Open competitions at Royal Dornoch come to an end for the year on the first weekend in September, with the Fraser Gardner trophy competition. This 36 hole medal competition, with 18 holes on the Royal Dornoch Championship course and 18 holes on the Royal Dornoch Struie course is a real tester. Handicaps are limited to 12 and below, and there’s usually a ballot for places.

Medal competitions on the Championship course are no place for the faint hearted. Adding that challenge this competition includes another 18 holes on the other course, no easy option at any time of the year.

So the Fraser Gardner is suitable for the young, fit and competitive.

In September both course are at their best, with a full summer’s growth on the greens and fairways, hardened up by the sun and wind. You won’t find a better test of links golf anywhere.

This year the morning started with a cool mist, as you’ll see in the photograph taken on the 3rd. Tee of the Struie course. By mid morning the sun came out and the rest of the competition was played in ideal conditions

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If Natural History captures your interest the Scottish Highlands offers plenty of material to keep you engaged for months. It’s something to do with the geology, the climate and relative lack of people, I guess.

Natural history isn’t something I’ve ever studied but I do know several who have, and for them the Lower Links at Dornoch is their own type of Paradise on the 58th Parallel.

In the Highlands, the land between the usable agricultural land and the sea – the links land – is typically designated as common good land. That means anybody who lives in the town can use the land, within some rules.

Typically the common good land has been used by the poorer people to graze their animals, but also for sports of all descriptions, and notably for golf. In Scotland the game developed on this links land – hence the association of the words golf and links.

The Lower Links at Dornoch is a huge mass of land which includes the Struie Golf course, the golf practice grounds and the Airfield. But mostly it’s home for species of flora and fauna rarely found in other parts of the UK.

Most of the ground is a sandy base covered in wiry “Bents” grass, and very wet, at least in the winter. And it’s a perfect place to go for a walk, getting away from it all.

By the airfield hanger there’s a story board explaining the very special natural history resources to be found here.

The text of the board tells us:

Dune Grassland
The dunes in this area are first colonised on the beach by Sea Lyme grass which trap the sand and build the higher ridges. The dune surface is then stabilised by a carpet of mosses.

Between the outer dunes and the golf practice area there is a type of grassland rich in flowering plants which has become rare throughout the much of Britain. This area at Dornoch Links is particularly valuable example and is unusual in that it contains a mixture of dry undulating dunes with Moonwort and scattered Juniper and low lying water-logged land which was once saltmarsh flooded by tidal seawater. The wet ground is particulalry rich in species such as Yellow Rattle, Ragged Robin, Grass of Parnassus, Northern Marsh Orchid, Frog Orchid, Common Twayblade, Baltic Rush, Meadosweet and Mouse-ear Hawkweed, some of which are rare in Scotland.

Natural grasslands of this type are easily damaged by heavy grazing, trampling, the use of chemicals and fertilisers or re-seeding. Light grazing or occasional cutting can be beneficial to the plants.

Enjoy looking at the many interesting plants but please also help to conserve this important habitat by not causing damage to the ground or picking flowers.

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The last witch burned at the stake met her unfortunate end in Dornoch. Or that’s the story around here at least. It seems the Scottish Highlands was the last area to ban the practice of accusing people of witchcraft, and then killing them in the most unfortunate way. Despite the strong influence of christianity it seems the residents of Dornoch continued this approach to managing social behaviour until 1727.

On the corner of River Street and Carnaig Street there’s one of those history storyboard’s explaining the fate of unfortunate lady. And in the garden overlooking the Struie golf course there’s a grey stone – the Witch’s Stone marking the spot. Across the street is a deep pond, known locally as the Witch’s Pool.

Of course it might just be the hearsay but this always seems an eerie spot to me – almost as if she’s still there, haunting those who treated her so cruelly

The text on the story board tells us:

Witch’s Stone

Janet Horne had been a lady’s maid before she married, but by 1727 she was old and confused. Early that year her neighbours reported that she was using witchcraft to turn her daughter into the devil’s pony.

Janet and her daughter (whose hand was deformed) were imprisoned in Dornoch, where they were tried and found guilty of witchcraft. The daughter escaped before she could be punished but her mother was sentenced to death.

The next day she was stripped, rolled in tar and placed in a barrel. A grim procession carried her to this place, where she was burned alive. She was the last recorded person in Scotland to die in this terrible way.

