And so I’m off, but not without one last trip out to the Old Course. After giving a friend a ride to his car yesterday evening, I returned to the house to discover he’d left a bag in the trunk–er, the boot. But I didn’t feel like heading back at 1 in the morning and besides, if I wait until daylight I can also make one last trip to Starbucks to steel myself for the two-hour drive to the Glasgow airport.

Going on no sleep is not good; doing it for five straight days is a bit insane. Look, I’m not complaining and please don’t take it that way. But the next time someone tells me that they’d love to have my job I’d like them to consider this: Since getting off of an overnight flight (that was the last of four starting at 6 a.m. Tuesday) on Wednesday morning, I’ve gotten no more than 3 1/2 hours of sleep a night, left the house at 6:30 or earlier every day, and been at the golf course until at least 10 each night. Dinner has never been eaten before 10:30 p.m., and I will have completed no less than seven full circuits of the Old Course in a four-day span–half of them in the pouring rain. This is hard, tiring work, fun as it may be.

Of course I wouldn’t trade it for the world, though. And now the St. Andrews Starbucks beckons one more time, as does a nice long nap in London this afternoon!