Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen had the intention of designing a golf course with great visual impression that afforded a playability factor an average golfer would enjoy.  Standing on most of the tees a player sees an expansive and receptive landing area for their drives-not a whole lot of fuss to clog the mind-yet obvious tactical choices are available and it is easy to process them at first glance.  The result is a championship course to challenge the best players in the world that is playable by mere mortals full of memorable vistas that create pulse racing shot opportunities without the imminent doom awaiting every good intention gone awry.

For me the design has much of the look and feel of David Kidd’s creation at Bandon Dunes.  Expansive landscapes stretching along the Moray Firth with accents of gorse and heather covered dunes and rugged natural bunkering that looks like it was blown out by the seaside winds.  The bunkering is a blend of the raw appearance accented by selective landscaping, some sleepers, and hand revetting to give them a wild but finished look.  The style of bunkering belies the recent vintage of the course-it looks like it has been there for a hundred years.

The beauty stretches out in front of you in the first three seaside holes.

 (Click on any picture to get an enhanced view of the image)

The generosity of the driving areas are not harrowed with disaster, they provide opportunities to find your ball and figure out what to do next.  The next is full of challenge because rumpled fairways, roll offs, and punitive bunkering can put you in a spot of bother.  But Parsinen says it was not their intention to terminally punish you for a mistake, rather your fate is still in your hands if you have the imagination and courage to play the recovery available to you.  Not many “in your pocket” experiences.  Instead there are going to be some very gratifying recovery memories when you are done, true postcards for the mind of the thrill of the little challenges that add up during your round here.

Lay up position on the Par 5 2nd gives you lots of options on how to attack this green.

The opening holes on both the outward and inward nines are literally on the sea and share an intimacy with the beach and water.  The first three holes have a tall gorse dune wall on the left and open exposure to the Firth on the right so wind behind or off your right shoulder will present an opportunity to challenge the short length of the holes .  Your position off each tee will help determine how aggressive you should be on your approach shots.  Take the bait if the reward outweighs the risk because the second part of the outward nine will not afford many scoring chances.  The key to doing well on this course is to get to the fifth tee close to par.  This may happen because of a birdie or two or simply resisting adrenaline decisions and protecting par.

The green on the 4th seems dwarfed by a castle almost a mile away.

From five to nine the holes sit atop an ‘old sea cliff’ and meander high above the coast like the middle holes at Pebble Beach with panoramic views of the Firth and the Kessock Bridge in the distance.  Being on the high ground the wind is more influential because you have no tall dune wall to protect one of your flanks.  Five, six, and seven are long holes with plenty of fairway contour to deflect your approach lines so navigate carefully, using the ground as your friend, to avoid roll offs into arduous bunkers or gorges of heather and seagrass.  The last two holes before the halfway house don’t scare you with length but you have to carefully manage your misses to protect par.

The contours created by the dunes play into and off of the hazards that lurk.

The halfway house is tucked in a bunker building with the starter’s station just above the first and tenth tee.  Dry, wind protected, and not a bad cup of soup will provide a welcome sanctuary.  If you are going to indulge in the chocolate bars make sure to ask for the frozen ones they are a real treat.  Eventually they will throw you out to face the elements again on the inward nine.

The back begins with holes framed by the dunes on the starboard side.

The first three holes are scoring opportunities of similar ilk to the opening holes just headed in the direction of the Chanonry Lighthouse to the North.     Between all the photo opps you will have to hit some shots with clear intention but if you pull them off there can be good numbers to add to your scorecard.  Be aware that the left side is not as buffered from the Firth as it was on the opening segment.  Three pars will do fine to get this side off to a successful start.

The looks do not get any better than this-the 12th green set against the Moray Firth.

After a cardio climb up the face of the dune (do not ignore the water oasis station half way up if for no other reason than to rest your aching quads) the finishing six are the balcony seating in this theater where you will enjoy exhilarating views of the Moray Firth.  The next three par fours are very demanding as they traverse the high ground and provide little opportunity to make up ground.  A par and a couple of bogies would set you up for one last dash down the final three holes.

Looking back down to the tee on 13 you can appreciate how far up you have journeyed.

If you are hopelessly down in the match don’t despair because lots of things can happen on these closing holes.  A driveable par four, very difficult par three, and a five par with lots of options could make a 3-4-4 finish to steal the bacon a real possibility.

The Par 3 17th has intimidating look backed by serious consequences.

The key is to get through the seventeenth without serious harm-as a par three with the sixth handicap hole designation you have to blend some courage with sanity to get to the eighteenth with a chance.  From the last tee you see the entire links set against the sea below and it will take your breath away.  Cue the camera there will be a full handful of Kodak moments over this last 500-yard walk.

The upper decks of the S.S. Castle Stuart.

 The clubhouse is an art deco design which looks like the stacked deck on a cruise ship.  Full featured with a nice golf shop, casual grill room, and locker rooms from a first class private club make sure to take the time to wander about and enjoy the amenities.  The view of the sea from the deck is just astonishing-take a moment to take in this moment from the balcony off the locker room. The layered windows from each area provide sitting opportunities within for watching the golf below.

