"A driver?” I questioned, peering at him from under the brim of my hat.

“Welcome to Scotland,” he said, his charming Scottish accent emerging from a sly grin as he turned the butt end of the club toward me. Granted, the wind had intensified, so I decided to humor him. Unknowingly, the joke was on me.

Holding my finish for what seemed an eternity, we watched as the prevailing winds hoisted my drive into the atmosphere, landing it upon a greenside mound short of the pin. And so, the recurring scenario of the trip was born. If the old Scottish adage is true—“nay wind, nay rain, nay golf”—then golf experiences sans the climatic elements present on the coastal courses of Britain aren’t of the purest form.