From golf dreams to getaways

It doesn’t take much encouragement for me to start hunting for my next golf vacation. Just turning on European Golf on Saturday mornings can be enough to make me start scouring the Internet for cheap airfares to new courses and golf adventures. But this week, my incentive came from a very strange dream…

After two fun, but tiring days covering the TELUS Skins Game at Bear Mountain on Vancouver Island, I came home exhausted, and a little bit punchy too. I unpacked my suitcase and hung up my latest favorite piece of golf attire – a new belt designed by none other than Ian Poulter.

I guess I must have had Poulter on my brain when I went to bed, because the moment my head hit the pillow I was dreaming of being at the British Open at St. Andrews with Ian, wearing one of those white caddie jumpsuits that looked like it was meant for the Masters (Okay, so I get my majors mixed up in dreams).

The jumpsuit was way too big for me so I had to wrap my new IP belt around my waist so I didn’t look like the Pillsbury Dough-girl.

Anyway, as we walked the links, I asked Ian if I could hit his next shot (What was I thinking!!!!). He slowly turned and gave me the “Poulter stare”. I felt like I’d just clicked the shutter on my camera in the middle of his backswing. I immediately woke up in a sweat.

Aren’t dreams crazy? They make so much sense at the time, but a few hours later you wonder if you were reliving some LSD flashback. Not, that I’d know about those things. 😉

But for this dream, I had a pretty good idea of its source, if not its script.

Yesterday, on the 17th hole of the TELUS Skins Game, Ian was in the middle of his backswing when one of the media guys behind the tee box clicked too early. Ian stopped mid-swing and did an immediate about-face to the guy. Oh my…I wouldn’t have wanted to be him…

But before Ian could say anything, the entire gallery of thousands poured out boos and sounds of shame aimed at the photographer. I didn’t see the poor guy, but I bet he turned 10 shades of red.

Ian could not keep a straight face. I guess he was surprised see the crowd pull together like that for him. Ian turned to restart his pre-shot routine with a funny grin on his face.

And then suddenly from behind me, about 10 yards from the tee box, a guy yelled out, “Bang it tight, Ian. Bang it tight!” To which Poulter yelled back, “I’ve got it!”, and then proceeded to rip his ball waaaay Right,…not Tight. R…T…two letters that are pretty close together in the alphabet, but miles apart on course. Ooops!

Now, one might think that Ian would be pretty upset at this point. After all, he has a reputation for having a bit of a temper. I know it was just a charity event and that the guys are always more relaxed. But this was the 2nd last hole of the tournament and there was $245,000 on that one hole.

I was expecting Ian to show a bit more frustration. But he just walked up to his ball joking with the crowd about his ‘loveley” lie, and then just whacked it out. Quite the follow through don’t you think?

All day I’ve been thinking about the dream and its source, and I have decided it must have been a “sign”. Either I’m headed for caddie school or it’s time to seriously look at how I’m going to make my way to the home of golf – St. Andrews.

Walking the hallowed fairways of Tom Morris’ home club and crossing the bridge at the 18th, pausing to put my foot up on the stone as Jack did not so long ago, is something I’ve always “dreamed” about. And now, those conscious dreams seem to have infiltrated my REM sleep. Yup, it’s time to put a serious plan together to golf in Scotland.

Over the next few weeks I am going to pick the courses and set up a tour for summer 2010. I’ll keep you posted on that. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks.

Meanwhile, it’s time for me to hit the sack and pick up where I left off in last night’s dream. Hmmmm…I wonder if Ian’s still glaring at me.

Golfgal