Janet Horne’ execution place was marked by a stone, now part of the garden in front of you

The date on the stone should be 1727.

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Living in the Scottish Highlands offers plenty advantages, and more than a few disadvantages.  Quality of life for most is higher than other parts of the United Kingdom, there’s plenty of capacity in the health services, little crime, bearable traffic and weather more clement than you’d think. In June we have 20 hours of daylight.

On the other hand there are few private sector businesses, so job opportunities are hard to find. The combination of local politics and public sector organisations creates a scary mixture of personal self aggrandisment and politically correct social engineering. Economic growth and incomes are far below those achieved in England and embarrasing when compared with other small countries in Northern Europe.  And in December we only get 6 hours of daylight.

A quick spin through the news this week finds plenty of ammunition for dinner party discussions about the sweet side of living here and the sour side of public sector dominance causing private sector poverty.

The Scottish Daily Record reports a wonderfully uplifting story about cancer survivor Sue Thomson and how a move to the Highlands saved her life. This will make a great feel good movie, explaining as it does how de-stressing improves quality of life.

Meanwhile there’s a huge fuss being made by the Nannie State about setting a minimum price for the sale of alcohol. The government just keeps on its brain washing about the benefits while the Press and Journal reports the results of a poll showing the Minimum Price Will Not Curb Drinkers. Meanwhile the Telegraph tells us Alcohol drinking in Britain sees its sharpest fall since 1948. This is typical of Socialist Scotland (The SNP is no better than Labour) with the government pissing down our necks while telling us its raining.

While the media is making a fuss about booze, Scottish Enterprise is making us all feel better because our Offshore Wind Sector MAY create 48,000 jobs. It doesn’t tell us why that’s been talked about for years, but there’s nothing happening about it, up here at least.

But the Public Sector is having a grand old time, spending money on itself, again. The Herald reports redundancy packages for 100 senior managers in Glasgow Council will cost us £13 millions and Press and Journal says NHS Grampian finds itself in hot water over plans to spend £75,000 on tea trolleys.

The rest of us will find life tough this winter because 150,000 council workers will be on strike this winter because they don’t like their pay rise. Which magazine found in a recent poll Bank of Scotland came dead last for Customer Service. And the Inverness Courier warns we’re likely to lose the direct train service connecting Inverness and London.

The SNP is finally getting something right with MSP Brian Adam suggesting a new oil find in the North Sea should be used to set up a national oil fund similar to Norway’s. Back in the days of the original oil rush Norway decided to put money charged to oil companies into a fund to benefit its people. That fund is now £300 billion. Scotland didn’t. Now Norway has the highest standard of living in Northern Europe, and Scotland has the lowest. Go Figure.

And saving the best till last – the Western Isles council has asked the government to transfer to it the business development role and budget from Highlands and Islands Enterprise – HIE. Because it can do a better job. In response Highland Council’s political leaders have voiced support (surprise, surprise) for HIE although they said its management structure should be changed.

The fact is this part of the world has enormous potential to be just like Norway, with the highest standards of living, combining quality with wealth. But that isn’t going to happen anytime soon because the public sector is too busy feeding itself to do anything for the people who pay for it.

We live in hope that Danny Alexander, local MP and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, will turn it around for us, but not holding our breath.

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My golf problem finally got solved. It wasn’t what you might think.

The problem wasn’t never getting a chance to play, being semi retired with a grown up family there’s plenty of time.

It wasn’t money. Where I live golf isn’t expensive.

It wasn’t access to a golf course. Our house is 70 yards from the 1st green of one course and 100 yards from the 1st tee of the finest golf course in the world – Royal Dornoch.

It wasn’t even the fact I’m not very good. Rediscovering the Joys of Playing Crap Golf explains my new philosophy.

My problem was I didn’t want to play, and that’s because my drives go around 150 yards – that’s a good one – usually in the wrong direction, and 6 holes means 12 lost balls. This is heartbreaking because, before advancing years started stopping my body moving, this was a fun game. It even worked most of the time.

Today, with the help of my Panasonic SD600, my golf problem got solved.

Watch the video and have a laugh at this senior’s attempts to emulate the best. See if you can figure out why the swing doesn’t work. Afterwards there’s an explanation you might learn something from, or maybe spot something I didn’t and help me learn.

At first run through the swing looks “not bad” as my wife would say. The stance is reasonably square, the club is on plane and timing acceptable. That was my first impression.

