My first pilgrimage to the mecca of golf

[ed_getka]

I finally made my maiden voyage across the pond. It was all I had hoped for and more.

  One nit to pick. Why didn't anybody tell me they don't give you pencils in the UK?

   My favorite course was Dornoch of those that I saw.

   I flew, drove, and took the rail while over there and all went well, although prices are expensive. Gas is somewhere between $7-8/gallon!!!

Andy Levett was nice enough to come and pick me up at the train station in Stroud the day I flew in and we went out to see Burnham and Berrow. It is a decent course with some nice land in places. A very solid set of par 3's was the strongest impression of the course. A good introduction to links golf to get the kinks out after a long flight. Andy was great company and I really enjoyed my rounds of golf with him. We are fairly even in golfing ability and had some good matches at B&B and Painswick. Interesting aside, was crossing paths with John Krystanak as he came off #18, as we were heading up #1. I thought I heard someone say Hi Ed, but when I looked at John for some reason I didn't recognize him, so I thought I was hearing things. John thought he must have confused me with someone else, and didn't say hi again. We had a good laugh about it the next day at Painswick.

   One interesting thing to mention. I kept score at all the courses  I played except Painswick, but I never added up my scores until I got home. So when people would ask me what I shot at a particular course, I didn't know. I play off about a 13 handicap, but felt like I was playing some pretty solid golf. When I added up my scores I was playing off about an 8 or 9. Such is the inspiration of links golf.

[ed_getka]

Day two was Painswick. It was great to meet more of our GCA brethren from both sides of the pond, along with some of our other well-travelled stalwarts that I already know. The membership of Painswick really embraced our group. Many members took the time to be out for the first round to fill out groups and to guide us around the course. The dinner that night was a lot of fun, the company at the table was great, and Peter McEvoy, former Brit Am champ regaled us with stories of his adventures at the Masters and World Series of Golf, etc. The BBC even came out and had us on the news. What a memorable start to my trip. Rich Goodale did a fantastic job setting up this event. A special thanks to Norman, Jim Hodges, and Allan at Painswick for the time they shared with me at Painswick.

[Thomas_Brown]

Ed - Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip - Post your itinerary - Did you get to see Prestwick & North Berwick?  Do the ballot at the Old Course?

Interesting comment about playing better - I usually find it harder to score for me due to adjustment to the bouncy conditions.

[Andy Levett]

I thought Burnham and Berrow was a bit more than "decent" but maybe you're practicing English understatement
How would you rate it compared to Elie ? I've been interested in going there since reading Ran's write-up.

[Brian Phillips]

Andy,

Elie is great and would highly recommend it.

Ed,

Would love to see you itinerary with actual mode of transport as well as distances travelled.  Glad you enjoyed it.

Brian

[ed_getka]

Thomas,
   Having a higher handicap like I do makes links golf a perfect fit for me. I'm used to scraping it around with my shaky swing, but decent short game, so I get up and down from all over the place.

My itinerary was fly into Heathrow. Train out west to Stroud using a days out of london britrail pass (a good deal). Golf at B&B with Andy Levett. Next two days were at Painswick, and I either walked, taxied, or begged rides. Saturday flew up to Aberdeen, picked up rental car, golfed at Murcar. Sunday 36 at Dornoch, my favorite course of the trip. Monday: Up early and 3 hour drive to Cruden Bay, played 36 holes, only rain of trip for about 1 hour. Turned in rental car, took train to St Andrews. Walked out to 17 and 18 on the Old Course around midnight. Up early Tuesday, and signed up as a single for TOC, 30 minutes later I was golfing, came in signed up again for TOC, was told to come back at 1315 when the ladies competition would be done, and again was off within a half hour. Wednesday: Took bus to Elie and played 18 holes there with Rich. Train to Edinburgh after the golf. My legs were pretty shot at this point, thus only 18 at Elie. Taking a trolley most of the trip really helped to save my legs, since most days were 36 hole days. Thursday: Train out to North Berwick, easy walk to course from station. Golfed with Richard LeSueur, who is an up and coming architect, and had a great time.
     Some feel this is a lot of traveling, but it really wasn't bad at all, especially compared to most of my golf binges. Most of the time I stayed at youth hostels for around 10-12 pounds per night. I don't need conveniences after golfing all day, I just need a place to sleep.
     Travel is relatively expensive in the UK. Gas is ridiculously expensive, which is apparently due to an almost 100% tax, which helps pay for running the country. The trains were suprisingly expensive, which is, as I understand it, due to privatization of the rail system.
    I used a rail and drive Britrail pass, which was a total ripoff. I could have done better on my own with individual train tickets and a car rental. Taxis are also expensive, on average about 8-10 pounds for a 3-5 mile trip.

