Elie. Photo tour all 18.

[jeffwarne]

Critical?

I'm booking a flight.

I played Elie in a downpour and I remember really liking the course and setting, but on a day like you ended up with, I can't imagine anywhere better.
 Would seem the perfect place to book several days when in the lottery for St. Andrews. (That way you be assured of getting ON ELIE!!!)

Great pictures-Thanks for the effort.

How's your friend?

[Mark Pearce]

Ronald,

Two flags on 9 because it's the end of the front 9.  It's a tradition in some UK clubs.  And yes, Tony's last picture of that green is from behind, the approach to that green is semi-blind and, with a long club in, difficult to hold with that slope down.

Tony,

If you play on a still day (or one with an East wind) than the course doesn't bare what teeth it has until 12.  It's a strong hole, because it's long and requires a drive far further left than you feel comfortable with.  13, 14, 16 and 17 are all then strong holes.  Cameron, playing off 22, was 2 over gross after 11 in one round last summer and finished 15 over!

[Tony_Muldoon]

Happily 13 is a gem.  I can think of only four links holes where the green is obliquely benched into a dune (two are at Princes) and it’s a great feature and I cannot understand why it’s not been used more widely.  Of course I failed to hit to the far side and hold the green and was left with a very difficult retrieval shot(putt).











14 heads away from the beach with OOB all down the left.  A good hole which my pictures don’t do justice to.

Again oblique driving angles on a links can be most disconcerting.
As we headed for home the wind off the sea started to drop. Ha! That’s links Golf.






15 doubles back again offering a last view of the sea.








16 starts the true home run featuring some stronger holes










17  More OOB to the left and rear of the green.   






18 See Mark’s comments above.  “Driveable in the right conditins”.  OOB to the right this time.

[Tony_Muldoon]

A day that started off with so much hassle and disappointment finished perfectly.  

 The clubhouse is comfortable and form the moment we rocked up and paid our green fees, they do accommodate visitors very well. After making the 90 year old buy me a pint  for losing, we sat in the main lounge window as the Sun went down.

I was able to inform him that while putting my clubs in the car I’d checked with Mr. Blackberry and we had a time on the Old Course first thing next morning.  This was indeed provident as the weather proved much kinder that it would have been if the plane hadn’t been cancelled and played played our first booked round.  It also allowed us to meet with FBD and Niall to play The Eden course in the PM –a joyous event previously recorded on here.  We completed a most memorable weekend with North Berwick on Sunday and Prestwick on Monday.  Wonderful time.






Incidentlally

Is it pronounced as per the girls name “Ellie”? Or the City name “Ely”?

[Mark Pearce]

Ealy.

[Niall C]

Tony

Complete dog track. Only kidding, played it once and your photos suggest its a better course than what I initially remembered. Clearly time for another visit.

BTW, from what I remember of our round on the Eden, you're pal's doing rather well for a 90 year old 

Niall

[John Mayhugh]

Thanks, Tony, for a great tour.  The 13th looks spectacular.

Whenever I get back to Scotland, Elie is a must. 

[paul westland]

played here in 2001; the foursome ahead of us included Lady Bonallock; her group moved at a fast clip and that tweedy gentleman @ the starter's house gave me a tour of the clubhouse-memorable times!  The wind was 10-15 mph; manageable.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Thanks for all the replies, I was away and have enjoyed reading them.

Tony, Thanks for this.  As some here know I have just joined The Golf House Club, having visited Elie every summer for years.  It's simply great fun.  Is it a great course, objectively?  I really don't know.  Probably not is my guess but I simply can't judge it that way.  It's great fun, it demands all the shots a proper links demands and, in a wind, it's plenty to test your game.

Interesting that for a course which is so loved for providing fun, fun, fun; there’s really  been no attempt at critque on the thread by anyone.  Mark you probably know her best so why does your analytical mind have problems being  objective?  If you’ll forgive me saying so, you’re not usually someone who struggles to express your opinion! The thing that surprises me is how infrequently Elie comes up on  a recommendation thread.  EG when someone says I’m off to Scotland and going to pay 14 courses in 7 days they are often advised to cut the travel, choose a couple of bases and play the local courses.   So given that everyone wants to play The Old Course, is Elie the next best course in Fife? A top 10 must play for first time visitors to Scotland, for unique it certainly is? Similarly when Elie is mentioned it gets compared most frequently to Brora.  Brora gets a lot of love on here, certainly more than Elie; but based on one round on each I’d rather play Elie.   Is it something like the way we undervalue comedy or what used to be called light music?  In any list of the world’s great films you won’t see, e.g. Some Like it Hot or Groundhog Day, because...they are considered by the critics to be too lightweight, mere soufflés?   Elie is a soufflé and all the better for it.

[Sean_A]

Spangles

Elie has always been high on my list of hits, but I just don't tend to spend enough time around St Andrews to actually ever give it a go (or it isn't me doing the organizing when I do make it up for any length of time).  I am hoping The Canary invites me up for a long weekend of Elie and only Elie. 

Ciao

[Tony_Muldoon]

I thought I’d look at some of the literature.  Overall it seems most are not as impressed as I am, trotting out “Seaside golf, unusual format... without giving the feeling this adds up to one of the most original experiences in Golf.


