5
The wind decides
Eighteen holes laid out between the dunes and the sea in 1897, on ground nobody levelled first.
The card
| Hole | Yards | Par | SI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1The Sandy Loup | 402 | 4 | 11 |
| 2Whinny Brae | 455 | 4 | 5 |
| 3Sclaffer | 168 | 3 | 17 |
| 4The Bents | 528 | 5 | 9 |
| 5Corbie | 471 | 4 | 1 |
| 6Sheep Ree | 356 | 4 | 13 |
| 7Lang Whang | 561 | 5 | 7 |
| 8The Neuk | 196 | 3 | 15 |
| 9Turnstane | 438 | 4 | 3 |
| Out | 3,575 | 36 | |
| 10Hame Green | 391 | 4 | 12 |
| 11Sea Ware | 141 | 3 | 18 |
| 12Cauld Kail | 421 | 4 | 8 |
| 13The Spectacles | 447 | 4 | 4 |
| 14Kirk Brae | 511 | 5 | 10 |
| 15Sma Gully | 344 | 4 | 16 |
| 16Windlestrae | 212 | 3 | 14 |
| 17The Gowf Ha | 462 | 4 | 2 |
| 18Hameward | 434 | 4 | 6 |
| In | 3,363 | 35 | |
| Total | 6,938 | 71 |
Championship tees. Medal and forward yardages are on each hole.
Nobody moved this ground into position. The holes were laid over it in 1897 by a man who walked the dunes for a week and then put pegs in, and the course has been arguing with golfers ever since.
What that leaves is a links that is unfair in ways an architect would not choose and interesting in ways an architect could not invent. Two greens sit in hollows you cannot see into. One fairway narrows to eighteen paces at exactly the distance a good drive finishes. The eleventh is a hundred and forty yards and takes more cards than the fifth, which is four hundred and seventy-one.
5
9
Turnstane
A ridge across the fairway that sends anything short back to you
Par 4 · 438 yds · Off the left, into
11
13
The Spectacles
Two deep bunkers set into the face of the ridge, side by side
Par 4 · 447 yds · Off the left, across
17
The Gowf Ha
A blind drive over the shoulder of the dune to a fairway that slopes away
Par 4 · 462 yds · Off the left, into
Iain Rennie
Head professional, here since 2009
Came from a caddie family two miles up the coast and has played the course in every wind it has.
Morag Cleghorn
Links superintendent, here since 2016
Runs the turf on the principle that a links is a piece of coastal grassland that happens to be playable, and waters accordingly — which is to say, rarely.
Tom Baird
Club professional, here since 2019
Fits clubs for the wind here rather than for a launch monitor in a shed, which is why members send visitors to him.
The 1911 fire
The original clubhouse — the Gowf Ha, which the seventeenth is named for — was a single room with a stove, a table, and a shelf…
On playing the ground
The commonest mistake a visitor makes here is not club selection. It is landing the ball where they want it to finish. On a firm links…
What the greens staff do in February
Nothing that shows. February is when the links is hollow-tined, top-dressed with its own sand, and left alone. The temptation on any coastal course is to…
Come and play it
Visitors are welcome on weekday afternoons, by arrangement with the professional. There are no buggies.