Somewhere a few hundred miles southwest of Reykjavik, I’m having some deep thoughts about this years trip to the links.
1) blindness is overrated. Most of our trip included repeated plays and I found shots like the tee shot on 17 at Dornoch, tee shot on 15 at Cruden Bay, and the approach on 7 at Machrihanish to be pretty uninspiring. The charm wears quickly. Conversely, I found shots where you can see your target but can’t perfectly see the result of the shot, like the tee shot on 17 Cruden Bay, or 14 at Machrihanish to be very charming. Not all blindness is equal.
2) one playability weakness I find on links courses is the lack of break on putts inside 10-12 feet. This isn’t a just UK links, it happens at American links courses too. More heavily contoured greens and greens surrounds for some reason result in long putts with lots to think about but shorter putts of a straight nature. I hope someone can help me solve the “why” behind this. Oddly, the largest breaks on putts inside 10 feet were found during an emergency round at Kilspindie last night.
3) overall course length is a useless variable in golf architecture. Yes Dunaverty and Kilspindie felt short. Brora, however, felt abut right and RDGC, Cruden Bay, and Machrihanish felt downright long at times. Peep the cards and you’ll see some rather low total yardage figures. Terrain and its use, bunker positioning, and green shape can serve to really subvert lengths’s importance in how a hole plays.
4) the greens were a touch slow for my liking. Incredible greens were rather simple two putt affairs for most of the trip. Wind affected some putts and that’s a welcome thing. I think perhaps the cold and wet conditions this spring and early summer had something to with it.
5) best part of the trip was realizing just how much these courses are a product of environment and circumstance. We don’t do that at most places in the US. We spend lots of money overcoming negative environmental factors. In Scotland, the native and roughs were crazy lush. Is what it is. Fairways were fluffier than I remember. No matter, it’s just what the course is this season. Next season will be different.
There’s no need to delve into what lived up to hype and what didn’t. I’ll just offer, Cruden Bay hit me in a way I wasn’t expecting, even with its reputation.