A Few Pics of North Berwick's West Links...

[Mike Hendren]

to brighten a cold January day.

Only a guy named Bogey would leave his approach on the wrong side of the wall - BUT a pitch to six inches salvages par and keeps Bogey at +1 for the day!


Looking back at Pit:


Looking back at the marvelous 16th green:


Having reverted to form with doubles at Perfection and Redan, Bogey leaves his second at the 17th short in this wonderfully simple trench bunker:


My tee shot at 18 is ballooned so badly that while in the air, I have time to reach into my wallet and read the fine print on the insurance policy issued by the starter.  Fortunately a par is salvaged and the only thing broken is 80:



Cheers ya'll.

[Rich Goodale]

Bogey

You were SOOOOOOO lucky!

That license plate, MI7 ELF, belongs to the head of the most secret of all the British secret services, Santa's Elves.  If you had hit that car, all hopes of any Merry Christmas now or in the future would have been been smashed for you, your children and your children's children.  Thank your lucky stars that it was a "High Gladys Right" rather than a power fade you had in your bag that day.....

Merry Hogmanay

Rich

[George Pazin]

Thanks.

I didn't realize Berwick, like Dornoch, was just another residential development course...

The setting looks awesome, I prefer that to stark isolation.

[Rich Goodale]

Thanks.

I didn't realize Berwick, like Dornoch, was just another residential development course...

The setting looks awesome, I prefer that to stark isolation.

Geroge

There are very few Scottish golf courses that are not partly abutting residential developments.  At least at Dornoch you do not have to worry about damaging your own car in the parking lot, as you do on the 18th at both North Berwick and the Old Course.......

Rich

[Ally Mcintosh]

I wonder when OOB was introduced right of 18 at North Berwick?.... It was only in the 50's or 60's at TOC, wasn't it?... Before that, it was play your second out of the hotel lobby in Russacks...

Or it was far more recent than that where people were playing their 4th from the roof of Woking Clubhouse on the 14th....

Any other good non-out-of-bounds examples?...

[Rich Goodale]

Ally

To the right of 16 at the Old Course used to be in play.  Braid took 8 or 9 off the railroad tracks in one of the early 20th century Opens adn still won.  Thsoe guys were good......

Rich

[Mike Hendren]

I had hoped that before the housing bust truncated the new urbanism trend in the U. S. that someone would build a golf course that plays out of and back into a town center as one encounters at The Old Course and North Berwick's West Links.  I love the experience of playing my way back to town and the expansive town lawn effect at both courses.  I could even envision the first and eighteenth holes being shaped to accomodate a town amphitheater. 

Mike

[Bill_McBride]

Thanks.

I didn't realize Berwick, like Dornoch, was just another residential development course...

The setting looks awesome, I prefer that to stark isolation.

Geroge

There are very few Scottish golf courses that are not partly abutting residential developments.  At least at Dornoch you do not have to worry about damaging your own car in the parking lot, as you do on the 18th at both North Berwick and the Old Course.......

Rich

North Berwick is one of the few courses in that part of the world that is not abutted by a caravan park (trailer park).

Bogey, thanks for posting these, too many great memories to recount!   When saw the reverse Pit photo I called Kathleen over and said, "Hey honey, remember this course?"  "Berwick," she says without a hesitation, having played it once in July 2005, and I remembered again why I have been so happily married for so long. 

[Bill_McBride]

Thanks.

I didn't realize Berwick, like Dornoch, was just another residential development course...

The setting looks awesome, I prefer that to stark isolation.

Geroge

There are very few Scottish golf courses that are not partly abutting residential developments.  At least at Dornoch you do not have to worry about damaging your own car in the parking lot, as you do on the 18th at both North Berwick and the Old Course.......

Rich

However, I did see one of our fellows in June bounce one off the old hotel left of the first tee at Dornoch.     There's a car park there where we parked our big van one day when running late, and I guess if this lefthander's push slice had gone any farther left it could have hit the van!

[John_Cullum]

Only a guy named Bogey would leave his approach on the wrong side of the wall - BUT a pitch to six inches salvages par and keeps Bogey at +1 for the day!

I recall my only time around N. Berwick: after a perfectly positioned tee shot on the Pit hole, I proceeded to shank my approach onto a gravel path in the right weeds. I refused the caddy's advice to take a drop, as the path is considered an integral part of the course, and I aint going to cheat in the hallowed land (or anywhere else for that matter). I sucked it up and, using the same wedge that just fired a hosel rocket, I played a perfect high spin pitch over the wall past the back right flag and sucked it back pretty close for a very manageable par save. I think I missed it, but I'll never forget the second and third shots on that hole

[ed_getka]

Mike,
   Thanks for the post of one of my favorite courses in the world. To me it just screams the soul of golf.

[Adam Jeselnick]

At my desk hangs a framed print of Mackenzie's Old Course plan and a watercolor print of the Pit at North Berwick (artist unknown, at least to me).  The painting is almost identical to the reverse Pit image on this thread.  Two unbelievable golf courses, and wonderful memories of both from my trip to Scotland in '04... I'll never forget my dad ending up in that trench bunker!-which ultimately led to me halving our match.

I hope some day I'll be back ... thanks for the pictures.
-AJ

[George Pazin]

Thanks.

I didn't realize Berwick, like Dornoch, was just another residential development course...

The setting looks awesome, I prefer that to stark isolation.

Geroge

There are very few Scottish golf courses that are not partly abutting residential developments.  At least at Dornoch you do not have to worry about damaging your own car in the parking lot, as you do on the 18th at both North Berwick and the Old Course.......

Rich

Thanks for the info. I was serious when I set I love the setting. Someone posted a photo of Prestwick on here a long time ago, set right next to the town, and I thought it looked awesome. In many ways it seems more idyllic to me than the resorts that are in the middle of nowhere. I imagine Garden City in the US being the same way.