Lundin Tour ContWe now head for high ground near the Largo/Elie Road to play the 12th, a steeply uphill short hole of high quality.
I usually like holes played along ridges, but the 13th did little for me. There is, however, a bit of quirk with the fairway slicing through a stand of trees. It is fairly easy to get caught out left. On the positive side of the ledger, the club gets the mix of rough and trees right so that a bold recovery is possible.
The 14th takes us back down to the links proper with an indifferent drop shot par 3. The green could do with some visual sprucing up. Leven is on the other side of the wall.
Although Lundin can feel cramped at times with loads of OOB and water, in the end it was probably a good decision to retain the old railway line. Next door, Leven removed their section of track to the detriment of the course character.
Without question Lundin loses it way a bit on the back nine, but the 15th is a corking 400+ yarder playing along the old railway line. On the day we had a northeasterly wind so reaching the cross bunkers was never going to happen.
McDonald's template "Leven" hole follows. This is a strange short par 4 with an aesthetic mess of water and sand at the turn of the dogleg (fish hook) left. The hole would probably be improved by removing the bunkers because the green site and green are very good. One can see in the photo the close proximity of tees and greens for much of the course.
With a northeasterly wind, the drive for the 17th is very challenging. One must carry the high broken ground with lost ball territory right and OOB left. The area left of the fairway was the location of the old station; presumably called Lundin Links.
The home hole is one of the best on the course. Again, playing into the wind this uphill 427 yard beast was unreachable for me. The drive is very strange as suddenly there seems to be loads of space. OOB lurks on the left, but its not as if there are naked women and coffee in that direction.
However, the approach is an entirely different matter. There is no getting around the boundary fence being four paces from the green. For those who can't reach the green there is the small matter of a centreline bunker to cope with.
Many will have noticed the large Scottish Golf van parked in front of the house. That is because the East of Scotland Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship was due to start the next day. That may explain why Lundin was the best conditioned course of the trip! Lundin GC initiated the championship in 1973 and is the annual host of the event which counts toward world amateur ranking. Behind the green.
That then is Lundin. Old Tom Morris designed several courses in Fife and the highlight holes at Lundin are among his best in the Kingdom. Lundin is a tightly packed links with generally high quality and interesting greens. The wily set of short two-shotters can easily unravel a card when a loose swing or two is unleashed. There are a few longer par 4s which offer a combination of brute force challenge and thinking man's golf. Perhaps the lack of more short holes, a good par 5 and more holes crossing the predominate play along the coast are missed here, but that isn't too much hardship when we consider the quality of the terrific opening seven holes and 10, 12, 15 & 18. 2016
Ran's Review.
http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/scotland/lundinlinks000197/Ciao