How about this look from the captain’s deck at the end of the day.

A rarity in Scotland this place has a first class practice ground-driving range, short game area, and practice putting greens.  One should take advantage of this before or after a round.  The yardage book for course is supreme as it has topographical detail that helps on the shot planning and very nice color photos of each hole for some fond remembrances months later.

All in all they have provided a creative, challenging, and forgiving design for you to enjoy.  If you have spent the week getting thrashed by one course after another on your Scottish Tour this will be welcome relief if you can put together some solid shot making.

Inverness, Scotland

Architect:  Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen (2009)

Tees               Par     Yardage     Rating       Slope

White              72        6553          71.6         133

Green              72        6153          70.2         126

(Click here to review the complete Castle Stuart Golf Links hole-by-hole descriptions)

For more pictures click to review Northern Scotland-Day 4: Castle Stuart Golf Links

Golfers can be a hardy bunch but even for them a trip to Brora is a bit of a trek.  For those making it the pilgrimage to Royal Dornoch, a mere three shot par five down the road, this is one worth adding to your itinerary.  You won’t venture much further North than this for a round of golf as it sits on the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska.  But what you will find is a delightful links layout that, as James Finegan says, “is packed with shot-making demands over as rewarding an expanse of duneland-every natural contour from moderate wrinkling to fantastic billowing-as any golfer could yearn for”.

The clubhouse has a commanding presence over the links below.

James Braid, a five-time Open Championship winner, laid this in the classic links in and out routine on a narrow strip of linksland just two holes wide.  The outward nine follow the contour of Kintradwell Bay with the ever present shore line on the right giving full view of the sea.

The Par 3 9th binds the sea and the stunning mountain backdrop to the links.

(Click on any picture to get an enhanced view of the image)

The exposure of the entire links to the sea makes for a serious wind effect almost every day.  Don’t be overconfident when you look at the yardages on this scorecard because the wind will notch up the challenges considerably.

Looking down the third you take in the serene beauty of the Northern Highlands as a backdrop.

The tees and green are often nestled between the dunes which increases how unpredictable the ever-present breezes will be affecting the flight of your ball.  David Brice says “Brora is a character-filled layout, brimming over with personality and an obvious sense of humor.”  The variety of the holes with full links features will make you play all the shots in your repertoire.  Something worth noting was Braid’s routing  the four par threes each facing a different point on the compass as to insist that you must deal with all variations of the wind on any given day.

There are no mild bunkers on these links and they tie seamlessly into the greens.

One unusual aspect is the unpaid landscaping service of cows and sheep that wander the property greens (ergo the local rule that animal droppings are to be treated as casual water and hoof prints through the green are considered ground under repair).

The Toro sheep have a long standing agreement for lawn maintenance.

To keep the maintenance troops in check, they have electric fences around every green so pay attention as you enter the green complexes.  As Hugh Baillie says in his book on Brora, “It has been said that Brora golfers are instantly recognizable  wherever they play….they automatically lift a leg going on to a green”.

The electric fencing here at 13 is a hurdle you traverse into every green complex.

Much like Royal Dornoch Brora was a playground over 100 years ago for rich men and people with royal pedigree on their summer holidays.  One of the regular holiday visitors was the Duke of Sutherland who stayed at Dunrobin Castle north of Brora.  During a round when his Grace was apparently not on his “A” game his regular caddie, Slogger, when asked by the Duke on the 10^th tee “What’s the line here?” he responded “For as much good as you’re doing here you’re as well to take the Inverness-Thurso railway line”.  Guessing that Slogger was losing the side bet of the day on his Grace’s play.    There is so much history to this place, it is the headquarters of the James Braid golfing Society whose members include the Australian Golfing Great, Peter Thomson, Peter Aliss, and Ben Crenshaw.

Sunset from the clubhouse gallery presents a true postcard moment.

Brora is a great day of windy links golf awaiting.  Make the effort to get there and you will not be disappointed.

Sutherland, Scotland

Architect:  James Braid (1924)

Tee                  Par       Yardage          Rating

White               70         6211                 70

Yellow              70         5951                 70

(Click here to review the complete Brora Golf Club hole-by-hole descriptions)

For more pictures click to review Northern Scotland-Day 2: Brora Golf Club

The old course at Moray Golf Club is a quaint Old Tom Morris original featuring deep revetted bunkers, undulating gorse confined fairways, and smooth flowing putting surfaces.  This is not going to be on anyone’s “A” list of must courses to play in Scotland but, in my humble opinion, it is a destination worth seeking out if you are traveling along the northern coast of Scotland.  It is the proud asset of this small seaside community of Lossiemouth.

The clubhouse displays a dignified stature sitting atop a hill overlooking the finishing hole and seaside links land below.  Five flagpoles and a commemorative sundial stand proudly above the practice putting green and some terraced hills creating a perfect amphitheater setting for those enjoying happy hour at the clubhouse bar.  As you finish your game you will undoubtedly get some cheers and jeers from related interested parties.

