What's so great about Dornoch?

[Mark Fedeli]

Seriously, tell me one thing you love about the course.


I played it twice last year during a whirlwind trip and adored it. I cannot stop thinking about it. Most of the holes still stand out strongly in my memory, to be sure, but some of the detail has been lost, and I'm left with a too-vague sense of pleasure and satisfaction. I'd loved to be reminded of some of the wonderful things that have faded from my mind.


What I'll never forget, certainly, are the 8th and 17th holes. Those holes to me are as good as it gets. Playing up to the ridges, or over, and what the ball does once on its way down, and where it winds up, and what you're left with, is about as much fun as can be had on a golf course.


So please, remind me of its other features and attributes. I want to relive the experience.

[Jason Topp]

This is a good start:



https://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/dornochgoodale/

[David_Tepper]

One of the overlooked features of Dornoch is that, while it is an 8 holes "out" and 10 holes "back" routing, it is by no means a straight "out and back routing" (unlike some other links courses). 

The routing of the course (which has an "S" shape when seen on a map) rarely goes in the same direction for more than 2 or 3 holes. As a result, the wind is coming at you from different angles and directions every few holes, even though the absolute direction of the wind has not changed at all. 

[Jamie Pyper]

I most recently played Dornoch earlier this week so the defining features are still fresh in my memory. I find Dornoch to be easy on the mind and combines the best characteristics of links golf, from the subtle rumple, sharply defined revetted bunkers and severe green side falloff slopes. It has four excellent par 3's and two great short par 4's. The new 7th hole is seeded and looks amazing with the infinity green and unrestrictive views over the sea. It should be in play next year. As David mentioned, because of the "s" shaped horseshoe coastline, the wind fooled me twice on the back thinking I was heading in the same south direction, when in fact, I was moving in a semi circle. Visually, the course has the best looking expanse of flowering gorse along the right side of 4 through 8, only RCD is close IMO. Dornoch combines a hybrid of North Berwick - with less quirk, and TOC, with less fanfare - fair and fun, the quintessential Scottish links.

[Thomas Dai]

These days accessibility. In times gone by, prior to the opening of the big bridge at Inverness and the two causeways, it took forever to get there (and back). The upgrading of Inverness Airport over time has helped too.
Atb

[Peter Pallotta]

For those who know, and to stay on my personal theme of the week:
Does Dornoch reward the tiger for his strength & prowess and yet also permit the rabbit to find a way to play it (and even sometimes compete) despite his various weaknesses & timidity, and still all the while allow for the rabbit-with-the-tiger's-heart to feel that he's taking risks & overcoming challenges instead of being pampered and condescended to?

[David_Tepper]

Peter P. -

As a "rabbit" who played (and enjoyed) the course many times now, it is indeed playable for someone who drives the ball 200 yards and knows their limitations. From the members' tees, the course is not much more than 6,100 yards.

However the course is more demanding of your pitching/chipping skills than any course I have ever encountered. The run-ups and drop-offs around the greens can be very severe in spots. You really have to commit to the shot you want to hit to avoid having the ball roll back down the slope to your feet.

DT

[Tim Gallant]

There's so much to love about Dornoch. On a recent round there with David T, I was amazed at the green complex variety. Dornoch is known around the world for it's crowned greens, but I found greens like the 3rd, 4th and 17th quite spectacular. With the 3rd and 17th in particular, there were wings on the slides, which fed the balls close to the greens. The imagination required is quite something, and the internal contours were incredibly refreshing for a 'championship' course. Small features like the 1st green and the small bowl on the back left are details that I will remember for a long time.

[William_G]

lots of things from 36 last week with winter prevailing wind (NE)
-1st tee adjacent to clubhouse with drive over the public beach access road, easy birdie hole
-2nd hole ong par 3 great infinity green, and first of many turtle back greens (taught Donald Ross) easy double
-3-5 fun par 4's lined by bloomimg gorse, views of the beach, yes!
-6th strategic short par 3, don't miss left
-7th redoing it with an infinity fairway and green, yes!
views of Lord Sutherland Monument in the distance
-8th blind landing zone over the hill, to be lengthened with new tee, fun
-9th straight par 5 along the ocean, sweet
-10th short par 3 surrounded by bunkers, nice
-11th longish par 4 along the beach
-12th reachable dogleg left par 5 along the beach
-13th shortish par 3, great hole, don't be short
-14th need a great drive and a great 2nd shot to this narrow green...birdied the 2nd round
-15th another beautiful oceanside par 4
-16th don't hit a draw, hit a fade off the tee here unless you hit it along way, old quarry on left of landing zone
-17th great blind tee shot over a ridge, stay left a bit as the fairway can run out, fun!
-18th, back to the clubhouse with a raised green over a ditch


great golf, no rush in May, 3:20 each 18 for a 2 ball with a non-member tee time

just missed seeing DT, next time for sure


https://www.provisualizer.com/courses/royaldornoch.php


cheers

[Bill Brightly]