[Bill_McBride]

Ed, I played at Crail's Craighead course with Richard LeSeur and had a delightful time, he is a really great young guy with some good architectural work coming along in Scotland.  He also hits some really lengthy tee balls!

With regard to costs in England and Scotland, I found pretty much everything to be priced about the same as in the US, except for the pound sign instead of dollar sign!  I really don't know how people can afford to live there, maybe their salaries are in pounds at the same absolute number as ours.

With regard to train costs, a couple of two week visits to Italy taught me that you are almost always better buying point-to-point rail tickets than Eurorail or other passes.

[ed_getka]

Day two of my trip was the Ryder Cup at Painswick. The first hole is straight uphill, and I mean UPHILL. You need to take a few minutes to rest just to get your heart rate below 200. Few can drive the green, so you try to get up to the top of the hill without going into the old quarry (which you can play out of, it has mowed grass in it, but the shot up is blind), so you can see the pin. You then have about a 30 yard pitch to decent size slightly crowned green.
   One interesting thing about a number of the greens at Painswick is one side of the green (generally the side you approach from) has a drop off from the fairway down onto the green. The drop off is anywhere from 1-6 feet. It is an interesting  challenge to control how the ball reacts to dropping off the shelf.
    #3 is a driveable downhill par 4, with the green benched into the slope coming in from the right. The green drops off about 3-4 feet in front and on the left. A pretty straightforward par, but suprisingly difficult to get the second shot close to give a good birdie attempt.
   #4 uphill par 4, blind second shot, pretty straightforward.
    #5 par3 is a pitching wedge up and over a grassy embankment which used to be part of the fortifications of an Iron age fort (about 3500 years old according to the members). The green and surrounds are pretty much a punchbowl effect, with a little contour/shelf area in the back part of the green. It is fun to hike up and around to see where the ball ended up.
     #6 par 3. One of my favorite par 3's anywhere. You are teeing off from just below the high point of the property. You can see probably 50+ miles on a clear day, and the english countryside is beautiful, also out across Wales to the coast. Downhill 210 yard shot to a nicely contoured green. There are a number of mounds/earthworks that were part of the fortifications incorporated into the hole. The landing area short of the green is basically bisected by a spine of mounding. The bigger area is on the left, and leaves a slightly uphill pitch to the green. The smaller area on the right, slopes down towards the green and guides a gentle draw right into the green. In discussing the hole with Don Placek (Tom D's assoc.), we wondered what the average architect in America would do with that hole. We figured the low area on the left would be made into a pond, the slot on the right would be bunkered, resulting in a "heroic" do or die par 3 over water that would be prominently displayed on the scorecard as the "signature" hole. #6 is worth a trip to Painswick all by itself in my book.
   The next interesting hole is #9. A shortish par 5 that provides an interesting challenge to the second shot. There is a slot about 20 yards wide with nicely undulating ground, flanked by grassy slopes about 6 feet high with shaggy grass that make you think twice about just bashing the ball as close to the green as possible.
    #10 is basically the same as #5, up and over an embankment to much more of a punchbowl green, about an 8-9 iron, coming from a different direction than #5.
    #11 is the other standout hole, that you have to see, I don't think it can be described in words. Basically blind uphill, driveable hole. The green shape is elongated. There is mounding all along the way, with numerous depressions mixed in.
    #12 driveable downhill hole that crosses #4. Again, with a green that has a shelf dropoff into the hole.
     #13 fairly straightforward par 4 that bends a little right on the way up to the green. One of the most challenging greens on the course with a spine that runs from front to back, and is a big factor in where you play your approach, depending on the pin position.
      #14 is par 4 with drive over quarry, crossing #2 fairway. Approach is a blind pitch down the slope of the fairway. You can see the pin, but not the green surface unless you hit a pretty big drive.
      #15 Downhill par 3 into a hollow. About an 8 iron, semi-blind.
      #16 driveable par 4 downhill. Dropoff shelf into green, which makes controlling the pitch down the slope and over the shelf difficult.
     All in all, a course that words cannot do justice to. Quirky and fun in spades. I worried that 4 rounds there would be overkill and would get boring, but I was wrong and thoroughly enjoyed every round.
   
