Getting Set for Scotland

Interestingly enough, this will be my first of three trips to Scotland when I actually flew from the United States. Once, I was a student in London traveling up with my uncle to take on St. Andrews at its finest. The second time I was a caddie at the Old Course, and my dad visited on his first abroad trip since Vietnam.

This will be a tad different. Jet lag will surely run its course. The free wine on the plane might not feel so spectacular when you get off that plane in Edinburgh at 8 AM and plan on hitting the links.

Also, the planning has been different this go-around. For the last two weeks, I've been really focusing my practice and range time on Scotland golf. Instead of going to the range and hitting big lob wedges, I've been trying to tone down the swing to fit when the wind blows. Sure, that might seem like a bit of overkill, but doing little things like this will allow my game to travel better, and hopefully keep me from having any metal fatigue problems while across the pond.

My dad is doing something similar to what I'm doing, just with fitness. Pops just turned 60 in January, and as we've planned to play 36 holes in one day twice, he understood that fitness would be vital to his enjoyment. Mr. Bacon gets up fairly early in the morning (Read: just as crickets are falling asleep) and walks, but he has upped his distance to help himself prepare for the long walks along the links. Now he is knocking out five miles a day and is also adding a night walk in to help get himself physically prepared for the trip.

Sure, a golf trip to Scotland is intended to be a man's 5th Avenue, but we can't kid ourselves on the goal ... have a ton of fun, and play good golf. I'm hoping to do both, and I'm sure that a Tennets here and there will only aid in the smiles and high fives.