Driving

17.9C with grey cloud and the threat of rain. Calm.

In a repeat of yesterday Maeve the Deerhound and I went down to the Championship golf course before 9 o'clock this morning. We had seen the order of play for today's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and had noticed there were few top golfers out early. However, there were several celebrities and sportsmen so we had hopes of getting some photos.

The actor James Nesbitt (Cold Feet, Murphy's Law, Jekyll, Monroe) was out in the first group of the day and then there were cricketers in the next few groups. The groups featured Shane Warne, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan, Sir Ian Botham, Alan Lamb, and Channel 5's cricket presenter Mark Nicholas. Back on the practise green we saw golfers José María Olazábal, Fabrizio Zanotti, Thorbjørn Olesen, Jesper Parnevik, Soren Hansen, Thomas Levet, and David Duvall (2001 Open Champion) who stopped to say hello to Maeve on his way to the shuttle bus to the 10th Tee where he started today.

My blip is a shot of the very colourful Sir Ian Botham watching Michael Vaughan drive on the 1st Tee. Sir Ian's caddie was keeping up the colourful look. Their professional playing partners Lee Slattery and David Horsey look on from the back of the Tee.

After lunch Maeve and I had our usual walk. The harvesting of the potato field is almost finished with the big red harvester working on the last ridges as we walked down the bridle path. We didn't go down to the beach today.