Royal Dornoch (pictures)

[Philip Gawith]

I have just returned from my annual trip. It is interesting that the cold winter has hurt the growth so that the fairways and greens are a few weeks behind where they normally are in terms of conditionin, though it still played fine.

Rich - will you show me new respect if I tell you that i played the 6th three times in a cumulative eight shots? Normally I average about 4.5!

Anyone visiting Dornoch/Brora should think of going to stay in the Bridge Hotel in Helmsdale (?) - 10 miles north of Brora. It is better accommodation than anything in Dornoch, and the restaurant offered comfortably the best meal I have had in ten years of visits to the area.

On the subject of food - Rich, you should tell the club that their food lets them down. Nobody expects gourmet, but they could do a fair bit better than they do.

[ed_getka]

Eric,
   You have to be careful with the pix, we have some older members who could stroke out at the shock of seeing that last one.

Jason,
   Eric is yanking the proverbial chain.

[Garland Bayley]

I think I could just stand there and hit balls up that 16th all day and watch them rumble and ramble in and out of sight.  

Rcih, how does the government there perceive bigamy?  

Dick

Bigamy is hunky dory, as long as you don't tell your first wife.

Presumably it is ok to tell the second wife then?  

[Walter Bart]

Eric

        Thanks for the great photos. I' ve never been there in the spring, but now I'm ready.  

       Does your caption for #10 mean that you rank it above #2 and #6?

           

[Willie_Dow]

Rich - enroute come the week following the 15th of July.  Will bring my Willie Dow hickories.

[ForkaB]

Willie

I might miss you as I'll be up there from July 7-16.  If you are there on the 16th, there is a foursomes stroke-play Open which is good fun.

Philip

My guess is that in Helmsdale you lucked into staying at the hotel that houses what used to be the Quiet Piggy restaurant in Brora.  One of these dyas you should try Luigi's Cafe in Dornoch--it is as good as the Piggy used to be.  Fully agree with the food at RDGC, but I have given up trying to convince Scottish golf clubs that they needn't serve only the "heart attack on the plate" style of food.  I'm sure they'd offer deep-fried Mars Bars if Committe though they would sell....

Eric

Thanks for photo-shopping out the condos which are under construction behind the 14th green.  I find them to be controversial.

Doug

The two right hand fairway bunkers are ball magnets.  There are no others on the hole.  When I played there a few weeks ago with one of the many John K.'s from this site, he remarked--"its the narrowest 100-yard wide fairway in the world" and he was right!

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Rich, I was just getting ready to say that this landscape is missing one very important ingredient--condos and townhouses 2 feet away from each other.

Eric, That last image...isn't that Trump National Los Angeles #10? (Or was it #11? I can't remember. They all looked the same--horrible!)

[ForkaB]

Philip

I have confirmed that in Helmsdale you lucked onto the latest adventure of the ex-Quiet Piggy Dunnetts.  Did you viist the Barbara Cartland museum cum cafe across the road?

Rich

[Eric Franzen]

Does your caption for #10 mean that you rank it above #2 and #6?
           

No. I have just played the course one time and wouldn't dream of going into individual rankings of these great one shotters.
I just love all three of them.

[Eric Franzen]

Eric, That last image...isn't that Trump National Los Angeles #10? (Or was it #11? I can't remember. They all looked the same--horrible!)

A trained eye indeed.

Well my fellow Trumpanista. It is the 12th hole, which I would say concludes the thrilling Donald's corner - with the short par 4 10th and the par 3 11th.

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

Great pics of the Gorse blooming. I know this has probably been asked before, but when exactly does the gorse bloom like that at Bandon Dunes?  I have seen the pics, but wondered when, and for how long it looks like that out in OR.

[David_Tepper]

I am reading this thread and typing my entry while sitting in the Dornoch public library. It is about 46 degrees, raining just enough to wet your glasses and the wind chill probably brings the temp down another 4 degrees or so. As one of the locals called it this morning - "a proper Scottish spring day!"

Not looking for sympathy, but even paradise has its off days.  

[Andrew Thomson]

Is that really the same course???  The bunkering looks so drastically different than the rest of the  pics.  Am I missing something here?

the joke champ, you're missing the joke!

his first post was a little less subtle!

[Philip Gawith]

Rich - I think next year we will be taking our lunch at Luigis rather than the club, even if it is more Camden than Highlands!

It was through the deft hand of Mr Tepper that we went north to Helmsdale. What a delight. We are all in love with the Maltese Lorraine, sad old men that we are. A visit is highly recommended. We did not make it to the cafe -next time!

[ForkaB]

Philip

Lunch at Luigi's is pedestrian.  It transforms itself at night into a bistro par excellence.  Was the Maltese Falconess good enough to make you forget you were in Helmsdale?