It was great to attend the Dalmahoy Club Championship finals day where my fiancée, Samantha MacGregor was playing in the Ladies Final in her first year at the club. She played some great golf tee to green and pushed Dalmahoy legend Kim Horne to 17 before finally succumbing to a 2 and 1 defeat. Kim is a stalwart of Dalmahoy and was so pleased that I pointed out that she’d won the Championship four times before Samantha was even born!

The whole family was there as my brother Steve and his wife Aimee of Aimee Smith Studios and my gorgeous niece Maggie were all over from the USA. Steve and I managed to squeeze in a couple of games and really pushed each other. The competitive spirit is alive and well between us.

Aimee has been busy too – it was very much a working holiday with visits to St Andrews and Dornoch plus a couple of other special venues. Check out her website for details.

We were also reminiscing about our wins over the years. Whilst we’d both been junior members, neither of us managed to win the Junior Championship. It’s great to see the young players coming through now. Between us we’ve got six championships – two for him and four for me – needed to make that clear.

I share my initials with my dad and he has been known to try and pass off my wins as his but everyone knows the truth.

Dalmahoy is in great condition and the ground staff have done a fabulous job during the very dry, hot spell to keep it that way. It’s a great practice facility for me and a beautiful location to spend time at. There are deals to be had and it’s well worth checking out both of the challenging courses. You can find out more about stay and play offers here.