One of the great benefits of being a member at Lake Karrinyup is the great network of Reciprocal Clubs throughout the world that members can visit.
This past July my husband and I travelled to Scotland, and while my husband was on an MBA course I took the opportunity to play a couple of these reciprocal courses. Prior to leaving Perth, Robyn Twentyman, kindly coordinated my visits with Blairgowrie and Royal Dornoch, which was much appreciated.
My first visit was to Blairgowrie where the Ladies’ Captain, Margaret Hunter, warmly welcomed me. It was their Tuesday “turn up and play” day which is a social day where they run a small competition. We played the Rosemount course, where the Junior Ryder Cup will be played this September. Blairgowrie is a lovely Club and the members are very welcoming, they even went to the trouble of getting The Lake Karrinyup Salver out for me to see!
Margaret & Miriam, my playing partners at Blairgowrie
Royal Dornoch Golf Club Later that week we headed up past Inverness to the small town of Dornoch, home to the Royal Dornoch Golf Club. We had an early tee time that day and played with one of their members, Peter (a parish minister from Inverness) and his beautiful dog Smudge, who apparently is a frequent visitor to the course! I thoroughly enjoyed playing Royal Dornoch I found it to be a lovely but very challenging course.
The 8th Hole at Royal Dornoch
Smudge, resting on one of the greens at Royal Dornoch
Later that day we decided to have dinner at the Royal Golf Hotel which overlooks the 18th green. While dining we noticed that there was a group teeing off the 18th and following them was a gallery of about 50 people. We asked our waitress what was going on and she replied there was some professional playing and she believed his name was “John Nicholson”. We were quite puzzled, as we had never heard of this professional, however, low and behold who did we see coming up the 18th, none other than the Golden Bear himself, Jack Nicklaus! Apparently he was in the area and decided to drop in for a round!
Needless to say this topped off our trip to Dornoch. If you ever get the chance to visit either of these courses I would highly recommend as they are well worth the visit!
Joanne Ford
Joanne Ford with the Lake Karrinyup Salver