Mac - How was Scotland????

[Shane Wright]

Mac,

Maybe I missed it on the forum and please disregard this post if so.....  I saw your educational write up of Renaissance, but as someone with a lot of passion for the game, I'm eager to hear your response to where you played and how it went on your first trip across the pond.

Please do share.

Shane

[Mac Plumart]

Hey Shane...

I had high hopes for Scotland, but to be frank...it blew away my expectations.  Sticking strictly with the golf courses played, I'll hit them in order:

Muirfield:
Truly a great golf course.  The routing gets all the press and deservedly so.  It was fantastic.  The greens were perfect.  The bunkers were world class.  I actually didn't feel like I played well, but walked off the course with a decent score for my handicap and experience level.  However, after discussions with others I discovered I caught the course with the rough down, light and wispy and, therefore, my errant shots weren't penalized as they should have been.  Had the rough been thicker, I would have gotten slaughtered...which would have been "fair".  Muirfield is a true championship caliber course and is a must play in my book.

After getting home and looking at their website, I saw these two photos of hole 13.  I thought it was  really neat to see how the hole progressed over time, particularly the bunkers.







Renaissance:
Y'all have seen my thoughts on that one.  Great course, cool club.  I think a bit under the radar.



North Berwick:
Fun, cool, golf.  The Redan gets a lot of the press, but the green on 16 is the coolest I've ever seen. 



The stretch of holes from 13-18 may be the best stretch of holes I've ever played.  Totally my style and really fun.


Old Musselburgh:
It was a must play for me, given its history.  I played it with hickories and it was fun, but it was just not on the same level as the other courses in terms of quality.  Odd routing up, over, and around a horse track.  But it had some neat bunkers,



And, again, the history was great...



more later...

[Jud_T]

And Askernish?

[Jim Franklin]

Those pics bring back some great memories. I miss playing golf in Scotland.

[James Boon]

Mac,

I'm sorry we couldn't meet up on your recent trip. It's good to hear your opinions on East Lothian, but stop stalling, give us a sneak preview at least, and as Jud says tell us what you thought about Askernish!!! Please!

Cheers,

James

[Mac Plumart]

Then we headed off to St. Andrews...

paid respect...




Tried out the new Doak green...oops...I mean the Himalaya Course.  Now I know where Tom got half the ideas for his greens.  




I day tripped it out to Crail Balcomie.  My round with Marty and Mark fell apart, but Colin and I played together.  The round started off with a down pour of rain and wind every bit of 35 MPH (probably more like 40), it was freakin' HOWLING.  But by hole 6 the wind and rain had stopped and the sun came out.  It turns out to be a beautiful day.  Balcomie turned out to be on the most fun rounds of golf I've ever had and the course is my #1 hidden gem.







The course is under 6,000 yards and is a par 69.  Totally fun and interesting.  Great place!


Hit the Jubilee...

Under-rated golf course.  The Old Course gets all the hype and it deserves it, but Jubilee was really good and I had a great time.




Played The Old Course...

Hands down my favorite golf course.  I absolutely loved it.  When I try to communicate what about it I loved, I use this example.  On one of the first few holes, maybe the 3rd, my caddy was giving me instructions on how to play the hole and where to place my tee shot.  He said, "See the pin?".  To which I said, "Yes.  Go right at it?"  He responded with, "Hell no.  Aim 40 yards left of it."  To me that is it.  Nothing is what it seems.  Plain vanilla strategies and ideas are generally not the right ones.  It was really an awesome experience.  I hope to have it many more times.



Then it was off to Askernish.  What a trip.  Puddle jumper from Glasgow to South Uist.  One lane road from the airport to the course.  No big fancy pro shop, no signing in, just show up and play.

The routing is great...more like pacing.  Eases you into the round off the farm land into the dunes.  While in the dunes, you've got a handful of some of the very best golf holes I've played and some stunningly good approach shots.  Then it eases you out of the dunes, back to the farm land, and you are done.  Really cool!

7 is an all world par 4...probably one of the most photographed holes on the course.

9 has a tremendous approach shot.  Kind of like and island green, but the island is surrounded by steep dunes wall not water.  So recovery is an option, but difficult.  

11 is one of the very best par 3's in the world.  214 yards right at the Atlantic Ocean.  Infinity style green...50 foot deep (maybe more) dune valley seperating the tee box from the green.





12 is an all world par 5.  Dual fairways both with different quirks.  One is blind off the tee, the other has a blind approach.  Green slants away from the approach.  Really neat!

16 is my favorite hole.  Par 4 that plays down into a dune valley.  Fairway is rumpled, approach goes up and over a mound that completely blocks off the green.  They call this Old Tom's Pulpit.  Really fun and cool.







Then I flew back to Glasgow and came home.

Amazing time!!

