I was born and grew up in the town of Falkirk and it was on The Falkirk Tryst golf course that I had my first exposure to golf. This was my father’s home club where he played on Saturday afternoons. I know that he played on Saturday afternoons because in those days his working week included Saturday mornings and on Sundays, the course was closed to try to encourage a bigger attendance at church.

I played there in my early teenage years before football squeezed out golf in my recreational schedule. I decided that I would like to go back after half a century to see if the course was as I remembered it and largely it was.

The Tryst is a very flat course built on sandy soil so it copes well with bad weather. One of my main memories is of lots of gorse and there did seem to be less of that nowadays although I did manage to find some of the remaining bushes with a stray shot. The course has a main road running through it and also encircles Stenhousemuir cricket club’s pitch.

We played the course on the 28th of April and it was quite cold but dry when we set out, however, that was to change as it began to snow when we got to the fourteenth. We decided to beat a retreat at that point which was unfortunate. Even by the standards of the Scottish weather, snow was not expected at that time of year.

 

The clubhouse was undoubtedly the same building but had thankfully been renovated inside since my last visit and my Dad’s old wooden locker was now a shiny new metal one. The course layout didn’t have any obvious changes and indeed the the last three holes still occupied the same separate area which was known then as “the park” bordered by stone dykes and sitting adjacent to the clubhouse.

This was a nostalgic return which was spoiled a bit by the weather and having to cut it short - but there is always another day.