North Berwick Golf Club
East Lothian, Scotland
What is the most enjoyable course in the world to play? On the authors’ short list would be the West course of North Berwick. The course, first and foremost, reminds all golfers of one thing – golf is a game, to be enjoyed at all levels by as many people as possible.
There are numerous factors that make a golf course enjoyable to play and yet challenging for a low marker. The principle two factors would be the course’s general setting and its collection of golf holes. North Berwick scores very high on both counts.
First, the setting. Alister MacKenzie felt the reason Cypress Point received no criticism in its opening year was that the setting was stunning as to distract the golfer from the lesser merits of the course. While North Berwick is no Cypress Point, it is still an exhilarating place to find oneself. The West course runs in a predominately west-east direction along the coastline. Most holes afford lovely views over the Firth of Forth and Bass Rock. The golfer is likely to see many forms of vessels out in the sea, ranging from small fishing boats to clipper ships.
Welcome to North Berwick!
As for the holes, the much-copied Redan originated here but there are plenty of other holes of great merit at North Berwick as well. The variety of the holes is linked closely to the variety of obstacles found at North Berwick. A beach, stone walls, blind shots, wickedly contoured greens, burns, bunkers that could be called pits, holidayers heading across the course for the beach, a parking lot – you name it, it is all at North Berwick.
Well almost all. What is missing from North Berwick is deep rough. There are no long forced carries over rough nor is the golfer likely to ever draw a lie that only allows him to hack out the ball. And what a blessing this attribute is. The annoyance of having to hunt around with your head down looking for golf balls is an altogether rare occurrence; thus the pace of play can keep moving. The sign on the starter’s hut notes that, ‘A round of golf should not take more than 3 hours.’ Thus, the enjoyment of the game soars.
How does Berwick challenge the better golfer? First, the coastal setting of links land means the wind and elements will always be a factor. There are no guarantees of level stances either. More importantly, similar to Pinehurst No.2 and St. Andrews, the principal answer is found around Berwick’s green complexes.
The green sites fit their holes perfectly. For instance, the short par four 1st hole’s green is perched on a cliff top. The long par four 3rd hole’s green is left relatively open in a field. The medium length 7th green was placed directly behind a burn. The trouble is in proportion to the hole’s length.
In addition to the placement of the greens, some of the most boldly contoured greens in the British Isles are found here. Yet the questions asked by greens such as the 1st, 16th, and 17th are within every player’s capabilities; thus Berwick means so much fun and excitement to so many players.
Some of the challenges at Berwick are conventional, such as the classically positioned solitary bunker on the inside of the dogleg on the 12th hole. Other of its challenges are unique, such as the blind pitch to the 14th green that slopes away to the sea. This combination is irresistible, and pulls the golfer back year after year.
The original Redan.
Holes to Note:
First and Second, 330 and 430 yards, respectively; The game gets underway quickly. The 1st and 2nd holes are a microcosm of the challenges of North Berwick as a whole. The first is quirky, requiring a mid iron tee shot that lays up short of a public foot path that cuts across the fairway heading toward the beach. The approach shot is a blind short iron to a green sloping criminally away from the golfer on the cliff top.
The intimidating second tee shot.
The 2nd hole is a classic dogleg hole. The tee is set high above the beach and the hole follows the curve of the beach below to the right. It is all too easy to slice the tee shot onto the beach, which is treated as a lateral water hazard (and thankfully not out of bounds). Recovery from the beach is readily possible. If the golfer takes on the challenge of the dogleg, he is rewarded with a shorter and simpler shot into the green. Otherwise, he has a long iron into the green.
So the course goes, mixing classic challenges with unique ones. The land and the holes do become mundane out near the turn with the 8th and 9th holes. However, these breathers only serve to heighten what is one of the most exhilarating closing stretches of holes in golf, starting with the 13th hole.
From behind the thirteenth green, with the stonewall on the left.
Thirteenth hole, 365 yards; The drive is not dissimilar to that found on many links courses; the second shot is wildly different. A sand dune pinches in the front left half of the green. A stone wall of up to three feet high protects the entire right side of the green, literally. Getting at a back hole position given the narrowing green is vexing; an approach shot missed right of the wall even more so.
Fifteenth hole, 190 yards; The much copied 190 yard Redan par three. The term Redan is borrowed from the military and means ‘guarding parapet.’ The key is for the tee ball to clear the parapet and yet still stop quickly on the green. Subsequent versions have been better done as a mound some forty yards short of the green obscures part of this hole.
The Redan.
Sixteenth hole, 380 yards; A green that needs to be seen to be believed. The drive is over a stonewall with people walking past. The shot needs to come to rest before the burn that crosses the fairway at the 230 yard mark. Then the fun begins. The green – or perhaps the greens – are two upside down tea cups connected by a four foot valley that bisects the green. Trying to hit and hold the green is one of the most fun shots in golf. The recovery shot when the approach fails is most vexing. Coming when it does toward the end of the round when the nerves may well be shot, the hole is a real test. It is among the authors’ favorite medium length holes in the world.
The swale in the middle of the sixteenth green is well evidenced here.
Ironically, one of the harshest critics of courses of this nature (St. Enodoc, Brora, etc.) tend to be the Brits themselves. They dismiss such courses as ‘holiday’ courses. Such golfers are only satisfied if a course punishes them. They prefer fairways to be hay-lined like Muirfield down the road where only rifle straight shots will do. All this misses the point as hay lined fairways and thick rough tend to sap all the variety out of courses.
Ballesteros never won an Open at Muirfield. Be assured he would have won it if it were contested at North Berwick, where imagination rules supreme.
The End