[Jon Wiggett]

It was very noticable at the opening and closing inland holes at Gil Hanse's Craighead course at Crail.  Just not the same turf as the Balcomie.  Like Ben, I wondered if it might need a few hundred years of maturation. 

The Craighead course is on completely different soil and will never be a links.  It's not on sandy soil and sits on top of the cliffs (I agree with those who argue that being at sea level is not a requirement for a links, but I think being on sandy soil that was once at that level probably is).  As has been stated above, not even all of the Balcomie course is on links ground.

Mark,

isn't how a course plays more important than the ground it is built up on? I think it is from a playing, GCA or even maintenance point of view. Why is this business of is a course a true 'LINKS' so important?

Jon,

Of course what matters most is how a course plays.  However, now matter how hard and fast and links-like a course like, say, Notts, might be, it isn't a links.  I'm not the one stressing the question.  However, it IS important that courses that are true links retain that and don't, through over watering, fertilisation or whatever, lose the playing characteristics that make them special.

FWIW, the Craighead does not play like a links (and I like it a lot, unlike many who play it).

Mark

Mark,

in the end I think we are both singing from the same hymn sheet in that it is the playability that is important not the soil. I don't think I have ever seen or heard any claim by Notts to being a Links or even links style course but rather they want to present a course playable in a traditional style.

If we are honest by producing a golfing sward you change the nature of the soil it is on away from its original form. If to be a links course means the entire course needs to be on links original soil then I am not sure any exist.

[Melvyn Morrow]

Bill

I certainly would not disagree with you regards the course at Dornoch, it is a great course and I fully understand why many enjoy the thrill time after time. I love the area and the other nearby courses.

I do have a slight issue with the Royal Dornoch Golf Club, who out and out promote Ross and put him on an equal footing with Sutherland and Old Tom. Yet from what I see in GB&I, who was Ross, what did he do that would warrant this type of attention. I most humbly believe that they (the club) are trying to cash in on his name to persuade more North American to visitor.

Ross did some great things later in life in America, but I do not see exactly what he did here? 

I believe Royal Dornoch Golf Club, to be blunt are chasing the American market with nothing much more that Donald Ross was here, why willing to undersell those who remained and actually created the course. Perhaps I should be more sympathetic but having challenged them a few years ago I
still believe they are at the very least misrepresenting the facts

For all that the course is still one of the most enjoyable in Scotland. Then it must be as the great man had a hand in its development.

Melvyn 

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