Rail Travel & Golf in Britain

[David_Tepper]

The new, British Open preview issue of GolfWorld (July13) has a nice article on traveling by rail to visit a wide assortment of golf courses in Britain. With the cost of filling up a tank of gas in the UK pushing well north of $100, traveling by rail has more appeal than ever.

There are special features on golf courses reachable by rail in the London, Liverpool and Glasgow/Edinburgh areas.

I imagine the article will be available somehwere at www.golfdigest.com before too long.

In the Highlands, the golf courses in Brora, Tain & Golspie are no more than half a mile from the local train station. Regretably, Dornoch lost its rail service many years ago.    

[Phil McDade]

...so did St. Andrews, and thus the railroad sheds that used to serve as the target on the Road Hole. I think there is a train/bus deal into the auld grey toon, but no direct rail service.

I think several parts of the western coast are accessible via rail, as are parts of the Highlands.

[David_Tepper]

Phil -

The article mentions the demise of rail service to St. Andrews (now take a taxi from the Leuchars rail station) and Turnberry.

On the west coast of Scotland, you can reach Irvine, Glasgow Gailes, Western Gailes, Kilmonock, Royal Troon, Prestwick & Prestwick St. Nicholas in 35 to 50 minutes by train from Glasgow Central Station.

DT

[Pete_Pittock]

  Most of the great courses were built with rail access since that transportation mode predated automobiles. Hoylake-Royal Lytham rail system accesses Birkdale, Formby etc.
Sunningdale is a five minute walk from the station.
  Many old books chronicle the golfer sitting in a rail car and conversations arising from seeing the clubs.
  I haven't ridden in a train since the early 60s.

[David_Tepper]

Pete P. -

You are absolutely correct. Many of the great British golf courses (Gleneagles, Turnberry, even Cruden Bay, etc.) were built as resort attractions for hotels developed by railway companies to encourage people to travel by rail.

"Golf and the Railway Connection" by Ian Nalder is just one of several books on the subject.

DT

[Tony_Muldoon]

David, the Railways were terribly important in the development of golf.  I’ve been keeping an eye out for the book but I don’t know if it sets Golf as just a part of the revolution in society they brought. As the recent club history of Walton Heath makes clear, the wealthy landowners needed a first class golf course and a railway station to make their farmland valuable for housing development.  IN the thread below I believe Alfie argues in Scotland the new golf courses naturally followed the railway.  I think the development of Golf in that time needs to be considered as a part of those changes.  You no longer had to live in the city even if you worked there and golf at the weekend became available to a new class.

Mark Rowlinson is currently writing the history of Sandy Lodge GC and the club never quite regained its former prominent position after a new club opened next door and the name of the local station was changed from Sandy Lodge to Moor Park.

www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index. php?board=1;action=printpage;threadid=4523

[Michael Whitaker]

One of my favorite day trips is taking the train from Edinburgh to North Berwick (30 minutes) for 36 holes of golf. It's only a short walk from the station to the course and makes for a great beginning and end to the day.

You can also take the train to Dunbar which, likewise, is a 30 minute trip from Edinburgh. However, the walk to the course is a bit longer. Still, another great day of golf and travel.

[Andrew Mitchell]

Pete P. -

You are absolutely correct. Many of the great British golf courses (Gleneagles, Turnberry, even Cruden Bay, etc.) were built as resort attractions for hotels developed by railway companies to encourage people to travel by rail.

"Golf and the Railway Connection" by Ian Nalder is just one of several books on the subject.

DT

I've got the Ian Nalder book. A very interesting read on how golf developed in the railway age (& sometimes vice versa).

[RT]

Good site to help plan train journeys

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

[Philip Gawith]

If I am not mistaken Ian Nalder is a very jovial ex-Huntercombe member who has been living in Scotland for some years. I must check up.

