Our wedding trip was set a month before disembarking. And then ... trouble!
The Scot, Benjamin Warren, slipped past the guards and entered GCA world headquarters. At first, all seemed well and my non-golfing fiancé didn't mind his company as we were talking about his native North Berwick, a huge personal favorite of ours and one of our upcoming destinations. However, things got a bit dicey when he mentioned Goswick Golf Club near the border as a ‘must detour.’ (It turned out to be a very, very fine recommendation).
Later my fiancé mentioned we were honeymooning in Borve in the Outer Hebrides. The Scot exploded off the couch, sloshing Kyle Franz's drink. "You are kidding me, you have to be kidding me!" he kept repeating. "One of the world's great nine holers is just down the road from you!"
Well ... though I was dutifully intrigued, lines of discountenance quickly gathered across my fiancé's otherwise lovely visage. 'RANDOLPH, you knew this all along! That's why you picked Borve for our honeymoon!' 'Not true,' I bleated as she marched out the door. Concerned for her well-being (and wondering if I would get dinner that night), I turned to Benjamin, 'So ... just how good is it?' On and on he went and this course profile now comes to pass.
This photo of my bride in the sixth fairway sums up the feeling of jubilation one gets at Scarista. There is no way to play here without a big smile plastered across your face.
Spiritually, its sister course would be - not surprisingly - Askernish GC, just 65 miles south on a different island. Fano in Denmark also comes to mind. In some ways, these majestic courses depress me as I wonder: what the hell we are doing elsewhere! Why do we incessantly junk up the game we supposedly love so dearly?
Here is the link:
http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/scotland/isle-of-harris-golf-club/The Isle of Harris Golf Club is maintained by its Green Keeper, James Dunne. He gets help from the locals, as needed. Old Tom Morris would be proud. I get the sense that this was more of a pasture ~25 years ago but a series of club captains have helped transform it and brought it to the delicious level seen in the course profile. With Dunne's arrival , the course improved and is now the best it has ever been. I think we all would have known a lot more about it if it had traditionally been presented this well.
Anyway, Benjamin's secret is now out. The Isle of Harris GC and its course join Worlington, Culver, Morfontaine, The Dunes and Sweetens Cove as my favorite nine-holers. Each of these awesome places is a revelation and acts as a reminder that golf in most places began as 9 holes - maybe 18 holes are the game's blight?
Cheers,