Gents,
I headed North last week and had a fantastic 5 days in Dornoch. Tain was a first timer for me and I found it charming, Brora as fun as I remember from 15 years ago, and Golspie a nice walk with a handful of fun greens.
The main focus was 3 rounds at Dornoch at to that end, 3 runs at the new 7th.
I've scanned through most of the comments and please correct me but the theme seems to be that the old hole was intimidating off the tee, bloody hard and didn't give the golfer much to look at. An old school brute of a par-4. Is that fair? That was always my memory of the hole having played it around 8 times before this trip.
Then the new hole. Is it fair to say the move was primarily to give the golfer more views in this Instagram Golf Design age? I'm not saying that was the wrong move - I'm just trying to clarify if the move was for a bit more eye candy rather than an improvement in the strategic values.
My take-aways:
- We played off the white tees each day so 479 par 4, into a 1 to 2 club wind max. 10 of us ranging from +1 to 6. It plays long!
- Far less intimidating off the tee than the old hole, just a couple of bunkers down the left which I suppose gathers balls aiming to get the slightly better angle into the green. It's only really a tight right pin that will dictate going down the left to navigate the front right greenside bunker
- It's WIDE open. It stuck me as more of a Castle Stuart hole visually; having said that, I was delighted to see that Dornoch has retained it's generous width on all holes - the course was in immaculate condition
- As per many new links holes, it played even harder and faster than the rest of the course. The green and the approach were rock hard. It's the same at Gullane No.1 on the new 8th, which is now probably 10 years old. Extremely fiery.
- There was plenty of short grass around the green so very much in keeping with Dornoch. Wayward shots pushed towards the cliff will certainly run into trouble but you're coming from so far back on your approach you've have to have a strong left to right wind to really punish anyone above a certain handicap
- The green looked like and exact lift and shift from the old green. Is this correct?
Overall I enjoyed the new hole. If I was being harsh, the fairway is lacking any real movement and you could land a plane on it. I didn't pace it off but it must be 50 yards wide and close to pan flat up to 40 yards from the green. The improvements are the obviously the outstanding views and 99% of golfers will be blown away by those alone. Out of our group of 10, we all preferred the hole but that was down to stunning views and being much easier off the tee than the old hole.
The walk to the 8th tee is now a bit untidy. You walk right past the old torn up patch of green. I'm guessing they'll tidy it up in time.
The concentrated few days reminded me how truly special Dornoch is. Without question one of the very best courses on the planet - with the toughest set of par-3s!!