   Morning fourball was a nice intro to the course.
   Afternoon foursomes (alternate shot) with Tom Doak was fun. Fortunately I lost some weight before the trip, which eased Tom's load when he carried me the whole back nine. Do NOT get in a putting contest with Tom, he will bury you. Tom dropped bombs from all over the place, particularly when they counted the most. On #8 I left Tom about 50 feet away just off the green for birdie, our opponent was 6 feet away for birdie. Tom holed the improbable putt and our opponent missed. On #13 from about 20 yards short of the green to a testy pin position, Tom stroked it right up to about a foot. You had to be there to know how impressive that putt was. On #15 our match was still close and our opponent stuck his tee shot to about 4 feet, I missed an ace by an inch, and Tom had about 35 feet from the back of the green. Tom noted if one of us could sink a putt, that that would be the match. So of course, Tom drained his putt to put the pressure on and the other guys missed.
    On the next tee we were talking equipment with Murray (the teen champ), when we noted that other than our drivers, all our clubs were older than Murray.

[A_Clay_Man]

In the immortal word of a certain dysfunctional, loveable orthopedic surgeon, "Green"...That's what I am.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Ed, I am so glad you had the best of times. I agree with Bill that everything seems to be twice what things are in the states.

[ed_getka]

The first day ended with a special dinner that the club put on for us. Painswick has a super friendly membership and the warm welcome they extended us really made the occasion memorable, and Peter McEvoy was quite entertaining.
   I had a lot of fun golfing with Darren Kilfara, Craig Disher, and Noel Freeman who I met for the first time on this trip.
   Having the opportunity to golf with Tom Doak and Don Placek was an informative experience. Hearing insights into their projects, decision making processes, financial aspects of course projects, etc.. was very interesting.
   I found it very interesting that the person who did article on Tom Doak went through this site and read all of Tom's posts here. Fortunately the tone of the article was good, and I can't think of many posts, if any, that Tom has made that would reflect badly on him. The distressing point is that someone mining this site for info may lead to less posting by those in the field, for fear of something they say being used against them.

[George Pazin]

Thanks for the thoughtful writeup - I hope others emulate it.

You mentioned that Dornoch was your favorite. How did some of the others measure up to expectations? Any advice not given before that you'd pass on to first timers?

Now we all know that Tom Doak just designs courses to suit his own game....

[ed_getka]

I will dontinue to work my way through my trip day by day. I felt well-prepared for what I encountered by all the advice I received through the site.

[ed_getka]

Andy,
  B&B is "decent" because I am spoiled in the courses I have seen the past few years in my travels. I would give it a 6 on the Doak scale, which is above average. The first few holes with the big dunes were really fun and interesting, but the middle of the course wasn't quite up to the opening, other than the par 3's. #12 par 4 on the back was a really solid hole with an interesting green and surrounds. #16 was a pretty good short par 4 with a neat two tier green, the rise must be 4 or 5 feet high on the green. An excellent challenge, but certainly not the same caliber as #7 at Sand Hills which is my favorite short par 4.

