I was up in Dornoch last weekend and played two very enticing 9 holers, Portmahamock and Brahan. Neither are anywhere near "great" in strict GCA terms, but both must be played by any lover of the quirks of golf.
The latter is oor Jon Wiggett's labor of love, and I can only describe it as a course which must be match played (I guessed that the course record with a card in one's hand was 118 or so, and Jon did not disagree). It is a course which eschews any use of unnatural fertilizers, and schedules its development/maintenance in harmony with the breeding habits of the skylarks. The tees are 5'x10' slivers of occasionally mowed bits of mostly un-levelled pieces of ground. The fairways are well maintained (within the context of a very wet spring/summer) and mostly well defined vis a vis the deep fescue surrounds. On the tee, Jon advised me of the possible confusion of finding the 2nd green, but both Josie and I forgot what he said and hit our 2nd shots towards what was in fact the 3rd green. Good result, as we could never have made the carry to the real 2nd green. After that, the routing was fairly obvious, but the seocnd shots had to be played to greens that had two flags embedded in them. We wisely chose to play most holes aiming between the two, and putting/chipping out depending on which hole we wer closer to. The greens themselves could only be compared to the Himalayas putting green at St. Andrews. They putted smooth and well, but the micro-undulations made any putt problematic/WTF!. We loved that! As for the course: 1 is relatively short, but requires a wedge approach to a green split by two flags with a buried VW Beetle between them. I'd call it a par 6. 2 confuses you given that it is not clear at the tee whether or not to play the fairway to the right or the one to the left. As the one to the right is the 4th fairway, a drive there seduces you into aiming at what is in fact the 3rd green, but once you get there you see that a ptich to the real 2nd green is fine, as you could never have made the carry from the 2nd fairway to the 2nd green. The real 3 is a good short hole and the 4th a somewhat confusing but decenbt decent 4. The 5th is a 3/4 which played into the wind was a driver and a wedge. I lost my ball in a waterloggeed bunker, but Josie pitched to 20 feet and sunk a 7-time r/l/r/l/r/lr/l putt for a birdie. I'll never live that down... 6 is a brute of a hole, 440 up hill which, into a 20mph wind, meant driver, rescue, recuse for me. 7 is 475 and goes further up hill, which I think I hit with driver/rescue, but never found the ball. 8 goes slightly downhill to ~180. I hit a good driver 10 yards short, chili dipped a 7 iron and then sunk a 40 foot chip#2 going l/r/l/r/l/for a par. 18 is a relief, being downhill and downwind, and only 560 yards. I think if I ever played it into the wind with a card in my hand, I would still be playing it today. I highly recommend the course to anybody on this site who has a sense of adventure and wants to play a course to which he or she does not have to bring his or her A game, but rather some ganja or malt whisky and a love of nature.
Portmahamock, on the other hand is an oldie but goodie. Laid out ~100+ years ago by the (should be) legendary John Sutherland, and probably relatively untouched over the past century. Where it seems to have been touched is the 1st and 2nd holes, which are agricultural rather than Sutherlandish, and an attempt to make the course larger rather than better. After that, however, you are on a roller coaster ride through rough linksland, with heaving fairways and more heavingly seemingly unhittable/unstayable greens. Throughout these 7 holes you can see where old holes might have been, and as a bonus, you find that this is not at all a 9-holer but a 10- holer! The 5th/14th plays from a differnet green from a different tee. Locals play the course using both 5th tees on both tours and then ending on 7/16, which is conveniently by the clubhouse. With a little bit more money and a little bit more understanding of its history and TLC, this could be one of the greatest 9-holers in the world.
Rich
PS--this was the first time I have played Portmahamock in the 38 years I have been to Dornoch, and I will play this course again and again until I die.
rfg