But being super critical there’s something strange going on in the backswing – a sort of flicking the club into place with the hands. The swing looks narrow and tight. That’s because the hands and arms are swinging and the body is trying to follow – just not doing it very well.

Look closely, you’ll see the reason for arms disconnected from the body is my right leg straightening in the backswing and the head is moving as a result. That’s because the majority of my weight is outside my heels.

And finally, the majority of the body weight being outside my heels is I’m stood too close to the ball in the stance.

To cut a very long story short, this is how my Panasonic SD600 has solved my problem.

Because I now have a clear picture of what’s going wrong in the swing I want to play again.

It’s like rediscovering those days starting out with the game. I now know how to improve, and that’s the secret of golf – believing we can do it better NEXT TIME.

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The Internet gets fuller everyday with information and comment about business tools and business issues.  This week continues the trend and in this selection there’s more interesting news and comment you may, or may not agree with.

It’s my newsletter so I’ll start with stuff I wrote about social media.  It’s actually a series in which I unpick the hype from all the self proclaimed gurus who want to coach you in how to do that stuff, and then go on to give examples of some real business benefits.

Here’s the series:
Why Social Media is a Complete Waste of Time
How Social Media is Changing Everything As It Dies
Why to Use Social Media Even When It’s a Waste of Time

And here’s the rest of the best.

Comscore reports growth in Twitter usage falls off in the USA and never really started in Europe

Mashable reports on How Starbucks Finally Gets Free Wi-Fi right

The Next Web profiles Boomerang for Gmail which addresses a problem we solved more than two years ago and Newsblur which adds intelligence to our RSS Reading

While Mashable tells us Gmail Gets an Unofficial Snooze Bar which also solves the email problem.

The Daily Telegraph reports the UK has More than 1 Million on Incapacity Benefit for 10 Years

Mashable offers us 7 Steps to Measuring Your Brand’s Social Media Health

Seth Godin talks about The Right Price The First Time  

Gartner Explains Why the Back Office May Never Fully Understand the Front Office

Open Forum suggests we Be Where Your Customers Are

Anita Campbell reports These Issues Need to be Resolved Before Cloud Computing Becomes Ubiquitous

Windows Users MIGHT be pleased to know the Beta version of IE9 is on the horizon

Apparently Foursquare has just reached 2.6 million users which could be interesting, or completely meaningless depending on your business.

eSarcasm makes us smile with Is That a Smartphone in Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Pleased to See Me

And shows us in video Why the iPhone Could Never Make an Action Movie

Foundation Elements for Modern Business is Seth Godin talking about something I have first had experience with, and I might just argue with him later.

Steve Strauss gives us some really sensible guidance on How to Get More Twitter Followers

Seth Godin explains why we should Choose Our Customers and about The Decision Before The Decision

Posted via email from stevensreeves

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We’ve all been screwed by banks over the years and especially by bad behaviour over the last two, since they got themselves in brown smelly stuff and our governments decided to spend our money digging them out of it.

A couple of days ago consumer magazine reported Bank of Scotland coming last in a survey about customer service.  Unfortunately, as Bank of Scotland customers this didn’t surprise us.  We’ve suffered, first hand.  But the survey didn’t reflect the full story.  Bank of Scotland used to be a fine institution, with a real sense of its role in community.

That started to go away when the bank was taken over by Halifax – a conglomeration of money men with no connection to people.  The subsequent take over by Lloyds has really done for Bank of Scotland customers.  Those guys don’t give a tinkers cuss for the Halifax brand let alone what was once Scotland’s finest institution.

C’est la vie, as our friends across the channel would say.

Meanwhile the news reports credit card companies are making hay while the sun don’t shine for everybody else.  Look closely at those guys snake oil and its easy to see why.

We have MBNA credit cards but view everything they say with cynicism – a bit like the Telcos.  How do you know when a Telco or credit card company is trying to put it’s hands in your back pocket whilst explaining the favour it’s doing you? They send you special offers in the mail.

Today’s offer from MBNA was a real peach. Transfer us your high interest balances and we’ll charge you 0% interest till October – just two months away.

Being a suspicious sort of guy I searched for the downside and eventually found it in a very small note – Balance transfer fees apply.

So these guys are offering 0% interest for 2 months – give me a break, so what?  Behind the pitch is they’ll charge me 3% for transferring the balance.

Let’s see, that’s 3% for 2 months which is 18% for  year, which is what they’ll charge me after October.

