Anyone familiar with Elie and Earlsferry?

[Tim_Weiman]

Nobody seems to talk about Elie or Earlsferry, but when you drive through town it seems like a golfer's heaven.

Is anyone familiar with the golf courses, the clubs and the community?

[Alex Miller]

Mark Pearce should be able to shed some light.


I can only speak to Elie. AWESOME. Apparently the starter is the only one in the town who doesn't play golf. I can only assume he's never climbed to the 3rd tee to see what he's missing.

[Tim_Weiman]

Mark Pearce should be able to shed some light.


I can only speak to Elie. AWESOME. Apparently the starter is the only one in the town who doesn't play golf. I can only assume he's never climbed to the 3rd tee to see what he's missing.

Alex,

I remember driving through on my way from St Andrews down to North Berwick and quickly got the impression the very essence of the community was golf.

[Mark Pearce]

Tim,

I'm a member of the Golf House Club.  The Elie and Earlsferry golf course is shared by the Golf House Club, Elie and Earlsferry Ladies Golf Club and Earlsferry Thistle Golf Club.  There is also a short nine hole course at Elie Sports Club which is seen as a children's course, though played by many.  BUDA played at Elie for a day in 2007 or 2008 and I think most were impressed.  You should be able to find some photos and maybe even a tour using the search function.

Elie is a wonderful golfing village.  In summer you'll see kids wandering around with clubs and the GHC junior section is strong.  The course is a par 70, with 16 par 4s (many (most?) of them "half-par" holes) and two par 3s.  The village is full of second homes for many Glasgow and Edinburgh professionals (medics, lawyers, accountants etc. rather than of the golfing variety) and families and many of the club's members are not resident in the village.  It has a large number of members who are also members of the R&A or other leading Scottish clubs and is a fairly traditional club though very welcoming to juniors.

We started going to Elie in the summer because my wife went there as a child.  My eldest son is a junior member and felt welcome at the GHC well before he felt comfortable at our home club.

Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll see if I can help.  I'm others here who have played there will also chip in.

[Tim_Weiman]

Mark,

Don't know when I will make it back that way, but Elie sure seemed like a place to spend some time rather than just rushing through.

[Ian Andrew]

Tim,

I'm off to play Elie in a few weeks.
I'll take some photos and share them here.

[Thomas Dai]

Is there an Elie course photo-tour on here somewhere?
atb

[Adam Lawrence]

Peter Dawson is an Elie member.

[Bill_McBride]

Any golf course with three or more driveable par 4s can't be all bad. 

There are also some brutes of par 4s, 1, 8, 9, 12, 16, 17.   And 18 if you block your tee shot OB right.   

[Dan Grossman]

I played Elie back in 2001 and I still think it was one of the most fun rounds of golf I have ever played.  Its great fun with the starter looking through the periscope on #1 to determine if you can hit and it just gets better from there.  There are some drivable par 4s, some brutes as well.  Lots of very fun shots too.  I remember chipping out sideways from the rough (I hit it about 4 yards) on one of the short par 4s on the back (10, 11, 12?) and watching the ball scoot 50 yds straight down the hill towards the green and make the green. 

There was also a pub off the 7th tee (?) that my partner and I scooted into after we hit our drives to grab a few beers for the remaining holes. 

[Ally Mcintosh]

Any golf course with three or more driveable par 4s can't be all bad. 

There are also some brutes of par 4s, 1, 8, 9, 12, 16, 17.   And 18 if you block your tee shot OB right.   

New Year's Day 2002. Eighteenth hole. 9 off the tee.

[Mark Pearce]

Dan,

The pub is by the 4th tee.  The short par 4 you are describing is the 10th, one of the drive able par 4s, if you get your ball over the top of that hill.

Ally,

In the Summer Meeting a couple of years ago I needed a 5 at the last to get my handicap cut so I could play the Links Championship.  I hit the middle of the fairway (into a 3 club wind) and then proceeded to hook two OOB into the clubhouse rockery, in full view of a good couple of dozen spectators!

[Tim_Weiman]

Tim,

I'm off to play Elie in a few weeks.
I'll take some photos and share them here.

Ian,

Thanks. I'd appreciate that. Something tells me I would love the place.

Would enjoy hearing more about the club/community culture.

[Bryan Izatt]

Tim,


Here's a photo tour from Tony Muldoon from a couple of years ago.


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,50582.0.html

[Tim_Weiman]

Tim,


Here's a photo tour from Tony Muldoon from a couple of years ago.


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,50582.0.html

Bryan,

Thanks very much for that. It was especially nice to see Bob Huntley's comments .

[Mark Alexander]

Tim, here are some of my images of Elie to whet your appetite -

http://www.markalexanderphotography.co.uk/Elie/

[Tim_Weiman]

Tim, here are some of my images of Elie to whet your appetite -

http://www.markalexanderphotography.co.uk/Elie/

Thanks, Mark

[ed_getka]

I'm not familiar with the community, but I remember my day at Elie with Rihc G.  A few things stood out. The gratis pitch mark tool that was given to me when I signed in. It was hilarious because Imdidn't see a single pitch mark during my 10 days in England and Scotland. The next was the periscope everyone comments on that the starter uses to look over the rise in the first fairway. The next was the constant changes in direction of the holes so you are encountering the wind from every angle in the course of your round. Finally, I made my first ever eagle at Elie. A really fun day (less so for Rihc who had a car problem).

