[David_Tepper]

This link takes you to a nice article:

www.golfweb.com/story/7142326

[Brian_Gracely]

I hate to say it, but the description about finding the course was almost exactly how it used to be at Alfie Ward's Arbory Brae.  And you were only allowed to play with hickories and gutties.

The other perk at AB was that you were guaranteed to be able to talk and play with the owner/architect/superintendant/greenskeeper/club historian.

I'm really sad it won't be there when I go back to the area in May.  

[Bob_Huntley]

If anyone is on the West Coast of Scotland, near Fort William, and possibly spending a fortune staying at Inverlochy Castle, drive a few miles and play Spean Bridge. A nine-holer, an honour box and quite possibly a man and son out in the evening followed by a West Highland terrier.

This was not heart pounding stuff or visceral excitement, but  the golf had a mellow sort of charm to it, rather the same sort of glow one has after a dram of Laphroaig.

[ForkaB]

Thanks, David (and Robert T, who is one of oors!)

There still are more than a few of these rough adn ready courses in Scotland.  I happened upon one (Skeabost) on the Isle of Skye last October.  There was a par 3 with a tee no more than a yard from the dirt track I was on.  About 160, with a green set into a glade of trees and rhodedenrons with miniature bunkers that just fit the Hansel and Gretel tableau to a tee.  Again, a perfect golf hole.  It wa at dusk and I had the wife and sprogs in the car, so I couldn't play it, or even photograph it.  This is good, for it probably isn't as good as my memory tells me, which is beneficial for my dreams.

Lots of less hidden hidden gems, too, as we've talked about here many times..............

[Robert Thompson]

Gentlemen: It is really nice to see this little piece I wrote get noticed by people I respect and appreciate things like
"found" golf courses. I've been waiting to write about Lilliesleaf for some time, but was looking for the right opportunity. I have photos of the hole I wrote about in the story, so I'll see if I can post them in the next little while.

I was actually looking for a Willie Park design near Ancrum Craig, where my wife and I were staying, when I stumbled on this little course. It was great fun and a pretty neat feeling to be out on my own. I don't think any land was moved, with the exception of a few tee boxes.

I'm not kidding anyone here -- the course was largely pretty devoid of interesting features, all except for the one hole I mention in the story. But it was an experience I won't forget -- just like playing Turnberry and Cruden Bay.

I was surprised to find a website for the course when I started working on the column last week -- here's the link: http://www.dimpleknowe.co.uk/golf/index.htm

The routing has changed and the hole is now the third. There is a picture of it on the site.

Anyway, I was surprised, but very pleased, to see the story mentioned on GCA.

Robert

[Brian_Gracely]

I just saw the pictures........Carts!?!!??!!  It's only 2950 yards!  

[Robert Thompson]

Brian -- whacky indeed. It was a really easy walk too. The night I was there, no carts could be seen. Very odd, but it was an odd little place...

R

[THuckaby2]

Robert:

Thank YOU for the wonderful story - another vision of what golf is all about.  Great read, I could feel how neat it was to be there.

But darn it, I wish you hadn't have posted that web link.  Oh yes, #3 looks like any version of perfection one cares to come up with... But to the right of that picture, are those BUGGIES I see?

No offense, but at my vision of golf nirvana, buggies are allowed, but not used except by the infirm.  I know, it doesn't diminish what you felt and I am a cad for even mentioning it... I just do so because I was shocked to see them.

TH

ps - obviously my wordiness lost out here! Asked and answered with Brian.  Never mind...  

[Robert Thompson]

As I said, very odd to find carts anywhere in Scotland, let alone at a little course like this one. I was surprised to see them when I found the strange web site, cause they weren't there when I was there last May. I must admit that I didn't use the Weblink in the story for that reason -- too American for my tastes. I understand most Scottish courses have carts, but for gawd's sake, keep them hidden!
I did have a line in my initial version of the story about innocence lost, but I edited it out because I thought it hurt what I was trying to do.

Anyway, such is life.

R.

[THuckaby2]

Robert: methinks you were best to leave that out, as it would surely have hurt what you were trying to do.  But no hassles, the world marches on.

Is it really true most Scottish courses have carts now?  I took a tour of most of the big name courses last summer and never saw any (thankfully).  If this is true, it's sad....

TH

[Robert Thompson]

Tom -- they all have them, or at least mention them on their Web sites. But they aren't easy to obtain -- you usually need a doctor's note proving you can't walk 18 holes...

R

[THuckaby2]

R - my faith is restored.  That fits in with my vision of golf nirvana.  Sorry for the side-track here.  

By the way, believe it or not, a version of this does exist in the state of California... Jack Tone GC, out in the middle of nowhere in cental CA, seen by most Bay Area golfers as they drive from the Bay Area out to the great gold country courses such as Saddle Creek.  I had driven by it many times until finally stopping for 9 holes last year... and I had an experience similar to yours.  Oh, there's no honor box - I can't imagine that happening in CA - but pretty close - just a tiny little shop and the owner sitting there drinking a beer.  He told my buddy and I to go ahead and play, pay us when we were done, because he had locked the cash register and couldn't remember how to get it open, and said his wife killed him when he didn't account for things right.  So off we went, same kind of thing, only ones there, and there was at least one hole that had the sort of perfection you experienced at Littlesleaf.  Very near, very restorative.

TH

[Alfie]

David Tepper - my pal Brian - Robt Thomson et al ;

Spotted this thread and checked it out thinking, like Brian, it could have been about Arbory and a past customer ? It wasn't.

If the article fascinated and caught the golfing imagination of you GCA'ers, then may I suggest a similar course at Leadhills with a similar "HONESTY BOX !"