Unfortunately this dirty scam will catch the very people who can least afford it.

The bankers we gave billions to help them out of the crap hole they dug for themselves are sticking it to us again.

If there would be only one thing I could ask of governments it would stop these crooked shylocks sticking it to the poor.

They should all be locked up.

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Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands is sometimes described as Europe’s last wilderness. Taking a road trip through the heart of Sutherland shows why. There’s nobody there. It’s wild, windy and empty, apart from some hardy souls who obviously enjoy their own company.

Our video shows a selection of views as we tour inland, firstly East from Helmsdale up beside the Helmsdale River. We go through Kildonan, the site of the Highlands Gold Rush, and Kinbrace, into Mackay Country. If your last name is Mackay this is likely where your ancestors came lived, before being forced to leave during the Highland Clearances.

On past Rosal Township, the memorial village we arrive at Altnaharra, the most remote hamlet in the area. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to get lunch at the Altnaharra Inn. we’ll do that another time, and maybe even spend the night in the UK’s most remote hotel. When the weather gets really bad the BBC news programmes always call the Altnaharra Inn to ask what it’s like out there. The last time I heard this the man at the hotel described the hotel as being cut off by 3 feet of snow and temperatures low as minus 25 centigrade. “We’re not worried” he said – “We’ve got plenty of beer”!

The the road goes south past Ben Klibreck (shrouded in cloud this day) and ultimately the most remote pub anywhere.

The Crask Inn is famous amongst walkers and sportsmen, and tourers, because it literally is the only building between Altnaharra and Lairg, where our movie finishes.

This journey takes around 5 hours with a stop off to visit Rosal Township, and takes in less than on third of Sutherland. As you’ll see there’s no problems with traffic jams:-) but the single track roads can be slow to drive.

The rest of the county, and particularly in the North West provides simply spectacular scenery with lochs and hills and wonderfully remote yet hospitable spots like Oldshoremore beach.

We’ll cover the rest in 3 separate articles with video’s, when we get the chance.

In the meantime nobody should visit the Highlands without coming out here. Even though there’s nothing, its a very special place. In fact that’s probably why.

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Lairg seems the last point of civilisation as we drive into the wilderness of Sutherland. It seems almost every route, to everywhere goes through Lairg.

We can be going to the northwest and Oldshoremore or Sandwood Bay, or Cape Wrath or Bettyhill, or Ben Hope or Ben Klibreck- doesn’t matter. Every time we go through, and return through this small community.

The town nestles at the foot of Loch Shin, a stretch of water which reaches out to the West. In fact it seems to go all the way across the country, but doesn’t of course – just feels like it.
It’s the home of the Lairg Estate – Private Lodge for Fishing, Shooting and Golf in the Highlands.

And its also the home of the Sutherland Sporting Company where visitors to the lodge can find the appropriate attire for the sporting gentry in the Highlands.

There’s not a lot going on most of the time, which could suit lots of people very well.

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Lawn Bowling is a popular pastime all over the UK, especially with seniors, but also with the young. It’s firmly rooted in our history, with the story of Sir Francis Drake, one of England’s biggest heroes, insisting on finishing his game of bowls before sailing out to destroy King Philips Armada and save the country from Spanish invasion.

Dornoch, like almost every town or village in the Scottish Highlands has a Bowling Club.

Lawn Bowling looks fairly relaxed – certainly nobody breaks into a sweat – but can competitive too, particularly when the big matches come around. These matches are visits from other clubs where teams play against each other. For big matches everybody dresses in their “white’s” and takes the game seriously. The Dornoch bowling green will be full, and teams march from one side to the other shouting instructions and encouragement to their colleagues.

At other times a few bowlers will get together for an evenings genteel entertainment, a little fun and a bit of a laugh.

They even play in the rain, wearing white plastic jackets, with hoods – which can seem a little crazy to anybody not captivated by rolling big wooden balls across 50 yards of grass, knocking the closest man out of position.

Maybe that’s the attraction? One will work awful hard getting a bowl into position and then laugh and congratulate another who knocks him out of place. Just great fun, but with real skill and experience involved.

As long as there isn’t a big match on, visitors are welcome at the Dornoch Bowls Club, to give the game a try, or even join in and get some tuition on the side.

The video shows one of those big match days at Dornoch with the teams dressed up and ready to compete. Luckily the weather was fabulous so the whole occasion could be enjoyed by everybody, including that strange guy with the camera.

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