"Do you get many Americans coming here?" I asked Simon Freeman, the keeper of the greens at this legendary location.
"No, only the ones who know their golf courses and the history of golf," he replied.
The great triumvirate of Braid, Taylor and Vardon came to play in the tournament with a prize four times bigger than what James Braid had recently won as the current Open Champion.
As anyone who knows me will tell you I love The Machrie with a passion and consequently could go on and on about this wonderful golf course. Therefore to save time and space I'll quote from James Finnegan's, Blasted Heaths and Blessed Greens, "No mere golfer deserves it, this extraordinary combination of beauty, solitude and freedom."
I was so inspired by Islay (Pronounced Eye-La) and The Machrie that upon my return to Godzone I came up with an article for the Cut golf magazine and Heather, the editor came up with the headline "Taste of Heaven, glimpse of Hell".
The reference to hell was based on my story about walking off the 17th tee with Alistair, a member of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society and while talking about Islay's famous malts Alistair informed me that the hole we were playing is called "Ifrinn" which is Gaelic for Hell.
‘Ifrinn’ is a classic linksland blind second shot and upon reaching the top of the hill and looking down onto Hell green it was such a memorable experience that in the late evening I walked out to the hill at Hell and enjoyed a magnificent Machrie sunset.
It just so happened that my trip to The Machrie coincided with the Islay Festival of Music and Malt and a malt whisky investor friend has never let me forget that if I hadn't been so mad keen on golf I'd have picked up a rare bottle of Port Ellen at a very reasonable price.
Sometime later I was reminded of my costly “madness” when I read in The Guardian, "Thirty years ago, a distillery died. Now its scotch sells for £1,500 a bottle"
The Port Ellen distillery was closed in 1983 however the deep smoky and peaty taste of their product can still be experienced at several other Islay distilleries which have remained open. With Lagavulin and Laphroaig the best known of Islay's single malt whiskies.
Personally I have a preference for Caol Ila but that's another story.