[Anthony Gray]

  The trestle in Cullen, Scotland. Notice Cullen Links in background.

 

  Would loved to have seen the NLE Campbelltown to Machrihanish line.

  This is one of the most awesome golf photos I've ever seen.


   Anthony

[Richard Hetzel]

Saturday, I played an old 9 hole course in Virginia (Front Royal GC) that was bisected by train tracks, I like it!

[Richard Hetzel]

Railroad tracks near the 6th green at Front Royal GC in Front Royal, VA.

[Kevin Pallier]

Of course Royal Adelaide is the one most noticed here in Australia, with the course bisected by an active passenger train line. No freight though. Line is not really screened so the views and sounds of the trains is a nice part of the course's overall ambience and charm.

Agree with Neil. Love the 2nd hole P5 running parallel to the tracks.

Mt Broughton in NSW has tracks next to one side of the course. A nice distraction from an otherwise dissappointing layout.

[James Bennett]

Of course Royal Adelaide is the one most noticed here in Australia, with the course bisected by an active passenger train line. No freight though. Line is not really screened so the views and sounds of the trains is a nice part of the course's overall ambience and charm.

Agree with Neil. Love the 2nd hole P5 running parallel to the tracks.

Mt Broughton in NSW has tracks next to one side of the course. A nice distraction from an otherwise dissappointing layout.

The railway tracks are an integral part of the course.   The roadway which traverses the 18th fairway is an artifical surface    (unlike The Old Course #18 which is an integral part of the course).

Golfers give way to trains, Cars give way to golfers!   

James B

[Mark Chaplin]

Like caravan parks there are many classic British links courses close to the railway, in fact many were sited because of the railway.

Rye used to have a line from the main station to the golf club you can see the banking at the back of the 11th green and down the 12th fairway. Trains were timed to meet the express train from London on a Friday evening and back on Sundays. Each train was rather unique for British trains, only having two carriages and two classes - 1st and 3rd. A gentleman golfer would never travel 2nd class and a caddie would never travel 2nd class either!

[Rich Goodale]

The old railway line into Dornoch (via Golspie) effectively serves as the OB line on the 7th and upper r8th fairways.

[Sean_A]

I generally don't like train tracks littered about the place, but there are two exceptions to this unsteadfast rule.  Stonehaven has wee trains running up and down the line during the entire round as does West Cornwall.  In fact, I think we walk under or over the tracks on both courses.  I really like the use of tracks at W Corn because they are oob on the 5th, but sunken so the tracks can't be seen. 

Ciao

[Brian_Ewen]

Sean , your the only one I know that does like them 

[Sean_A]

Sean , your the only one I know that does like them 

Brian

My memory is definitely failing me.  I thought the trains running that line were only two carriages - sheesh.

Ciao

[Mark_Rowlinson]

As well as West Cornwall there are many other courses through which the railway runs. You get fine views of Beaconsfield from the line in to Marylebone. You get fleeting glimpses also of Denham, The Buckinghamshire and Ruislip. Liphook is laid out on either side of the main London-Portsmouth line. If you are travelling on the West Coast main line to London at a weekend you are very often diverted through Northampton and you get excellent views of Northamptonshire County, a delightful course little mentioned on this site. You pass through Wyke Green Golf Club as you travel into London on the Piccadilly Line. hazel Grove near me in Cheshire is laid out either side of one of the main Manchester-Sheffield routes. Its near neighbour, Disley is set on a hill beneath which is a railway in a tunnel. On one of the early fairways there is a brick tower which is at the top of a ventilation shaft. It must have been amusing in the days of steam to get a great puff of smoke suddenly emerging as you played past. There's a similar tower for the same purpose on the scenic St Deiniol course at Bangor in North Wales. You pass through 9-hole Gatley on the train from Manchester Airport to Piccadilly.

As you play the 9th on the West Course at Wentworth you are very aware of the trains rattling past on your left. The last couple of holes at Sandy Lodge are adjacent to the Metropolitan line. I have a feeling that the lower holes at Royal Blackheath are close to the tracks. Both Fulwell and Strawberry Hill have lines in attendance, Sunbury, too. Mitcham, the original Prince's course, is right beside the railway line, the club house being conveniently adjacent to Mitcham Junction station. Prestatyn, Pleasington, Clitheroe, Sickleholme, Bramall Park, Bramhall, Royal Lytham, West Byfleet, West Hill, Woking, North Hants, Carnoustie, Knebworth, Potters Bar, Carlyon Bay, Oxley Park, Upton-by-Chester....so many!

There's a dead railway, now a coastal path, passing alongside Heswall and through Caldy on the Wirral. And in times gone by Woodhall Spa had a railway passing through, as did Lundin and/or Leven.

Mention of steam trains setting fire to the course, this was a regular feature of Delamere Forest on which the 11th and 14th are adjacent to the tracks. 

[Jamey Bryan]

Other than the part about becoming urban, it also sounds a lot like Camden CC in South Carolina, which is either a Travis or a Ross course, depending on whom you ask.  The tracks really parallel the 14th hole, without any real buffer.  You can hit a 650 mile tee shot, if you can perfectly hook your drive into a passing coal car.

