I've never seen a pic of the "oldest playing golf course in the world" here on GCA, so I thought I'd post some pictures of this historic links.
Being told by everybody I met in Scotland how flat, boring and not worth playing it is, I found Old Musselburgh to be the most surprising course on my trip. It is not the greatest course you'll ever play or anything, after all it's just a 2800+something yard par 34 course in a racetrack.... But it was great fun, and I thought there were some really interesting holes & greens.
The weather conditions were not ideal for photos, I'm not the most talented photographer anyways, and as always, pics never express how the course really plays and feels, but here you go...:
1st hole, 146 yds, elevated green:
2nd, 348 yds par 4, one of my favourites, the green is down in a valley beneath the gorse:
This blind bunker lurks at 200+somewhere, before the ground drops downhill towards the green:
Looking back, from the 8th tee:
The 357 yard 3rd, with some bunkers to negotiate on the way to the green:
From the 4th tee:
Tee shot @ the 4th, a really cool hole IMO... Slight dogleg right, but right is where the racetrack is:
The 2nd shot to a green that is tough to approach and fun to put, sorry, pics can't do it justice.
A bit closer up:
The 5th, a par 3 with another good green
Closer up:
Looking back... oh, there are bunkers behind the green!
The par 4 6th ( sorry, even worse photos for the next holes). A hollow at 240 yds and a tricky two-tiered green make this one quite tough.
Closer up to the green:
The slightly dog-legged right par 5 7th is, with a bunker in the corner, a big bunker 80 yards short of the green and another cool green, a very good hole.
2nd shot after a rather short drive. Pin is just left of the golfers in the distance:
Green from the left, with contours of the greens feeding slightly hooked balls into a back left bunker.
Looking back:
The 240 yds par 3 8th, (guess what) another cool, bowl-shaped green, where the golfers are standing:
The green closer up:
Tee shot at the dogleg-left 9th:
2nd shot:
Looking back towards the right-to-left and front-to-back sloping 9th green.
Well, those pictures might not look very interesting, but it is a fun track that, combined with the history, should be played if in Edinburgh or East Lothian.
Well worth the 9 pound greenfee..... and the "vagaries" of public transport to get to and fron there!
