Striding

16.0C with sunny spells and a light breeze.

Maeve the Deerhound and I went down to the Championship golf course before 9 o'clock this morning to see if we could get a photo or two of the golfers starting their challenge for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

I have chosen to post this shot of Ernie Els striding across the first tee having watched Charl Schwartzel play his first shot of the day. Last year I got a shot of Ernie after he had finished his first round.

We watched Darren Clarke and his group play off the first tee, and then went to the practise putting green where we got some photos of last years winner Branden Grace, Retief Goosen with film star Andy Garcia, Sir Steve Redgrave, Martin Kaymer, Vijay Singh, Louis Oosthuizen, and Padraig Harrington (who won the Open Championship in 2007 when it was last played here in Carnoustie).

After lunch Maeve and I had our usual walk. The harvesting of the potato field was still in full swing, the top half of the field the focus of attention today. There had been two varieties of potato in the field. We could see the difference clearly as one had white flowers, the other purple.

Down at the beach the tide was well out. The sand was dry so we plodded along slowly. We found some Sea Glass but weren't really looking for it today. A few pieces have been added to the bottle.

At the Fishermen's huts there were more boats to be seen. There are only a couple of small boats left in the water now.