Carnegie Shield week – usually the second week in August – is the pinnacle of both golf and tourism calendars at Royal Dornoch. It’s an open competition attracting 300 plus entries every year from far and wide.
Much more than a golf tournament, the Shield is an annual celebration of long standing friendships mixed in with what Paul Barnard described as the “annual humiliation”.
There’s something about being beaten up by a golf course which brings people together, and this week each year we’re all reminded its the golf course in charge, and the golfing gods who control our fate.
I know people from far away who’ve been playing in the shield for more than 25 years. They just keep coming back and meet all the friends who do the same. For them the score is less important than the camaraderie, the stories, the laughs and the drams.
That’s the handicappers. Of course there’s an entirely serious side to the competition for those who can actually play the game. For them this is an opportunity to test ability, imagination, resilience and stamina against peers – others who can play too.
For the guys with a serious chance of winning – usually scratch or better – the competition starts on Tuesday with an 18 hole medal card. After a similar round on Wednesday the lowest 36 total scores enter the knockout rounds.
On Thursday the first round reduces the number of competitors to 16. Friday morning the 8 winners survive to the third round in the afternoon. Saturday morning is semi-final time and at 2.00pm in the afternoon the final starts an 18 hole round to decide the Champion – Watch the final
By the 6.00pm Prize Presentation the winner will have played 7 rounds in 5 days, probably in all sorts of conditions. He’ll have known relief and despair in equal measure and accepted luck, both good and bad, as the impostor Kipling suggested.
The golfing gods on the course have a way of balancing things out. It’s always the best golfer who wins the Carnegie Shield.
Watch the video to get a feel for the first day with the handicappers having fun.
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