[Darren_Kilfara]

With the cost of filling up a tank of gas in the UK pushing well north of $100,    

FWIW, David, that figure sounds a bit excessive...my car has a big tank and it costs about £40-45 to fill it up most days (at 95p to the litre), which at the 2:1 exchange rate currently prevailing is nearer $80-90. Still, I grant that this isn't a small sum of money to those of you used to far less back in the States!

[Darren_Kilfara]

Actually, while I'm at it...

In the Highlands, the golf courses in Brora, Tain & Golspie are no more than half a mile from the local train station. Regretably, Dornoch lost its rail service many years ago.    

...the rail line north of Inverness isn't really one I'd recommend, as it snakes back and forth from the coastline to well inland a lot and doesn't support a frequent timetable. Sure, you *could* do a trip based around some rail travel up north, but I think you'd likely find yourself getting pretty frustrated at the inflexibility of it all.

On the other hand, I played a lot of golf up and down the east coast of Scotland (from Cruden Bay down to North Berwick) when I was living in St. Andrews using nothing but trains and buses to get around, so it's certainly possible to fashion a trip around that itinerary.

Cheers,
Darren

[David_Tepper]

Darren -

I was in the Highlands for 4 weeks in May/June. Filling up the tank of my rented Renault Laguna diesel at Tesco cost almost 50 pounds.    

Besides, if one could not engage in a little hyperbole from time to time, half the posts on this board would not exist!  

P.S. - You are correct that rail service north of Inverness is slim,  but you could visit the villages/courses I have mentioned by rail and not need a car. It can be done. There is talk of building a rail bridge across the Dornoch Firth to have a direct line from Tain to Dornoch, Goslpie, Brora, etc., but that may or may not happen in my lifetime.

DT

[Mark Chaplin]

My house is 66.5 miles driving from my golf club in Deal, I use the train for 99% of my visits to the club and have a folding cycle for the mile and a half journey from station to the clubhouse.

Royal Cinque Ports, Royal St Georges and Princes are all less than 2 hours from London by train and a $10 cab fare to the course.

Old story - Rye used to have a station by the course for the golfers, in the old days a two carriage train travelled from Rye town to the golf club. First class for the golfers, third class for the caddies. No golfer would ever have travelled second class and no caddie would ever pay the extra for second class hence a two carriage train!!

[Mark Pearce]

The Chiltern Line out of Marylebone has a station called Denham Golf Club - ideal for a round at Denham.  Chorleywood Station on the Metropolitan line was built to allow members of the House of Lords  to get to Chorleywood Golf Club.  In fact Chorleywood and Moor Park (a very short walk to Sandy Lodge are only a handful of stops apart.

On the fuel issue, my car regularly takes over £50 to fill the tank.

[G Jones]

Interestingly Panmure Golf Club (which just held final qualifying (local) for the Open, and which at only 6500 yards still proved to be the toughest course by quite a bit!) owes a lot to the railway... in fact it was almost a totally different history...

Essentially, they were going to build the clubhouse on the top of the hill where the 6th green (with Hogan's bunker) now sits. One can only imagine the course that might have resulted, given that Panmure is often referred to as having "the best 12 links holes in scotland" - the 4th to the 15th. The clubhouse location was chosen because of a railway stop about 50 yards away on the line to Dundee where most members lived. However, before it was built the club learnt that the station was going to be removed, and so were forced to build their clubhouse near to Barry station (next to the Carnoustie practise ground and the next stop away from Dundee on the line) instead. As a result the first 3 and last 3 holes had to play across flat farmland to get to the linksland that the course was orginally to be built on.

Hence Panmure's unusual first and last 3 holes. A club built around the railways if ever there was one!

[Jason McNamara]

A non-golfing friend was just explaining how much he enjoyed the train ride from Inverness to Edinburgh, which happened to go through Aviemore, Kingussie, Newtonmore, and Pitlochry (as well Gleneagles, more his speed).  I told him he needed to take up golf (though he's not left-handed).