[ed_getka]

I spent Friday night in London at a youth hostel for 13 pounds. Up bright and early to Heathrow and flew into Aberdeen, Scotland. Picked up my rental car and made my first tenative attempt to drive on the wrong side of the road and tackle roundabouts. Fortunately, I had a couple of days of experience being a passenger with Andy Levett, so I wasn't having heart attacks anymore when a car would come around the bend on the "wrong" side of the road. I finally made my way to Murcar, after 3 stops to get directions. The gorse was stunning, in full bloom with the yellow blossoms brightening the landscape. Mucar GC has a nice practice field where I spent some time bumping the ball around in anticipation of my round.
     At lunch I learned you don't sit at a table and expect someone to come take your order. You go up to the bar, order your food, and pay for it all at once. Then you go sit down.
    Another nice thing about most of the clubs I went to is that they have showers and towels were provided, so I was able to clean up each day along the way, without having to jockey for position at the youth hostels I stayed in.

The course:
  #1 par 4 Straightaway shortish par 4 to an ever-narrowing fairway. Nice gentle intro into the course.
   #2 par4 Parallel to the first and coming back in the opposite direction, with a lovely rumpled fairway to a modestly contoured green.
   #3 par 4   Let the games begin! Heading south again, with a blind tee shot to a multiple level fairway. Gorse down the right, but not claustrophobically so. The best play is probably to hit a 200 yard shot to the end of the top fairway plateau, then the approach would be downhill to a nicely contoured green sitting down in a nice hollow. Well-bunkered down around the green.
   #4 par 4 Straightaway drive from an elevated tee, down to a nicely rumpled fairway. Approach is up a rising fairway to a skyline plateau green. Green drops off about 20 feet on the left down to a flat bunker, drops off on right also but not as far. Basically a do or die 3 iron for me.
   #5  par 3   A well protected green notched into the side of the hillside. Drop off left about 15', bunkered on the right, slightly uphill tee shot with 6 iron. Gorse out the back and short = no bailout!
    #6 par 4   A long dogleg left, bunkered on the inside corner. Nothing too special.
    #7 par 4  Serpentine   One of the great driving holes I have played. Elevated tee, burn down the right and crossing the fairway out at about 175 yards. Gorse lined hillside down the left. The fairway angles from left to right, so bailout left will leave a blind approach, miss it right and you are wet or unplayable. Only your best drive right up the slot will do. Approach is uphill slightly to a slightly crowned green.

More tomorrow.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

It is great to see a man put Murcar ahead of its neighbor Royal Aberdeen. My hats off to you Ed.

[ed_getka]

Murcar continued:
   3 of the final 9 holes have blind uphill teeshots, which is the biggest drawback of the course. #10 has an interesting hillside coming in from the left in the tee shot landing area, and the approach has a mound up towards the green that fools you into underclubbing. #11 is again blind, but is driveable under the right conditions, otherwise straightaway and a fairly bland hole. #12 is a short iron par 3, decently bunkered and and modestly interesting contours in green.
#13 blind uphill tee shot again, keep drive near top of hill and then its about 40' down to the green which is a mid iron away. A ho hum hole.
   The only other hole of note is #15 par 4, where you drive off an elevated tee down to a fairly wide open fairway. Approach is a wedge to short iron to an elevated green that gives you a different look and shot requirement than the rest of the course. A burn at the end of the fairway keeps you from hitting driver. A nice hole.
   Overall, Murcar is a nice course, about 5 or 6 on the Doak scale overall, but the front nine would be a 7. #7 Serpentine makes a round here worth it all by itself, but there are enough other interesting holes to certainly justify going out to see Murcar. The greens overall were fairly flat with some occasional modest contour. The land is nice rumpled linksy turf with some spines of dunes that you play parallel to. A good intro to Scotland. Tomorrow Dornoch.

