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The rain
The rain was bouncing off the floor and the clubs were already wet as I stood on the first tee of Royal Portrush's Dunluce Links last month.
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"You need to avoid that bunker on the left but also don't go right, that rough is horrible," warned my caddie, known locally as George the Baptist. "So really, straight down the middle is perfect."
I followed the instructions, straight and long down the middle. Nine iron to the green and a solid two-putt par.
"Well done. There'll be tears before the end though," giggled the hugely entertaining and knowledgeable George, a man who has carried a bag for more than 6,500 rounds at this glorious Northern Ireland golf course.
When you get invited to play golf at Portrush - the venue for this week's 148th Open Championship - you drop everything. It's generally regarded as one of the best 20 courses in the world.
The R&A - who run the game in the UK - had set up the very first Open Links Invitational to highlight the unique challenge which awaits the world's top golfers and celebrate the tournament's return to Northern Ireland for the first time in more than 60 years.
I was paired with the lovely Iona Stephen from Golfing World and with her playing off scratch as a professional and me off a handicap of three we didn't have much room for error.
The anticipation hits you as soon as you get anywhere near the place. "Are you going to Portrush?" asked the cabin crew on my way up the steps to the plane at Manchester airport.
The taxi driver from Belfast regaled me with stories of some of the famous faces he'd taken to the course over the years and - even a month before it all kicks off - there were people outside the entrance to the club eager to see what was happening.
This Open Championship is going to be a something else.
You've not been able to touch a ticket for months. All 215,000 disappeared in record time and it is all anyone is talking about.
The Irish Open at Lahinch at the start of July showed the appetite for golf in Ireland. So many of the professionals mentioned the enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowds and Portrush will be no different.
Every bar, hotel, guesthouse and resident in the town is geared up for the world of golf to descend.
Terry Dobbin will be caddie master for the week of the tournament and summed the mood up nicely. "We can't wait to have them here. I think they'll almost love it as much as we do," he said.
The Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush has always been rated as an amazing test of your game and that certainly won't change. As is usual, there have been a few tweaks made by the authorities - such as the addition of two new holes - and wherever you look there are great holes offering huge opportunities and potential peril.
"It looks great but it can make you cry," says Gary McNeill the Portrush professional. He must be mates with George.
