A Pilgrimage To St Andrews

There are golf trips, and then there are the ones you end up talking about for years.

This year's Pilgrimage was the latter.

Eight members made the trip to St Andrews, and for seven of them, it was their first time experiencing golf in Scotland. Somehow we got SEVEN straight days of sunshine, almost no wind, and hardly a drop of rain. It’s the kind of week that would make San Diego blush. If someone had handed us the itinerary beforehand, we would've assumed it was too good to be true.

The Pilgrims:

Sam Pupino, Andrew Weikle, Austin Henggeler, Matt Bickel, Preston Tracy, Alex Green, Mark Colwell, and Carl Colwell (aka "The Legend")

The trip got off to a memorable start before anyone even teed it up.

Sam's clubs didn’t make it to Scotland on time (apparently 400 Ibuprofen gets your golf bag flagged for inspection).

Instead of letting it ruin the week, he rented clubs, bought what had to be the nicest emergency wardrobe in St Andrews, and reluctantly paid £20 for a single pair of underwear. It became the running joke of the trip, especially considering he played some outstanding golf with a rental set. Somewhere along the way, our driver Alan even offered to help solve the underwear situation by donating from his own closet. It was that kind of week.

From the first coffee at the Edinburgh airport to the drive into St. Andrews, the groupclicked almost immediately. Austin's flight delays kept him from arriving for the openingday, but once everyone was together, it felt like we'd all been traveling together for years.

The competition itself was our annual Pilgrimage Quaich, a Ryder Cup between the Old Toms and the Young Toms. The competition consisted of 4-ball matches at The NewCourse and Kingsbarns, before finishing with singles matches at Crail.

As has become tradition, the Young Toms never really let go of the momentum.

Kingsbarns probably produced the biggest moment of the competition. Carl had one of those weeks where every impossible putt seemed to find the bottom of the cup. After burying another long putt for net birdie on the famous par-3 15th, he kept his matchalive with a gritty net par on the 18th. Mark threw both arms into the air like Rocky Balboa celebrating at the top of the stairs, while Austin buried his face in his hands afterwatching his own birdie get canceled out.

Carl wasn't done.

Later in the week he rolled in an 80-footer on the 6th hole of the Old Course from well off the back of the green. By then, everyone had stopped acting surprised. It just felt like another Carl putt.

When singles arrived, the Old Toms needed a miracle to come back, but Preston and Matt closed things out and secured another Pilgrimage Quaich for the Young Toms, winning 6 points to 1.5.

As much fun as the matches were, everyone knows that's never really what Pilgrimage isabout.

It's about getting to experience the home of golf together.

Andrew was the first member of the group to make it onto the Old Course, and after his round he talked about how you can actually feel the history when you stand on those fairways. Throughout the week the rest of the group slowly completed their own pilgrimages. We'd watch one member finish on the 18th green while another headed tothe 1st tee. By the time Matt finally got his late afternoon tee time, all eight members hadwalked the Old Course.

That felt like the real victory.

The moments away from the golf ended up being just as memorable.

Late-night shawarma became tradition.

The Vic across the street somehow became home base most evenings, even with early morning tee times waiting the next day.

Alan kept the laughs coming every time we climbed onto the bus.

The post-round drinks after Old Course rounds always lasted longer than anyone planned.

Watching Sam walk up the 18th fairway alongside his wife Holly with a chance to break 80 was something none of us will forget. The putt slid by, he tapped in for 80, andsomehow that score felt just about perfect.

If there were MVPs for the week, Andrew Weikle and Sam Pupino would be hard to beat.

Andrew was the steady presence you'd want on any golf trip. Sam turned travel chaos into one of the best stories of the week while embracing every part of the experience. More than anything, both of them represented what NewClub is supposed to be about. They welcomed people in, made everyone around them feel like part of the group, andreminded us that the best trips aren't measured by scores.

Before the trip, only one member had been to Scotland before.

By the end of the week, eight members understood why we keep coming back.

The golf is unforgettable. The history is impossible to replicate. But the thing that sticks with you is sharing all of it with seven other people who love the game as much as you do.

That's Pilgrimage.