[Marty Bonnar]

Finally getting round to editing and posting up some pics from our trot around Dumbarnie last Wednesday. I, personally, LOVED it. Sure, the shaping might be a bit much for some, but I just found it highly ‘theatrical’ and very scene-setting in a proper landscape architectural way. It really helps the sense of isolation out there, too, as, despite a full tee-sheet, we barely saw or encountered any other golfers during our round.


Clubhouse and Practice Green:



Opening tee shot view:



1st Green Approach:



All good so far. Nice hints of what’s to come by way of width, cross hazards, green contours...

[Tom_Doak]

Looks like a great opening hole, thanks for posting that photo.


I won't participate further so that it will be fresh if/when I see it for myself.

[Marty Bonnar]

2nd Hole. Nice par 5 with the fairway divided twice by a winding streambed. Slightly uphill approach to the green. Fine example of the ‘divisive’ shaping! I think there might be a bit of an Architect’s nod to the nearby lumpy hill of Largo Law?

[Marty Bonnar]

The 3rd. Cracking little risk/reward dogleg par4. The green is over the two shaggy bunkers left, requiring a bold carry. I chickened out and thumped it down towards the fairway pot bunker, pitched on and made par.

[Peter Pallotta]

Sigh
Not just a different kind of golf course than the ones I play, but a different kind of game. Reminds me of a line from old Scottish pastor Geo. Macdonald: "Wind and sky and sea said to him, 'think no more of thyself and we will think of thee'".
Thanks Marty
Best to you
P

[Marty Bonnar]

Nice, artfully bunkered entrance to the 4th green. Much more of a diagonal hazard than the photo shows:



Fun split fairway of the 5th. Nicely framed by Largo Law again. Massive landing area beyond the bunker nest if you go for it:



The first par 3 of the round, the 6th. You’d really have to top your tee shot to find one of the hairy principal’s nose bunkers and one of us (not me!) did...

[David_Tepper]

Enjoying the tour. I like the mix of bunker styles. Thanks!

[Marty Bonnar]

I seem to have missed the 7th. It’s a big, muscly uphill dog-legging par 5 over some fairly gently rolling ground.


The 8th. Second of the par 3s. I just noticed that the four par 3s bookend two of the par 5s on both nines.
Nice view from the tee over Ruddons Point to Berwick Law in the far distance. Elie is just over the hill on the left:



Closing the front 9 is this cracker of a par 4. Very neat bit of visual trickery on the right side - the first bunker is about 70 yards closer than the other two:

[Mark Pearce]

Thanks for the tour, Marty.


I have to say that whilst the golf looks good when I can focus on the holes, I'm struggling to get past the shaping of the hillocks in the rough, which look as if the designer had an accident with a bar of Toblerone.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Ever since I became a member of Silloth my yardstick of all links courses has been “Is it better than Silloth?”


North Berwick came close but in all honesty didn’t persuade me.


How does Dumbarnie fare in the Silloth test?

[Ulrich Mayring]

Well, pound for pound it's certainly more than three times Silloth

[Adam Lawrence]

Enjoying the tour. I like the mix of bunker styles. Thanks!

Just for information, all the revetted bunkers are built with EcoBunker synthetic revet.

[Adam Lawrence]

Thanks for the tour, Marty.


I have to say that whilst the golf looks good when I can focus on the holes, I'm struggling to get past the shaping of the hillocks in the rough, which look as if the designer had an accident with a bar of Toblerone.

Yeah, I have seen Dumbarnie twice, once during construction and once during grow-in, and I felt the shaping was a bit OTT too. If you can ignore that and just focus on the golf, then great.

[Marty Bonnar]

The tenth. Dog-legging (just) par 4 with a POND!:



11th. Very fun driveable (just about) par 4. Another use of the aiming carry bunkers. Safer route right still has a couple of fairway pots to negotiate around:



The 12th. Relatively straightforward par 4. Most of the interest saved for a really cool, tricky green site:

[Jim Sherma]

Should we expect all of the pointy pyramid-style shaping to smooth out over time and start to look more natural as the wind and the sand do what they do? While the course looks quite good it is rather jarring and artificial off the fairways.