Art, in case you haven't picked it up yet, the urban course in my hypothetical is Carolina Golf Club in Charlotte, a recently renovated Ross course near downtown.  Camden has a great reputation in this area and I hope to visit some day.

Carl and Art,

First, Camden is both a Travis and Ross course (and the tracks play an interesting role in the design evolution).  Travis built the 18 still largely in play in 1923.  The Travis routing brought the tracks very much into play, with the opening hole (now number 13) playing the tee shot toward the tracks and the green for the (then) par 4 sited very close to the roadbed.  Travis then had a par 4 second hole which no longer exists, with the tee shot playing over the tracks.  The third hole (now number 14) then played back parallel to the tracks, reversing the direction of the first.

In 1939, Donald Ross was engaged to renovate the course and build grass greens replacing the previous sand (Travis patented the method he first used in Camden to construct undulating sand greens).  Ross eliminated the second hole to avoid the shot directly across the tracks, and built a new closing par 3 (now number 12) which is the only truly original Ross hole on the course.  He did make major changes to four holes and minor changes to several others, but the design credit for Camden must be shared.

The train line bisecting 13 and 14 is an active one; in fact, a train passed through as I was typing this.

Thanks for the kind words, you're welcome to come any time!  (Hopefully for the Dixie Cup)

Jamey

[Mark Pearce]

You see plenty of Goswick (though you're not right by it) from the East Coast mainline.  You do pass right by Berwick upon Tweed (Magdalene Fields) though it looks a bit of a goat track.  There's a golf course also right by the East Coast mainline at Stevenage, though I don't know which one it is and another Durham City, just south of Durham station.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Slightly OT, but I once routed a course here in DFW on a piece of property that has a long spur track to a power plant left in service "just in case" they needed to remove large generators. I proposed using that on the left edge of a fw as a unique hazard but the owner was a bit wary. 

At one point in time, wasn't there actually a club called a "track iron"? Any thoughts on making golfers bring back the "track iron" on a few select courses, or is that just too much quirk?

[Tim Nugent]

Jeff, wasn't there a lawsuit about 10 yrs ago where a women hit a rail that was craossing a hole and it bounced back and hit her in the eye?

Speaking of RR?golf names, we can't forget obout The Glenview Club.  Seems the President of the Chicago & Northwestern RR back the the Golden Era, used to take hos private rail car to get to the golf club.  So the conductors put up a sign simply saying  GOLF at the point where the engineer should stop to decouple the car.  Now we have thelittle  town of Golf, Illinois -  Now you know the Rest of the Story.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Mark, The course you see near Stevenage is Knebworth. I'd forgotten that you can get very close views of the trains carrying radioactive materials from the lower holes at Seascale. Grange-over-Sands is right next to the railway, too - maybe even the same radioactive materials.....

[Jason McNamara]

What train?

Signed,

Joyce Wethered


Jeff, are you perhaps thinking of a rut iron, to hit out of wheel ruts?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Jason,

That's probably it, but it would work for hitting out between railroad ties, too, wouldn't it?

[Cristian]

Some clubs don't just have tracks, they have their own railway station....

Denham Golf club, near London

[Mark Pearce]

I believe Chorleywood Station on the Metropolitan Line was built to allow members to alight at Chorleywood Golf Club.   

[Scott Warren]

Was just tooling around and found this painting of Weston CC near Toronto in Canada


and these pics



It's the closest thing I've seen to Windsor GC in Sydney, where I learnt the game. It has a rain line, complete with a bridge like the one in the above pics, separating the majority of the back nine from the front nine 10, 11 and 18. The rail line was obviously OOB, but so was any point on the other side of it if you were unlucky enough to hit such a bad shot that you cleared it and landed on the adjacent fairway (12 and 18 run either side of it).

[Evan Fleisher]

Damon,

Don't you walk over the tracks going to the front nine "loop" of holes 4(or 5) thru 8?

Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine CA, a Tom Fabio course, has a train running through but in true Fabio fashion he hid it so as to keep the course pretty. Not seeing it tends to be a pain as you can't look ahead to see if it is coming so instead every now and then you get a little surprise in your backswing. I think it would have been cool for him to have let in run by in clear view.

[ChipOat]

Unless I missed a post, let us mention Prestwick.

[Jason McNamara]

Jason,

That's probably it, but it would work for hitting out between railroad ties, too, wouldn't it?

Well, the rut irons typically had no toe, so they'd fit (better) in the tracks left by a wagon wheel.  So I think the horses involved were real ones, and not the iron kind.  Though I suppose in a really tight space up against the rail the club's shape might serve the same purpose.

Anyway, yeah, turns out "track iron" was indeed another name for the same thing.  Google pics here
http://tinyurl.com/dnlen3

As for playing from train tracks these days, I'd recommend the rock wedge.  That's that used $20 wedge you snagged from the bargain barrel just before your first trip to play desert golf, so as not to chew up your other clubs.

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