Doak 5.  (same as The New and Crail Balconie)

Peugeot Guide 15/20  
One of the region’s most amusing courses.


Peter Allen and Dickinson fail to mention her and Steel follows the usual lines.

Pennink  (1962)
Ideal Holiday golf...seventy only broken five times during the Scottish Professional Championship[p...is due to the humps and hollows and awkward stances to the often sloping greens.
It boasts the proud record of never having been closed.  Can any other club say likewise?
(incidentally he has No 7 as 267 Par 3, No9 Par 5, 12 Par 5, 17 par 5 for a total of 72 and an SSS  of 78.)

Finegan
12th  It is a great and difficult hole. None but the brave will cut off enough of the beach to get home in two., and a deep greenside bunker at the right will give even them pause.
13th  In the 1973 British Senior Professional Championship Roberto de Vicenzo deliberately overclubbed here  in the final round and wound up with a tap-in birdie that led to victory. Today however that bank in back is no longer shaved.... ( I think he prefers Crail)

Several Mention McDuffs Cave behind the 13th green.

[Bill_McBride]

Spangles

Elie has always been high on my list of hits, but I just don't tend to spend enough time around St Andrews to actually ever give it a go (or it isn't me doing the organizing when I do make it up for any length of time).  I am hoping The Canary invites me up for a long weekend of Elie and only Elie. 

Ciao

If I understand Mark's affiliations correctly, you could throw in some Crail too, and that would be just fine!

[Doug Wright]

Thanks for all the replies, I was away and have enjoyed reading them.

Tony,

Thanks for this.  As some here know I have just joined The Golf House Club, having visited Elie every summer for years.  It's simply great fun.  Is it a great course, objectively?  I really don't know.  Probably not is my guess but I simply can't judge it that way.  It's great fun, it demands all the shots a proper links demands and, in a wind, it's plenty to test your game.
 

Interesting that for a course which is so loved for providing fun, fun, fun; there’s really  been no attempt at critque on the thread by anyone.  Mark you probably know her best so why does your analytical mind have problems being  objective?  If you’ll forgive me saying so, you’re not usually someone who struggles to express your opinion!

The thing that surprises me is how infrequently Elie comes up on  a recommendation thread.  EG when someone says I’m off to Scotland and going to pay 14 courses in 7 days they are often advised to cut the travel, choose a couple of bases and play the local courses. 

So given that everyone wants to play The Old Course, is Elie the next best course in Fife?
A top 10 must play for first time visitors to Scotland, for unique it certainly is?

Similarly when Elie is mentioned it gets compared most frequently to Brora.  Brora gets a lot of love on here, certainly more than Elie; but based on one round on each I’d rather play Elie. 

Is it something like the way we undervalue comedy or what used to be called light music?  In any list of the world’s great films you won’t see, e.g. Some Like it Hot or Groundhog Day, because...they are considered by the critics to be too lightweight, mere soufflés?   Elie is a soufflé and all the better for it.

Or maybe I’m wrong and it is a little unfulfilling. I notice lots of one plays in the replies and a couple who mentioned having made  the effort to get back there.   I will revisit this thread when I get a chance to go back.

Thoughts?

Tony,

To give you a bit of critique, I've played Elie twice, once in 1990 during my first visit to Scotland and then again in 2006. I absolutely loved Elie the first time round; a beautiful site for golf with some quirk right off the bat (1-3 are fine starting holes) and very good holes at 12-13; however, I was less excited about Elie the second time round. It seemed like there was quite a bit of sameness to the holes in the middle of the property (4-9 and 15-17). One of my tests for greatness is memorability, and I can't recall several of those holes. Just my 2 cents--It seems like a great members' club.

[Mark Pearce]

Tony,

I must have played 50+ rounds at both Elie and Balcomie.  I still find it very, very difficult to seperate them for course quality.  Both have quirk (lots of blind shots and half pars at Elie, big changes of elevation at Balcomie).  Both are generous to the higher handicapper (when allocated slopes for US handicapping purposes both came in at 113).  Both have holes I love (3, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16 at Balcomie, 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 18 at Elie) and a few that are a little weak (4, 6, 15 at Balcomie 7 at Elie).  Both have a pretty good set of greens (3, the double green on 8 and 11, 9, 13, 18 at Balcomie 1, 5, 6, 9, 13 at Elie amongst the best).  Neither is long (though even now I'm surprised to see that Elie is nearly 6300 yards for a par of 70, compared to Balcomie's nealy 5900/par 69), both are great fun, both have had conditioning issues which seem to be being addressed (in that both were, in my view, over-fed and watered, leading to them being softer than ideal).  I've played medals on both and played far better than handicap but also struggled on both.  Compared to Northumberland both flatter my handicap.

I'm proud to be a member of both, though I suspect that, in due course, I'll let Crail go, since it's hard to justify both.  That preference for Elie isn't based on the course but on the club, which is as good a club as any I know.  As to the courses, if you really, really pushed me I'd probably just choose Elie, which may just have the  better good holes and fewer weaknesses and, perhaps, the more interesting fairways and fairway bunkering.  Actually, fairway bunkering may be one area where Elie is comfortably ahead.

Sean,

Let's put a weekend in the diary!