[Kalen Braley]

C'mon Bonnar,

You know full well natural sand dunes don't form like that! 

[Jason Thurman]

What's the history of the course? I know only as much about it as what I've read in this thread.


My thought at first glance, looking at the photos, would've been that the site probably originally looked like the landforms out in the rough and things were flattened to create fairways. But from the comments here, it sounds like I'd be way off. Is the shaping all pretty much hand of man?


A very attractive looking golf course, regardless. Thanks Marty.

[Adam Lawrence]

What's the history of the course? I know only as much about it as what I've read in this thread.


My thought at first glance, looking at the photos, would've been that the site probably originally looked like the landforms out in the rough and things were flattened to create fairways. But from the comments here, it sounds like I'd be way off. Is the shaping all pretty much hand of man?


A very attractive looking golf course, regardless. Thanks Marty.

Yeah, it's all shaped. It was sandy farmland before. There is an area of natural dunes -- the Dumbarnie Links SSSI -- but the course doesn't go into it, which is why it was fairly easy to get planning permission.

[Jim Sherma]

Google Maps still showing it as farm land:


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dumbarnie+Links+Golf+Course/@56.2123625,-2.8911831,2521m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48865388b195a38d:0x3ffc0d5932262809!8m2!3d56.2155674!4d-2.8837927

Definitely all shaping.

[Marty Bonnar]

Google Maps still showing it as farm land:


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dumbarnie+Links+Golf+Course/@56.2123625,-2.8911831,2521m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48865388b195a38d:0x3ffc0d5932262809!8m2!3d56.2155674!4d-2.8837927

Definitely all shaping.

Jim,
All of the brown earth area is the golf course. Some of the early shaping very visible.
F.

[Jim Sherma]

Google Maps still showing it as farm land:


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dumbarnie+Links+Golf+Course/@56.2123625,-2.8911831,2521m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48865388b195a38d:0x3ffc0d5932262809!8m2!3d56.2155674!4d-2.8837927

Definitely all shaping.

Jim,
All of the brown earth area is the golf course. Some of the early shaping very visible.
F.

OK - thanks, I thought that might have been the case but didn't know. Did it all look like the farm field to the north of the work at the start? To me it looks like everything north of the dashed line was plowed farm field and that there might have been more natural dunes to the south of it. Am I looking at this correctly?

[Marty Bonnar]

Bang on, Jim. The dotted line is the old railway - gone since the 60s.
The land to the south of it is the Nature Reserve/SSSI.
Cheers,
F.

[Marty Bonnar]

Thirteenth. Another split fairway with the left side stopping 50 yards short and the right continuing up to the elevated green. Very fun par 5 with a very narrow fairway opening just short of the first bunker on the left. There’s a hundred yards between it and the four greensides beyond!:



View of the green from the left fairway. Be very cool to do something nice with the waste area:



I had an absolute ‘mare on the par 3 14th, so no pics - lucky to escape with a 6 from an impossible water lie, a drop in knee high grass, a chop from a blind mound and a two-putt.


15. Final par 5. Split fairway theme again with a shorter route right over some wicked bunkers and rough or the safe left fairway...:

[Ben Stephens]

Marty


Did you know that there is 2 major gas pipe lines side by side that bisects through the site at Dumbarnie?? 


Cheers
Ben

[Marty Bonnar]

16th. Final par 3. Photo Op rear bunkers and awesome MacKenzie-esque (maybe!) tiered green:






17th. The ultimate risk-reward challenge of the Course. Definitely comes at the point in the Round when you know how well/badly you’re playing. Right side - WILD carry over deep rough, a wall and bunkers to the landing area or maybe even the green. Left side - safe to fairway and pitch through/over the wall. Very North Berwick!:



Final Hole. Dogleg right. Great speed slope by skimming the left side of the right bunkers. I know - I found it by chance!:

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