Further to Steve Salmen wonderful post on Askernish, Ralph Thompson of Askernish has ask that I post on his behalf the following
Since Steve posted his blog on the GCA.com website, the main discussion seems to have been whether it was right to put in a frilly edged bunker on the twelfth.
Could you please inform everybody that the bunker in question is a natural sand blown hole and not manmade. That is why we are calling it the most natural golf course on earth.
Just had our Open Championship in really windy conditions. The winning gross score was 90! Old Tom won again.
Also the position of the old holes (approximately) was known to me because of conversations with some old men who caddied at the old course in the 1920s. That is the routes we try to stick to whenever possible.
Ralph Thompson
Askernish Golf Club
1st Sept.2009
My own opinion from posts made on Steve’s thread, is that the overseas golfers may not see the real beauty of the course or the landscape, being so used to the super and very expensive Chocolate Box maintained INLAND golf courses. Even the few links course from what I have seen via photos look as if they have been cloned form their inland half brothers and sister.
What we see at Askernish is real golf, the reason the game of Golf became so popular and was exported around the world after the Scots migration the game inland.
Tom, comment was very interesting and perhaps upholds the view of many
“I said the course in many of the photos looks bland. It lacks definition. I must say all the photos on the website look good”.
Yes, I agree with him regards the quality of the photos, but was that not just down to climatic conditions, i.e. the Sun and time of year. What I saw was a wonderful course, devoid of the curse of golfers, Trees (yes, I know many also love their trees, but in truth they have no place on a golf course IMHO), they are only there because of the growth of the inland courses. As trees mature they change the very nature of the original design, overriding initial design intent, so no, I, like my great, great grandfather are not keen on trees on a golf course.
If Askernish was on the main land of Scotland, I sincerely believe it would be more congested than TOC. Its Green Fees and Membership would be rather high, all because it would be easily assessable. My selfish opinion is thank God it is on South Uist. The trek to the island should be regarded as a pilgrimage, its warms the heart and rejuvenates the Soul. Plus experience can be enjoyed and shared by the whole family.
Askernish has that magic that many courses crave for, but I am happy to leave it using Steve’s words,
Askernish is a work in progress. Its best days are in the future. It is not yet drawing golfers by the thousands but by the hundreds. My wife and I had the course to ourselves. To me, the soul of golf is really far out of the way. It is also a place where golf is as it was a hundred years ago.
Don’t talk about the course, go and experience it for yourself, I can’t play due to my back condition, but you can. For all the designers out there, I feel you need to visit if for nothing else playing a game on a piece of our golfing history. You never know there may even be a lesson or two to learn or at least understand.
Askernish is very special, it’s worth playing the Links course, if you have a real love for the game. Getting here is just part of the enjoyment, a mini adventure and I believe should be planned very carefully to maximise your enjoyment.
To Ralph, The Club and the whole Askernish Team, you deserve our thanks for what you have done for golf. I am of course totally biased.
When the wind blows through the treetops in my garden, I swear that I can hear the words ‘Come away, come away, come away to Askernish’.
Melvyn