 Well, it's okay. Welcome back to another four episodes of Be Playing Golf in Scotland. This time it's in Murray on the Murray Firth and we've got four courses to play. We're going to incorporate another thing that's synonymous with Scotland and that is whisky. I'll be doing some whisky tasting along the next few days. But the one thing I've been, I've been in the car this van for seven and a half hours and I wondered why have I traveled probably the longest I ever have done for a game of golf when you turn into this car park and you realise exactly why. My accommodation for the week would be at Golf Hue Hotel and I was overlooking Murray Golf Club and more from there later on in the week. But after a night's rest it was off to my first destination. Here we've arrived at Elgin Golf Club. I've played three holes and my first impression is after three holes it seems a really well kept park and golf course. Tight treeline and so far really impressed. I don't understand how hole one is a higher stroke index than hole two. That's got me baffled. One was really tough. Did all right on two made birdie and then made bogey on the third and we've got a nice little par three rather. Into the tree small green seemed a perfect place to kick this one off and we'll see how we get on for the rest of our journey around Murray. It's a decent strike if the club's right. Go go oh I'm saying go it's just held on the back end. We've got a mixture of sun a bit of breeze picked up and like I said this place looks interesting we'll see how we get on. I'm delighted with that birdie fairly straight for little par three but the greens are really lively in terms of pace and I can imagine if they shave these down they can have them raise a sharp if you wanted them to but then you walk off four and you won't get to the fifth tee box which is stroke index one and it's clearly clear to see why straight from the get go it's sort of a par five fairway weaves itself through bunkers and treeline and the first part is it's asking a fair old bit of the tee shot. We'll see how we get on with this part to start with. Well it's leaked it out just a little bit right it's tight on that treeline and I don't think I'm going to have the easiest the second shot but uh I think it was the pressure of what I was being asked to do there off that tee. Might have saved it there you know might have just saved it. That's a chance of saving par after what you've already seen is quite a scabby hole I've played so far. Can we save it? Oh he's got it. Yeah you see me as soon as the drive leaked a little bit I think we must have caught the trees we had a second shot in I played five iron sort of pulled it low left then left one short and one shot and a par five though can save you and it was that chip and a putt. Happy with that great golf hole and again if you just come this way by the looks I think I think it's a par three that you play back coming here but how nice is that? Look superb I love the mature pines and the treeline it just really frames every hole you play and then if you spin it around this way you'll see the par five that we just played from this elevated green back down to the tee and the treeline there again super shaped hole like I said from when we were still in the tee box and Cameron's gone back on because we've got to another interesting hole there four five and six let's have a look at that two fifteen par three is up next after stroke one this is stroke five two fifteen going that way you can see the flag hopefully pick it up on the horizon big camber left to right bunker pitched up on that left hand side which is where you want to be landing really it's two fifteen and surprisingly enough I've only got five ironing on but these greens are fairways are still quite fiery and we're a little bit downwind that's the theory oh pulled it left pulled it left and oh my word thank god for my shore came right now that's another save what tough par three but you're just swinging it around there because if you go long left bulls lost that's one tough par three I can't believe I just made three after that tee shot on a 215 yard par three we'll take that right so that's me front line done and uh do you know what I was I thought it was quite tough you know there's a bit of a breeze picked up but the treeline I think the difference with me is when I play links the openness of it all I don't get as tensive off the tee and I think once you see those tree lines and a few ropey drives and all of a sudden everything closes in on you we're looking back down 10 that we'll play shortly and again lots of mature trees left and right you have to find that fairway I've had to play a few low ones from out of the trees and as you've seen salvage some kind of score but really tip top in terms of the condition of it but later on today we're going to taste some whiskey at Glen Murray and maybe we'll just have a quick nip there while I get teed up for the 10th Glen Murray have been crafting whiskey for 120 years in the heart of space side producing some of the finest malt whiskey following the journey of water and barley making its way to cask then to bottle is a fascinating process but ultimately my real interest in whiskey is in the tasting and unfortunately that would have to wait until later on in the day so that was a quick look at Glen Murray distillery and there was a really good tour but we didn't taste the whiskey that was early on the Monday morning I like a whiskey as much as anybody but that was pre this round but what we've done is we've got a few samples to take away and we'll be trying at the end of this video hopefully on the beach which is seen just away from our hotel so that's how we'll finish this evening for now I better get a driveway or try and get a driveway on 10 it's at this point the whiskey would have probably helped oh that's a shot and I'm stepping away for the camera to have a look at that one yeah that's a decent ball better left to right my more comfortable shot when them trees are in play we've got one down the middle Elgin was founded in 1906 in the heart of Murray and Spaceide the planting in many trees has changed the landscape of the course significantly in recent decades to become