and I will share the link once published.

That’s a little about me. Hopefully I will be able to play at least once a week this year with a few practice sessions thrown in and the odd bounce game with the old man on the old course

If you want to know more about golf in St Andrews or any advice then give me a shout. On twitter I go by golfgawd (long story!) or you will catch me blogging here and a few other places.

Looking forward to wearing it well down the links.

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