Leadhills is only 15 minutes drive right up into the hills of South Lanarkshire and boasts the highest course in Scotland (previously in the UK till some bugger elevated a TEE on a course in Wales. Probably as a result of technology ? No - I won't start !)

Ironically, Leadhills is the same 15 minutes from Arbory, of late, from Junction 13 off the M74 at Abington services.
The original course was laid out in 1891 and the present 9 holes in 1935. What many people who actually visit the course don't know, is that if they look upon a bordering hillside - you will see before your eyes the original 9 holer of 1891. All the tees and greens still visible and a neglected piece of true golfing history (but barely architecture).

Another typical inland "village" course of the 1890's in Scotland. This is a place where you can take the wife and throw her down the old lead mines - I mean let her visit the mines. Gold from Leadhills was used in the making of the Scottish Crown Jewels on view at Edinburgh Castle.

This place is like a living time capsule with an historical aura all over, and not just the golf course. The course itself is still grazed by sheep and measures 2177 yards. green fee is £5 sterling or thereabouts and needs all the support it can get before it too becomes defunct within the home of golf ?

I'm actually thinking of using Leadhills to let golfers play with hickory and gutta percha and PROVE the roll back is the way FORWARD in golf ! Anyone wishing more details should e-mail me at alfie@fernie55.freeserve.co.uk

Lanark, a past Open qualifier, is also in the locality and easily the best modern course in South Lanarkshire (inland, of course). Would make a good days golf - Lanark & Leadhills ?

Great, isn't it ? VisitScotland.com wouldn't do a bloody thing to help me and Arbory, and here I am doing the tourism stint for them !

Anyway, Nirvana might have been Arbory Braes ; but still could be at Leadhills ? With or without hickory !

PS : halfway through my signed copy of - The Future of Golf in America - and hope Geoff's work will become a part of the golfers curriculum (worldwide) with a view to inspiring some good old 'common sense !'

best as ever from Alfie Ward in Scotland - only a drive and 9 iron away ?

[Keith Durrant]

I had the wife and sprogs in the car

Rich, good to see you spreading the use of the Celtic vernacular...do the sprogs have numbers...?  

[Bob_Huntley]

Rottcod,

I had the pleasure of dining with Rich and Josie at the Tap Room at Pebble Beach a couple of years ago and the sprogs are the most beautiful children you could imagine. Not only that, they do what their parents tell them to do. Mirabile dictu.

Of course, Rich does exactly what Josie tells him to do, sometimes.

[ForkaB]

Rottcodd

Yes, they are Number 1 and Number 3.

Bob

I think we drugged them before that evening in the Tap Room.  Better living through chemistry!

[Dan King]

Great little story Mr. Thompson. I’m a little surprised PGATOUR.com® published it.

I once played a wee course somewhere between Gullane and Musselburgh. It was a similar experience. I went and played it while some companions decided to go look at some castle or shop in Edinburgh or some such. I’ve gone back a few times since then and never been able to find it. Perhaps it resides in some sort of golf rabbit hole or maybe I can’t find it because I’ve returned to right-side-of-the-street thinking and can’t get back to the left side again.

While in East Lothian, if you get a chance try and find it. I can’t tell you much about it because I’m not sure which part of my memory is real and which part is fantasy. I’m fairly sure it was nine holes, off-the-beaten-track and not used much. I seem to recall it being in a nice little neighborhood, something like Leith, but I think it was further east.

The only time in my life I regret not collecting score cards.

Dan King

Dream golf is simply golf played on another course. We chip from glass tables onto moving stairways; we swing in a straightjacket, through masses of cobweb, and awaken not with any sense of unjust hazard but only with a regret that the round can never be completed, and that one of our phantasmal companions has kept the scorecard.
 --John Updike

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Dan,

The 9-hole courses in east Lothian are Gifford and Musselburgh Old Links.  I don't know much about Gifford other than it is set in the foothills of the Lammermuir Hills, reputedly has excellent greens, and the Speedyburn runs through 4 holes.  Musselburgh Old Links is the former Open Championship site which you can now play with replica hickory clubs.  http://www.musselburgholdlinks.co.uk/

I know Leadhills well and do commend it to those who like their golf primitive.  I played it on my own some years ago. There were no tee-markers and there were no distances quoted on the card so it was all guesswork (no bad thing).  I never even found the men's tee for the 5th!  I recall a blind par-3 (3rd) over a marker post, an exciting drive over some pretty rough country on the 4th and almost the same shot on the 6th.  The 7th was a fine par 3 played from a mountainous tee across a deep valley to a green high up on the far side.  The 8th involves a skirmish with an out-of-bounds wall and a remnant of an old tee marker suggested that the 9th was a par 3.  I certainly could not reach this green in a single shot, its being problem enough simply to clear heather and boggy ground stretching out far in front.

Lanark, too, I know.  It is the 25th oldest golf club in the world (1851) and the current moorland course was begun by Tom Morris in 1897 and enlarged somewhat by James Braid in 1927.  It may be inland, but it plays very much like a links with undulating fairways, hidden depressions and links-like bunkering.  There are some cracking two-shot holes (2nd 467 yards, 4th 457 yards, 15th 470 yards) though I think the 11th (397 yards) with its drive between an out-of-bounds wall and a prominent bunker, followed by a pitch over a stream, humps, gullies, bunkers and heather to a hill-top green is the hole which remains most clearly in my memory.  I found it a very friendly club and there is also a 9-hole children's course available at little cost to youngsters in the town and they get free golf lessons on a Saturday morning.  

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