Based upon everything I've read on gca.com, Dornoch is the one course in the world that I really need to play. My buddy went to Scotland two years ago with a group of four. He asked me to look at his itinerary. I saw they were playing Dornoch and I said you need to play it twice. He resisted at first but then said, OK and booked a second tee time. He texted from the course after his first 18 and said THANK YOU, we all definitely want to play it again! Obviously, it passed the 18th green test!

[John Crowley]

lots of things from 36 last week with winter prevailing wind (NE)
-1st tee adjacent to clubhouse with drive over the public beach access road, easy birdie hole
-2nd hole ong par 3 great infinity green, and first of many turtle back greens (taught Donald Ross) easy double
-3-5 fun par 4's lined by bloomimg gorse, views of the beach, yes!
-6th strategic short par 3, don't miss left
-7th redoing it with an infinity fairway and green, yes!
views of Lord Sutherland Monument in the distance
-8th blind landing zone over the hill, to be lengthened with new tee, fun
-9th straight par 5 along the ocean, sweet
-10th short par 3 surrounded by bunkers, nice
-11th longish par 4 along the beach
-12th reachable dogleg left par 5 along the beach
-13th shortish par 3, great hole, don't be short
-14th need a great drive and a great 2nd shot to this narrow green...birdied the 2nd round
-15th another beautiful oceanside par 4
-16th don't hit a draw, hit a fade off the tee here unless you hit it along way, old quarry on left of landing zone
-17th great blind tee shot over a ridge, stay left a bit as the fairway can run out, fun!
-18th, back to the clubhouse with a raised green over a ditch


great golf, no rush in May, 3:20 each 18 for a 2 ball with a non-member tee time

just missed seeing DT, next time for sure


https://www.provisualizer.com/courses/royaldornoch.php


cheers

Gray,
You birdied 14!!


David would have owed you dinner (and champagne?) had he been there and issued his usual challenge (par) and if it had been your first time playing it.


Can hardly wait to be there June 16-20.
John

[Tom_Doak]

It’s got a great set of putting surfaces, which few links courses do.

[James Brown]

Standing on the 14th tee knowing that if I make a par it will be SO memorable. 

[William_G]

-14th need a great drive and a great 2nd shot to this narrow green...birdied the 2nd round

great golf, no rush in May, 3:20 each 18 for a 2 ball with a non-member tee time

just missed seeing DT, next time for sure


https://www.provisualizer.com/courses/royaldornoch.php


cheers

Gray,
You birdied 14!!


David would have owed you dinner (and champagne?) had he been there and issued his usual challenge (par) and if it had been your first time playing it.


Can hardly wait to be there June 16-20.
John

hahaha John


the first round, my caddie issued the challenge


second round, no caddiie challenge, but driver 7 iron, and 18 footer with a middle back hole location, 1 cup right to left, all break at the end, putt


next time, dinner at Links House with a proper G&T 

[George Pazin]

Alas, just another UK housing development course......


















 



(Won’t let me post the photo, not sure why)

[Dave McCollum]

My contribution is more about the village than the course.  I happen to be American, but widely traveled.  This trip to Scotland, I was traveling solo staying at nice little hotel in Dornoch (the name escapes me, but something like Princess).  I had just arrived.  I went down to the pub in the hotel in the evening and was drinking water and reading a book while sitting at the bar.  The bartender replaced my water with what proved to be a gin and tonic when I tasted it.  She pointed to a table of guys and said they'd bought the drink for me.  I guess they noticed one white hand and one tanned hand and figured I was a golfer.  Other than that there was no reason to distinguish me except as a visitor.  I went over, bought them a drink, and learned they had just finished a round on Dornoch.  A very pleasant evening followed.  A small insignificant thing, but in all my travels on this planet I can't remember one quite like that or one that welcomed me into the golfer clan--or any other--with so much heartfelt sincerity.  After that, playing the course seemed an extension of their hospitality.          [size=78%]    [/size]

[Jeff_Brauer]

All I can tell you is, the first time ASGCA went to Scotland in 1980, RD was far and away the favorite course of the 100 or so architects who made the trip.  Not anything spectacular to put your finger on, but overall, the best course.