[Tim_Weiman]

I'm not familiar with the community, but I remember my day at Elie with Rihc G.  A few things stood out. The gratis pitch mark tool that was given to me when I signed in. It was hilarious because Imdidn't see a single pitch mark during my 10 days in England and Scotland. The next was the periscope everyone comments on that the starter uses to look over the rise in the first fairway. The next was the constant changes in direction of the holes so you are encountering the wind from every angle in the course of your round. Finally, I made my first ever eagle at Elie. A really fun day (less so for Rihc who had a car problem).

Ed,
 
"First" experiences on the golf course are never forgotten. My most memorable came at Prestwick playing with a guy who never broke 100 on any golf course. By the time we got to the 10th hole tension was building. He was on his way......to an earth shattering 91. OMG, it was great fun to watch.

[Bill_McBride]

I'm not familiar with the community, but I remember my day at Elie with Rihc G.  A few things stood out. The gratis pitch mark tool that was given to me when I signed in. It was hilarious because Imdidn't see a single pitch mark during my 10 days in England and Scotland. The next was the periscope everyone comments on that the starter uses to look over the rise in the first fairway. The next was the constant changes in direction of the holes so you are encountering the wind from every angle in the course of your round. Finally, I made my first ever eagle at Elie. A really fun day (less so for Rihc who had a car problem).

So the eagle was on a par 4!   Which one?

[Rich Goodale]

Tim,

I'm off to play Elie in a few weeks.
I'll take some photos and share them here.

Ian,

Thanks. I'd appreciate that. Something tells me I would love the place.

Would enjoy hearing more about the club/community culture.

Hi Tim

Nobody seems to want to say much about the club/community culture, so I'll throw in my 2 cents based on my 20+ years living nearby in Fife.

As to the club, there are (or at least used to be) three in Elie/Earlsferry (which I'll call "Elie" from now on for brevity)--Golf House Club (the posh one); Earlsferry Thistle (the "artisans" club, whose clubhouse on the 4th is now a pub); and a ladies club.  All the great golfers who came out of Elie (Braid, the Simpson brothers and Rolland) were of the artisan ilk and belonged to the Thistle.  When I moved to Fife in 1991, my wife and I took a drive up there to play a game and there was a "No Dogs and Women" sign outside the clubhouse, so we beat a hasty and indignant retreat.  Shortly after that a very well-connected friend of mine from my annual 1980's visits to Dornoch asked me, since I now lived in Fife, whether or not I wanted to join the Golf House Club.  I knew then that GHCE was a waiting room for entrance to the R&A and this was a chance to get on the ladder to GCA geek Nirvana, but I declined, as I prefered to not be a member of a club which treated women as second-class citizens.  Maybe it has changed since.  Mark will know.

As to the community, Elie is a typical Fife coastal village which is semi-comatose from October to April (I know, because I have been there many times in the winter and live in a similar place).  In the summer, however, it is heaving with families and children and even sunshine from time to time, and the beaches and the golf courses and the tennis courts are full of well-buffed and happy families with children.  There is even a Michelin-starred restaurant on the main Street and a fine pub down by the harbour which sponsors cricket matches on the mud flats when the tide goes out, more that once including players from test sides, including the West Indian team.  All that being said, it is very much a village with a locals/incomers dichotomoy.  The incomers tend to be largely leading (or wannabe-leading) familiy members of the professional communities of Glasgow and Edinburgh (lawyers, accountants, bankers, doctors, etc.), whilst the locals are the tradesmen and tradeswomen who serve them.  It's a mini-Southampton/Boston North Shore, but without the additional soupcon of serious wealth.

As to the golf, Tony's great photo thread above says it all.  While there are a very few finer courses in Scotland, there are even fewer ones that I would want to play again, and again, and again.....

Rich

[Bill_McBride]

They are allowing women to play.  Young pretty ones if what our Buda gang saw in 2008 was an example.  A large van pulled up and out poured the Cal Berkeley women's golf team.  Nice young ladies and good players.  Go Bears!   

[Rich Goodale]

I remember those Cal weenie women @ BUDA, but did they let them into the clubhouse?

[Bill_McBride]

I remember those Cal weenie women @ BUDA, but did they let them into the clubhouse?

Good point.  I think some of our more intrepid (i.e. younger) lads brought out pints to share!

[John Cowden]

I recall no women during my two rounds at Elie (2010, 2013) , but why would I?  Short of a Gulbis look-alike or an Inkster play-alike, a female golfer would have been no more noteworthy than any other.  But I distinctly remember dogs on the course during each visit.  In both cases I was charmed to see the golfer's dog staying close to the golfer, well-behaved and companionable.  I hope to have a similar pet one day.  And I hope to play Elie many times again.