Several years ago, a reader wrote in to tell me that he kept a record of everywhere he’d played, but that he didn’t count nine-holers as they weren’t proper golf courses. It struck me as such an odd sentiment and it has stayed with me ever since.
He couldn’t have been more wrong, of course, but if he were right, I was just about to waste three days of my life as I officially entered the Highlands on the A82 at 4.50pm on September 29 en route to the Isle of Skye. Fifteen minutes later, I was driving along the valley floor of a brooding and magnificent Glencoe. What a debt of gratitude we drivers owe to those who laid down these spectacular roads through such spellbinding and majestic scenery.
My mission to play all nine nine-holers in Golf Highland’s ‘High 9s’ collective had been weeks in the planning with the help of June Sanderson. I’d played five of them before, so my initial idea had been to just play the other four. But it would be silly to go all that way and not play them all, wouldn’t it? And why not try to do it all in just three days?
I’d trialled three nine-holers in a day a couple of times before and,