I do recall Don Knott, then of RTJ II, spending an enormous amount of time on one important (to him) birdie putt.  It actually broke away from the ocean a few inches, which was hard to read.


From memory, the 18th was a bit awkward, but everything else was great.  The famous 14th, after all the buildup didn't please as much as I thought it would.

[Ira Fishman]

My experience at RD is a lesson in unrealistic expectations. I think I thought that Shivas Irons was going to join us on the first tee. So perhaps there is no way it was going to produce the awe and admiration I had imagined for the 45 years I had wanted to play there. And after having played Golspie and Brora in the days before, it didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I found it a fascinating and beautiful course with great variety and scale. Holes 2 through 8 in particular is a brilliant stretch of golf.


However, other than Number 14, the back did not inspire, particularly 15 through 18. In fact, I found both 16 and 18 lacking strategic merit. I found 15 through 18 at Golspie superior, and the the bank nines at Brora and Nairn (I liked the holes off the water) close to as good as, if not better than, RD.


RD is the course I most want to play again in terms of getting a more “objective” view not colored by expectations.


Ira

[Jerry Kluger]

Is it just me or is there a similar feel between RD and Pinehurst #2 - did Ross either consciously or unconsciously use some features from RD in designing #2?

[William_G]

Is it just me or is there a similar feel between RD and Pinehurst #2 - did Ross either consciously or unconsciously use some features from RD in designing #2?

of course

[Tom_Doak]

Is it just me or is there a similar feel between RD and Pinehurst #2 - did Ross either consciously or unconsciously use some features from RD in designing #2?

I don't really believe anyone would make that connection if it wasn't so widely known that Ross is from Dornoch.


You will pay for missing greens wide left or right on your approach shots, more so on those two courses than almost any other in the world . . . but they don't look much alike.

[Michael Whitaker]

The great thing about Dornoch is that even average players like me feel like they have a chance to shine. As a result, it's just so damn much fun.

The feeling it gives you is similar to that you experience with an exceptional video game... you are allowed just enough success that it makes you think, "I can conquer this thing!" So you are coaxed into trying something you shouldn't try... but, if you do, and pull it off, you feel like a champion! But, here's the beautiful part... most of the time if you DON'T pull it off you are not hammered with the death penalty like a lot of other courses. Dornoch let's you have fun... in success and failure... in one of the most beautiful seaside environments in Scotland.

What's better than that?
 

[Peter Pallotta]

You will pay for missing greens wide left or right on your approach shots, more so on those two courses than almost any other in the world . . . 

Dumb/beginner's question: do any modern architects build greens-green surrounds like that? Yes, I know that some of today's leading architects have restored Ross courses, including No. 2 - but Tom's assessment and David T's earlier post in answer to mine don't bring to mind -- not to my mind at least, hence the question -- any recent designs/courses or the approach of any current architects I can think of.

[Jerry Kluger]

Tom: when you as an architect play a course that you find interesting and/or challenging do you ask yourself what was it that made it so good? Perhaps Ross recognized what made RD so good and looked at how he could incorporate that in #2. Or maybe it was subconscious that he was influenced by RD but he did want the course to play that way.  I read that Nicklaus said that #2 was a great tree lined course where the trees didn't come into play - perhaps another RD influence.

[William_G]

the linkage of Royal Dornoch, Donald Ross and his design concepts particularly at P #2 are irrefutable and undeniable



given that Ross had nothing to do with RD except learn from it, it makes sense that it is a source of inspiration rather than a direct product of Ross' work. thus the point TD makes is so boring about the lack of similarity between P2 and RD


one in the sand hills and pine trees of Pinehurst and one on the beach in the Scottish Highlands, LOL


"I don't really believe anyone would make that connection if it wasn't so widely known that Ross is from Dornoch. [/size]You will pay for missing greens wide left or right on your approach shots, more so on those two courses than almost any other in the world . . . but they don't look much alike."[/color]
[/size][/color]
[/size]always needing to be the smartest person, yawn [/color]   come on man


cheers