[ed_getka]

Dornoch was my favorite course of the trip. I feel it was the most balanced test of golf I saw (given mid-May conditions with the rough not being too penal). Dornoch requires that you have a decent ability to drive, approach, chip/pitch, read greens, and putt. The gorse is in play on at least parts of most of the holes, but you have to pretty off line to get in. In other words, its there and you take it into account, but its not claustrophobic. The green contours were pretty interesting on at least half of the greens. I sort of expected to see a non-stop succession of plateau greens, but there are actually quite a few different looks into the greens out on the course.
The course:
  #1 par 4  Shortish starting hole that plays straightaway. Nice way to ease into the course, but still with some teeth up at the green. The green is well-contoured, and falls off back and right about 2-4'. There is a cool little bowl in the back left corner of the green.
   #2 par 3 Let the games begin! Skyline par 3, bunkered left and right. Drops off all around and the green is quite large and deep with nice contouring with the overall slope is from back to front. The only bailout is short, pitch up and try to one putt. It is on this hole where there course sort of looks back at you and says lets see what you've got.
   #3 par 4   Slight dogleg left from a slightly elevated tee. Midiron into a green that is open in the front with flanking bunkers.
    #4 par 4   Slight dogleg left again, but the fairway slopes to the right so you need to work the ball back into the slope so you don't slide off into the rough, or hit it down the left side and let the slope bring you back to the middle. Approach to plateau green with bunkers in the face right and left. A very big green with some lovely contouring.
    #5 par 4   Elevated tee out to a pretty big fairway, but the key is leaving yourself somewhere where you can take a full swing on this shortish par 4, to a quite elevated green, that is very well bunkered. It seems going long to the right would be the best play to minimize having to challenge the greenside bunkers, particularly for a front pin. The right front bunker is much lower, which leaves an open shoulder to come in over. However, getting over to the right side brings some fairway bunkers over there into play. A real solid short par 4. Again, a very deep green, about 30-35 yards. Green falls off on the right 5-6'.
    #6 par 3   Intimidating par3 shelved into a gorse-filled hillside, bunkers on the left, deep bunker front right, and the right side of the green drops off about 15' down to a tightly mowed flat.
     #7 par 4   Probably the least interesting hole on the course. It is up on top of the spine of hill that runs along the course. It is basically a straightaway long par 4, with fairly flat ground. The green and the entry into it makes things a little interesting.
    #8 par 4 Blind tee shot to a fairway that drops off about 40' down to a lower level, with your ball moving right as it tumbles down, then its just a wedge in to an interesting and nicely contoured green.
     #9 par 5 Now we have turned around and are heading home. Straightaway par 5, with the shore of the sea on your left and the gorse filled hillside right. Plenty of room, and not much to worry about on your second shot. Nice plateau green with some bunkers in front to give you something to think about.
      #10 par 3 Another VERY well-bunkered par 3, with a plateau green, that tends to play into the wind. One of the drawbacks of the course is these first three par 3's are a short to mid-iron, although this one goes in a different direction to the wind. You have to play solid shots on these 1st 3 par 3's or you can get into some really nasty places that could ruin your day.

[Brian_Ewen]

Ed
I hope when you took the train between Aberdeen and Leuchars , you sat on the left hand side of the train , as you would have got a good look at Stonehaven GC .

Brian

[Brian Phillips]

Ed,

You must have had the wind with you on the first Par 3 as the four times that I have played Dornoch I don't think I have hit less than a 5 iron to the second.

Brian

[ed_getka]

Brian,
  After getting up at 0500, after 5 hours of sleep, driving to Cruden Bay, golfing 36 holes, returning my rental car to the airport, and taxiing to the train station, the only thing I was looking at was the back of my eyelids.
   I appreciated your offer to get together there and I will take you up on it when I make my next trip over. I had a phenomenal first trip and look forward to my next one.

Brian,
  I did have a bit of a tailwind.

[ForkaB]

Great stuff, Ed

Look forward to hearing more.

BTW, the 5th green at RDGC is 60 yards deep, not 30-35.