a mature tree line parkland that it is today a lot of talking on the back nine I've just realized that I think 10th we spoke about our little whiskey tasting and we're now on 15 so I missed a fair bit in between but more of the same to be quite honest with you tight tree line fairways really fast greens and some interesting holes in this one another part three that I picked back up on we're playing what's it say off there 180 I think I've just measured out more like 170 to the flag that I'm playing to today small little green elevated position is really nice little part three winds picked up a lot that's all right it's left it's not moving sit down oh and oh hello well I got a friendly little kick there didn't quite read that one as it's finished there was a bit of a kick from left to right which has brought me closer to the flag wasn't quite the right club I think was still another 10 or 15 yards short but always take the good bounces we get plenty of baddens oh wow I'll send it a really nice green you know you can't quite see the movement from back there where we teed off and my ball pitched up on the green up on this side and it's just sort of made its way right down back to the well it fell off to the fringe really but there's so much almost uh yeah a real fall off from the front well we put camera on see if we can make birdie turn turn turn uh we're gonna make birdie I think good enough pace but not quite the right line that was a chance of birdie it was a long chance for birdie but another 16 a bit blind over the brow but uh lovely green coming in from that sort of slightly elevated position I'll take a four off there I think it was one low on the stroke index but um like I said coming in from that second shot in that you're seeing tree just overhangs on the uh on the right hand side of the shot it managed to get just a little bit of draw and just cleared it probably again under club slightly it's difficult when you play in these kind of tree lined courses you don't know exactly can't feel the wind that's the real tough part and the challenge and you're struggling all the time to remember which way it's coming from and you sit down in amongst it all and you persuade yourself there is no wind there and of course it's uh you find out when your ball goes up in the air that it is 17 3 3 4 we're going to iron not a club I play that often but we're on all of the oh nailed it well I'll say nailed it that's a bit far left isn't it sit down sit down that's gone for miles right last tee shots it's been an enjoyable round a pity that the weather rather has gone a little bit overcast in terms of what we've been able to film but a really enjoyable round 18 back to the clubhouse and don't forget we got that whiskey to taste yet which I'm really looking forward to right I haven't drove too bad today let's see if we can find another fairway to finish oh and let rip there go that's a big end to finish right so golf's all over whiskey whiskey tour early on today at Glen Murray and now I finally get my chance to taste these things I said I'd do it on the beach and at the time the sun was shining I thought this is the perfect thing we'll go and taste whiskey on the beach later on it's not quite as nice as planned but anyway we're going to start off with Glen Murray's sort of standard single malt we'll give that a little bit of a tape I'm not that excited about this one so we'll go we'll go a little bit of this and we've got the classic tin mug which is always useful whiskey tasting it's a gentle warm up the way I explain that one it's kind of like it's okay it's nothing special it's it's your regular single malt I think that's what we'll say I ain't raving about it I've got three others to try I'm not keen on this before I even try it I don't like petered whiskies so I'll leave that until the end but I do like these two well I think I will this one has got a port cask finish it's a little bit deeper in colour as you can see I'm hoping it's got a little bit sweetness to it I'm no whiskey expert but I know what I kind of like and these kind of sherry cask pork cask whiskies are quite nice and yeah we've got a sherry cask which I'm going on to next it's quite nice isn't it on the beach it's a bit overcast and dull but we've got a tin mug and some whiskey right a bit sweet on the nose that's a whole lot different for me bit sweeter bit easier drinking less harsh than that single malt that we started with much more my cup of tea or glass of whiskey in this case I'm going to move on quite quickly why not let's go into the sherry cask it was a great tour by the way at Glen Murray um really enjoyed it right I should also point out we've walked down here so before anyone's worrying there's no more driving to be done hence why we left it so late in the day right sherry cask I can't really smell a great deal of the difference between that and the pork cask if I'm honest I don't know really very very similar but I think with a sherry cask I can taste still a little bit of smokiness in there which I wasn't quite getting in that pork cask pork cask is the one for me so far we'll finish this off we need not to I'm going to take our time a little bit down there that's three whiskies in there in a short space of time right I'm going to finish with one that'll make me put a bit of a face I reckon and it's this um yeah peated finish peated single malt it's an Elgin classic but I've got a feeling oh god no I just do not like even a smell of this it's a real kind of smoky peaty finish and it's just not my whiskey that I like but in um why not in for a penny in for a pound we'll try them all oh my word god I don't like that stuff I cannot believe I like whiskey and I'll drink pretty much any of them but the minute you go to something it's really kind of smoky and in that case that peated whiskey is exactly that even when it's coming into your nose it almost tastes medicinal and it's a real change up so I'll end up with a negative the first three certainly the pork cask was the one for me and a great tour very enjoyable if you're getting yourself up to Murray then certainly you've got to give the whiskey tours a bit of a go and make sure you find out which one you like and it ain't there