I'm actually working on another "In My Opinion" piece.  I think I'll call it "Are we all a bunch of Idiots?"  The gist of it will be how fun golf in Scotland, the Home of Golf, is and how different and changed golf has become.  I think these changes and differences have changed the game for the worse and lost some key, critical, elements.  And my question is, why would we do this?  Perhaps we did it because we are all idiots who lost touch with what made golf great to begin with.

[Shane Wright]

Mac,

I appreciate the response and always enjoy reading your opinion.  And I will look forward to reading your "In my opinion" piece. 

What were some of your fondest memories from the Old Course?  What was your biggest surprise of the trip?  What was your initial reaction to #13 at North Berwick? Would you have issue with someone doing a replica of #13 in the U.S.?

It was 10 years ago in September that I made my first trip across the pond to Scotland.  It was a religious experience for sure.  We will be making our first return trip this August.  And I love reading the responses from adventurers like yourself who make the trip for the first time.

Now you are required to book Ireland within the next two years, and let me know when you do. 

Shane

[Melvyn Morrow]

Mac

Welcome to my world, I am so pleased you enjoyed your short stay and hope that you get the opportunity to return over and over again.
 
You have seen just a small part of the home game and experienced one or two of our simple yet great courses (IMHO), I hope you know get a better understanding of why I feel the way I do about the game and perhaps forgive me some of my past rants.

It’s not just the great and beautiful natural courses that pulls me to the game but as you know my line of golfing forefathers stretching well back in the past to the end of the 17th Century.

It is a great game and when played as it was meant to be, brings out the best in the Human Spirit.

Thanks for sharing and its always great to see Young Tommy’s Memorial – the last family member placed in the grave at the foot of Young Tommy’s Memorial was Agnes Rusack – Old Tom granddaughter and married to Willie Rusack another course designer with much of his work in Germany. Agnes was laid to rest in 1960 and she was my grandmothers sister.  

Many thanks for the report and look forward to reading lots more.

Melvyn

[Mac Plumart]

What were some of your fondest memories from the Old Course? 

Hmmm...that one is tough.  First tee shot is really something.  Playing 11 is wild.  I hit the green and rolled way off the front.  Made par from deep in the junk off twelve.  Playing 14!!  16 was probably my favorite hole.  Tee shot on 17 was incredible. 




What was your biggest surprise of the trip?

Liking haggis!!   Seriously, golf course wise...Balcomie.  Really, really great course.  Stunning beauty, great variety, cool greens, under 6,000 yards, par 69.  How cool is that?




 What was your initial reaction to #13 at North Berwick?

Again, tough one.  I brought along quite a few books that talked about these golf courses, so I could re-read them right before I played the courses.  I'd re-read Patric Dickinson's "Round of Golf Courses" (thanks Tony!!), the day before I played North Berwick and he talks about the course and the hole.  So, I knew what to expect.  Of the stretch of holes from 13-18, it wasn't my favorite.  But it opened the door to the quirk of that run and changed the vibe of the course for the better. 



Would you have issue with someone doing a replica of #13 in the U.S.?

No.  Why not take a risk?  Too much sameness, vanilla golf course design going on right now.  This touches on one of the themes of my "Are we a bunch of Idiots?" piece.  People say if someone built the Old Course today, they'd be run out of town.  Why is that?  Why would the golfers of today run the designer of the Old Course out of town?  This course has had scores of golfers flocking to it for hundreds of years, but the idiots of today would scorn that designer.  Apply similar thoughts to 13 at N.B.  Perhaps the golfing powers of today that be need to run out of town.  Do they even know what has made golf great for hundreds of years? 

Shane...the 2012 Scotland/Ireland trip is in the works!!!

[Kevin Pallier]

...the 2012 Scotland/Ireland trip is in the works!!!

Mac

Am glad to see you mixed some of the well known courses with some that go under the radar but are a joy to play.

What's the plans on the Scotland / Ireland trip above ?

[Andy Shulman]

Mac - Thanks for the pics and the memories.  And, I'm glad to hear from someone else who considers #16 at TOC their favorite hole.  I love how the wall...er, dyke...becomes more and more of a factor the closer you get to the green, making the approach shot seriously claustrophobic.  Of course, you can always just aim toward the flag on #2, take your three putts and move on to the Road Hole!

[Yancey_Beamer]

The best thing I was told just before my first trip to Scotland.
On the first tee of the Old Course just remember you're standing on the first,first tee.

[James Boon]

Mac,

Great to hear about your experiences! And great to hear about how much you enjoyed Askernish and Balcomie, 2 courses that would otherwise get missed by a lot of golf tourists. And yet I read the folowing...

Shane...the 2012 Scotland/Ireland trip is in the works!!!

Nooooo! Head to England! Deal, Painswick, St Enodoc, Huntercombe. All places that I'm sure you would love? You know you want to! 

Cheers,

James

[Mac Plumart]

James...