Rich

[ed_getka]

Dornoch continued:
   #11 par 4 Long fairly straight, into the wind when I played it. Tough hole to par.
    #12 par 5 Hole bends slightly left along the way. Green protected front left by a mound and on the right by bunkering. Again, not much to worry about on the second shot. The entry to the green has some interesting contour that makes the approach interesting.
    #13 par 3 Somewhat similar to the previous par 3, but longer, and the hole goes in a little different direction.
     #14 The infamous Foxy. I parred it on my first attempt. Driver, then 4W. The hummocks on the right make the fairway bend to the left, so a draw is ideal off the tee. The plateau green is huge, and raised up 5-6 feet. Getting the ball up the slope in front isn't as difficult and I thought it would be from everything I've read about the hole in the past. The green appears to be really shallow from the fairway, but it is actually pretty deep. An awesome hole that lives up to its billing.
    #15 Short par 4 with a big mound blocking your view of most of the green. Green raised up a bit as usual.
    #16 Straightaway right up the hill, big fall off to left, and a bunker well over to the right in the face of a steep upslope. On the approach a mound protects the front right of the green, so a fade is the preferable approach to a pretty flat green.
    #17 par 4 A very cool hole. Blind downhill drive, hole doglegs left and back up to a huge very well bunkered green. The bunkering is short of the green and placed in the upslope which fools you into underclubbing. There is a nice piece of ground up on the left of the bunkers that you can use to funnel your ball into the green.
    #18 Straightaway down a gauntlet of gorse on either side, that is quite wide open, but somehow I managed to spray balls out of play on both sides. Approach shot has to contend with an interesting swale in front of the green, which sort of forces you to fly the ball into the green which is quite large and flattish.

   The land is wonderfully rumpled and the spine of gorse coverd dunes makes a wonderful setting for this delightful course that keeps you in sight of the sea most of the round.
    Apres golf was dinner at Sutherland House (the food is delicious) with Philip Gawith, a London-based GCA'er, and his group of friends. The eight of them come up each year for 36 holes at Brora, and 54 at Dornoch. Philip and his friends were great company for dinner and conversation. David Tepper, an SF-based GCA'er, came over to extend an invitation for Scotch to the group. David has just purchased a house just across the square, and was in the process of setting up house with his lovely wife. He will be renting the house out when they are not there on vacations, so anyone planning a trip to Dornoch, should contact David. His house is about 400 yards from the golf course.
    David was kind enough to offer me a place to sleep at the end of a long and glorious day at Dornoch, and I was enjoying the Tepper's company so much that I decided to take him up on his offer. After 5 hours of sleep it was up and at 'em for the drive over to Cruden Bay. More in a few days.
    On a side note. My second round I was paired up with a member from LACC who came over from Skibo Castle. This poor guy had no idea how to play links golf. He must have hit his approaches through the green on 12 out of 18 holes. The other six would probably have gone through too, but he missed the green left or right. Time after time he would hit the ball all the way to the green. It was interesting to see that he never picked up on the fact that I played my shots shorter than him to allow for the fact that the greens are firm and hard to hold. He missed the green on #10 par 3 to the right, knocked it over to the other side, then back over, and back over, and back over, and back over, then picked up. Not once did he change his shot. He always used a wedge and tried to go high.
   The course was in great shape, probably the best-conditioned, along with North Berwick that I saw on my trip.
   One other thing, the sand in the bunkers on the courses I played was fantastic. It has such a nice texture, and was a lovely brown (NOT white!).
     

[RJ_Daley]

Ed, your journal puts me in mind of your buddy SAn Franciscan DK, who wrote of his Scotland adventures some years ago.  Thanks for letting us share your pilgrimage vicariously.  ARe you going to do a personal website and have a photo album of the trek?

[ed_getka]

Dick,
  No website for me, I'm virtually computer illiterate. I took pix, but I don't think I'll be posting any of them. I'll just have to bore you in person the next time we get together.