A quick report.
This past Tuesday at North Berwick. A fantastic place. A very friendly starter asked me what brought me to North Berwick. He seemed to like my "This golf course...just this golf course" answer. The welcome by the clubhouse manager was extremely friendly also. We played off the blue tees.
Had the wind at our backs heading out. I am no estimater of wind strength, but the forecast for the day was 15mph and it was that and gusting harder at times IMO. I wondered about the possibility of launching one at the first green and then remembered I had left my driver back in Norway...
On the front nine, I did enjoy 1, 2 (left fairway leaves you totally blind
), 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9. At 9 I took dead aim right at the bunkers and it drew with the wind. Knocked it over the back and got down in 2 for birdie.
Back 9 heading back into the wind - 10, 11 green with a right hand back pin to feed poor approaches into the bunker. The siting of 12 green!!! 13 (the pit) where I hit my best 5 iron into the wind for a GIR par. 14 drive...requiring precision into the wind...which I didn't have and wound up on the 4th green. Took relief and found the green (absolutely blind shot) with another good 5 iron for a regulation par.
Redan played 165 yards to the pin into the full strength of the wind. Chunked a 4 iron that dribbled off the tee. Punched a 7 iron onto the green and drained a 40 footer for par. Bit of break on that putt!!!
16 - OOB off the tee, hit the wall with my 3rd shot from the tee that rebounded next to Redan green. Shanked OOB
. Ended up with a 1 putt 10.
Loved 17 into the wind....felt like a par 5 with the trench bunker. Perfect drive down 18 into the wind. 99 yards to the pin. 2 fat attempts at a pitch and run and finally putted from 65 yards off the green. All in all, the back 9 was fun, fun, fun with a very challenging wind to see if your game was good enough.
DUNBAR the next day. Forecast 20mph winds that reached that and a bit more - played into on the way out, with us on the way home. Off the yellow tees. Best holes for my mind were 3, 4, and 7 in particular and 9 on the way out. . 10 with the old ruin farmhouse that I found myself in. 12, 14, 15 and the awkwardness of the burn in front of 17 green with a front pin.
Near blunder of the day....took aim at the 17th green when playing the 5th from the white tee, before I was stopped by my member playing partner. He now thinks that that would be an awesome par 3 to try....
Highlight - the 2 older members who asked me to join them on the 1st tee as I was a single. Their demonstration of playing quickly, but effectively was eye-opening. They didn't line up putts, but judged them for break, speed and allowance for wind with impressive results.
GULLANE No. 1. This is more a test of nerve for you tee shots due to the ferocious thick rough. It beat me up pretty bad even though we had minimal wind for most of the round. Holes I thought were good were 5, 7, 11, 12, 13 and 16. Lowlight - 6 shots to escape a plugged lie from a fairway bunker on 16 on way to a 12! Highlight - 2 birdie twos on 9 and 16.
GULLANE sent off groups with a 7 minute interval. On the 2nd tee, we had the group in front of us waiting on the tee, a group waiting in the fairway, and a group on the green. 4 groups on a par 4 hole.
It didn't improve much either the rest of the way. Shameful management practice and blighted my enjoyment of the course more than a tad. Life's too short to use 4.45 for a round of golf.
The best thing about links....the "ground game" around the greens and factoring run into your approaches (particularly North Berwick)
What I know about GCA you can write on a pin-head, but North Berwick a good head in front of Dunbar for enjoyable seaside links golf, with GULLANE No. 1 there to remind me that I am just a hacker who can't hit it straight enough.
I'll return to NB certainly, and probably Dunbar next year.
Regards
Andrew