Yes, I do want to hit England for golf.  BIG TIME!!  But lots of my friends here in Georgia want to go with me next year and, like I mentioned quite sometime ago on this site, Scotland and Ireland are what they've heard of.  Not England.  Which is weird to me after studying the great golf courses, but I think the GCA group decided England didn't market their golf courses to tourists like Scotland and Ireland.

Regardless, this trip is still in its infancy...I'll see what magic I can work. 

[Brent Hutto]

Thanks in advance for the upcoming IMO piece, Mac. Sounds like you've had a marvelous time.

One suggestion, if I may be the least little bit provocative. In writing the opinion piece, keep in back of your mind the following questions:

What elements of the game as you'd prefer to see it translate easily into inland golf on heavy soils and which do not?

How much of the advantage to playing in Scotland can be attributed to effect of a cool climate in which extreme weather is rare?

For my part, the exact golf course I play at my club in South Carolina every weekend could be almost as enjoyable as playing in England and Scotland given Dornoch's weather, turf and cool-climate grasses.

[Mac Plumart]

For my part, the exact golf course I play at my club in South Carolina every weekend could be almost as enjoyable as playing in England and Scotland given Dornoch's weather, turf and cool-climate grasses.

Brent...you can't leave us hanging, what is the club?

[Scott Warren]

Brent,

Funny you say that.

I didn't play at my club for about a fortnight this month and in that time the couch/bermuda went dormant.

Instantly there were 1001 options opened up that didn't exist through the summer (I only joined in December).

The fun-meter - especially for someone who's just spent two years on links and heathland tracks - went through the roof with all the different shots that could suddenly be hit.

We are lucky to have a dry climate and pure sand, it just makes me realise was a brilliant grass for golf fescue is and how greatly I am going to miss it living somewhere that has cold winter days warmer than summer in Dornoch!

[Brent Hutto]

For my part, the exact golf course I play at my club in South Carolina every weekend could be almost as enjoyable as playing in England and Scotland given Dornoch's weather, turf and cool-climate grasses.

Brent...you can't leave us hanging, what is the club?

Oh sorry, didn't mean to be mysterious. Columbia Country Club in Blythewood, SC. Ellis Maples (1960) with minor revisions about 10-15 years ago.Your basic walkable mid-century small town country club layout. Pine trees define most of the playing corridors, a few water hazards but 90% of the course can be played with a putter. Bermuda fairways, roughs and greens. Quite straightforward tee to green, moderately tricky contours on the green complexes.

The only thing it lacks in the fun-factor criteria is quirk (virtually zero on the quirk-meter) and the ability to use a ground game more than 5-10 yards away from the greens. We do drain fairly well being on a sand (with a bit of clay here and there) base. Give us fescue grass and the climate to support it and the actual routing and detail design of the course would be as fun as anything sort of a Dornoch or TOC.

[Pete Lavallee]

James...

Yes, I do want to hit England for golf.  BIG TIME!!  But lots of my friends here in Georgia want to go with me next year and, like I mentioned quite sometime ago on this site, Scotland and Ireland are what they've heard of.  Not England.  Which is weird to me after studying the great golf courses, but I think the GCA group decided England didn't market their golf courses to tourists like Scotland and Ireland.

Regardless, this trip is still in its infancy...I'll see what magic I can work. 

One first dips his big toe in Scotland, then the opposite toe in Ireland; then plunges into England! Enjoy the process.

[Melvyn Morrow]

While over the years I have been fortunate to have ventured to Northern Ireland; Éire, Wales England and the Channel Islands, there is nothing IMHO that matches playing golf in Scotland

I am not referring to Prestwick, TOC, Dornoch, Muirfield  NB, Moray etc., but the more humble and backwater courses like Cullen, Bridge of Allan, Strathpeffer Spa. Perhaps not great courses, but they can offer the player an enjoyable days golf in their own right and of course they come from well matured Scottish stock.

After all these years it is still magic playing the game in Scotland.

Melvyn

[Eric Smith]

One first dips his big toe in Scotland, then the opposite toe in Ireland; then plunges into England! Enjoy the process.
[/quote/]

Let us not forget Wales! I am perfectly content to have had my links education begin there!

[Mac Plumart]

Educate me here...

How easy is it to travel from Scotland to England, Wales, Ireland, and N. Ireland?  Do you have to go through customs every time?  If you take a train over a boarder is it a pain?  Plane from London to N. Ireland...easy?

[Mark Pearce]

Mac,

Aside from the odd sign telling you it's there, you won't notice the border.  It really isn't a factor at all, except that as you travel north from Newcastle, that's where the natives get restless.

[Mac Plumart]

Thanks Mark.  I'm getting a game plan together!!   

[Melvyn Morrow]

Mac

Easier than travelling to Askernish, which as you know is simple and quite straight forward

Melvyn