North Berwick’s 16th and Biarritz greens
Many discussions on this website debate whether the 16
th green at North Berwick’s west links with its crazy shape, precipitous run-off slopes, and deep dip running across it is the original template for what has become known as a Biarritz green. A good many golfers bemoaning multiple putts sliding on and off, or getting stuck in the swale, stomp away muttering that it looks like a green designed by committee. They are right.
There is no single designer who can be put in the stocks and pelted or adored according to your taste. Like pretty much everything at North Berwick, the hole and the green just evolved into its present shape over time with several hands helping to form it, including a committee.
Prior to 1868, the course was just six holes. The present 16
th or Gate hole was the 4
th with a tee east of the wall over which present day golfers drive from the west side. The green, however, was in the same place as today, but was on flat ground on the part now occupied by the western of the two plateaus that now form the much cursed, or beloved, green. Between 1868-77, the course was extended to nine holes, the 4
th becoming the 7
th and the tee moving back west of the wall. After 1877, the links grew to 18 holes and the 7
th became the 16
th almost as it is today.
The hole, however, had a drainage problem. Several hundred acres of rising land to the south drained down to the 16
th, the run-off becoming more pronounced as 19
th century expansion of villas and the construction of the Marine Hotel (1875) overlooking the 16
th proceeded.
A map of the 1868 course extension shows that there was a burn running across the 16
th and the 3
rd hole pretty much where the present burn runs. Despite that, this map shows a ‘cow pond’ adjacent to the river on the right side of the 16
th fairway. Sheep, cows and horses grazed the west links until about 1850. Storms shifting the beach-side dunes would have periodically blocked this channel, causing the fairway and the green to become boggy. Marshiness would also have followed heavy rain. The 1868 map also shows a (now disappeared) drain running east to west across the front of the 16
th green then turning sharply north to run out in front of the present 2
nd green and then to the sea. Again, despite that, a 1996 account discussing the original six-hole course says “the Gate hole … was even more difficult than it is now as the green was surrounded by water from another burn which followed roughly the line of the present path.” (C. Berkeley Crawford (1996) Tantallon Golf Club: A History 1853-1995. p91.)
At some point in nineteenth century it was decided to make the existing burn across the fairway to the shore deeper to provide better drainage and to run a pipe through the dunes to ensure it remained free-flowing. The excavated spoil was likely used to make sure the green remained dry by raising it about three feet above the fairway level, with the residue spoil being dumped west of the green in a raised rough area.
Looking at the current topography, it seems likely that there was still more spoil which was deposited east of the green creating a separate mound. The slopes on this hillock do not look natural. It would have made an interesting feature penalising any shot which overran the green.
In October 1895, George Dalziel, Chairman of the Green Committee and Captain of Tantallon Golf Club (one of the three clubs which play over the West Links) called a meeting in October 1895 to discuss the extended 18-hole layout opened that year and to recommend any necessary alterations. One outcome was an instruction to head greenkeeper Tom Anderson to alter the 16
th. The minute reads: " Make new putting green on table, east of present Gate hole putting green." (Source: Douglas Seaton
http://www.northberwick.org.uk/origins.html ) The table referred to is the back or east part of the present green. The terseness of this order leaves room for several explanatory interpretations. The likeliest is that raising the green, when there was no watering system, had caused another problem: that the green would dry out too quickly and, with constant use, become a dustpan in high summer. Increasing the putting area would mitigate the problem.
So how did it get to Biarritz?
I think that what the Greens Committee did in 1895 was to formalise an existing informal arrangement of using the “table” as a drought-relief green. In 1877, the West Links' greenkeeper and clubmaker was Tom Dunn of the famous golf club-making Dunn family of Musselburgh. His younger brother Willie Dunn jnr joined him in North Berwick at some point. In 1889, Tom Dunn failed to turn up to resume greenkeeping after the winter. He had gone to Biarritz for health reasons but also because brother Willie Dunn was there at Biarritz Golf Club. (Source: Douglas Seaton (2013) The West Links and Tantallon Golf Club 1853 – 2013, p31.) Together they laid out the original Le Phare course which featured a green split by a swale. So in my view, the original Biarritz green was indeed in Biarritz, but the inspiration for it probably came from North Berwick. In the same way, C.B. Macdonald, who played North Berwick in 1872 and perhaps on later occasions, may well have been inspired by the 16th in the same way that the Dunns were.
Seeing something that works in one location to provide a challenge and then adapting it to suit other locations is how all golf architects work. After all, the pictures I have seen on this site of Biarritz greens generally show a round green, not always raised, bisected by a shallow swale running at right-angles to the direction of play. The 16
th green at North Berwick is long (about 40 yards), thin (11 yards at widest point), with a deep dip (2ft 6ins to 3ft) running diagonally, steep run-offs, and the whole green slanted across the direction of play. It is an absolute card wrecker, probably why it isn’t directly copied. Even the great Tom Watson, when he played it in 1992, could only manage two bogeys (personal communication from Stewart Greenwood, recently retired head greenkeeper, who managed two fours when playing it with Tom, and using his clubs).
Hope that helps.
Quite frankly, most members at North Berwick don't care whether you call the 16th a Biarritz green or not. We are just, well sometimes, happy to play it and to know it had and still has a role in golf course design.