The clubhouse on the hill is a focal point from which you can see it all.

With seven par fours of 400 yards or more, only two par fives at 2 and 17, and a par of 71 there are long stretches of challenging golf without relief and this is plenty of course to chew on for the average bear.  The apparent flatness of the terrain, there are very few high dunes except Mt. Lebanon adjacent to the first and last holes, is a bit of a sucker punch because Old Tom found plenty of humps and hollows in the seaside terrain to create fairways and green complexes that impart serious movement as your ball is seeking it’s targets.  The holes are very tightly packed in and there really is not much other than fairway and gorse so any significant wandering off the playing line can mean unplayable circumstances.

The links features you see here make for some entertaining shot making.

The holes themselves are a wonderful collection of links offerings and you will encounter all the characteristics of washboard fairways, intrusive burns, nasty revetted bunkers, and raised greens with arbitrary runoffs.  Controlling the sideways movement of your ball is the key and enlisting the help of the given terrain is the best way to do this.

Parched like a triscuit controlling roll out into the 12th took imagination.

When we played the course they had been experiencing a prolonged hot and dry summer so the course played as hard and fast as the playground out back of P.S. 84 in the Bronx.  The lack of any high obstacles means that any wind experienced at Moray will have full force since there is little in the way to obstruct it.  The parched conditions coupled with a stiff 25 mile an hour wind made it a real chess match to anticipate the roll out on even the shortest approach shots.  We would have been lost without the valued advice of a couple of caddies who knew the lay of the land.

This finishing hole setting is something that will cling to you.

There are not a whole lot of memorable holes on the course but I will say the last five will get your attention.  It is a strong finish that begins at the par four fourteenth that gets it’s name from it’s bearing toward the sea.  On a clear day the green is majestically framed by the sea and a lighthouse in the distance.  The par three that follows is a clever and deceptive hide-n-seek hole that calls for strong visualization off the tee.  A strong par four and a funky par five bring you to the signature hole to end your day.  This long par four may be one of the strongest finishing holes in all of Scotland.  The second shot into a plateau green complex set into the hill below the club house packed with revelers is a real adrenaline rush.  A perfect finish for a very enjoyable day of links golf.

A beautiful sunset puts a perfect accent on the day.

Something you will notice early on is that the course sits adjacent to a Royal Air Force base next door.  You may have to ignore the screaming jet engines from fighter bombers on training runs, so don’t say you were not warned.  At least there are a number of wind socks visible over the fence to help you figure the wind and the landing light poles for the runways that appear like cactus gardens throughout the property can give you some convenient aiming lines.

Lossiemouth, Scotland

Architect:  Old Tom Morris

Tees        Par    Yardage    Rating
White        71     6572          73

(Click here to review the complete Moray Golf Club hole-by-hole descriptions)

Royal Dornoch holds the distinction, behind the Old Course at St. Andrews, as the second most famous links venue in Scotland.  Golf in some form has been played in this Scottish Highland neighborhood for over 400 years.  Rumor has it that the local clergy from the Dornoch Cathedral sanctioned playing the game in it’s early years and ushered in the first period of growth in this region.  The current iteration was laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1886 about 10 years after the club was officially formed.   It sponsored many distinguished competitions throughout the early 1900’s and in the 1940’s, with the acquisition of additional ground on the north end, allowed for extension of the holes on that end and the redesign of the final six holes that we play today.

The natural terraced routing flows out and in below the gorse dune wall.

Click on any photo to get a higher resolution view of the image

There were many hands in this development but honestly it seems like nature and the big force are most responsible for what you will experience here.  Once you get into the heart of the course, as James Finegan says, “there is a strong sensation of heading toward land’s end.  The remoteness is total.  We feel we may….penetrate the very wilds…on this journey over ancient landscape where so little is owed to the hand of man.

John Sutherland guided the affairs of the Dornoch Club for 60 years starting in 1883.  A fine player in his own right, a knowledgeable contributing course designer, and a journalist is credited helping refine the original design and spreading the word about Dornoch among industrialists and people of influence in the United Kingdom at the turn of the century.

Andrew Carnegie, the rich American entrepreneur, bought the castle at Skibo down the road in 1900 and took up an interest in golf.  He became Vice President of the club in 1901 and his involvement brought notoriety and interest that helped proliferate the knowledge of Dornoch among his colleagues.

Finally, Donald Ross who later became one of the premier course designers in America in the Golden Age, and his brother Alec, a talented professional who won the U.S. Open in 1907, were born and raised in Dornoch before emigrating to the United States at the turn of the century.  Resultant fame of these two favorite sons added to the mystique of this place and fueled the continued growth of it’s rich golf lore.

Royal Dornoch is a course that makes you use every arrow in your quiver and then some you did not know you had.  It is not a brute but with only two par fives the long par fours will wear on you.  Throughout you will see plateau greens with sharp and shaven fall offs where low running approach shots are often called for.  The scuttling putt or rolling fairway metal up the steep slope on a green side elevation play can be very effective as well.

            The course is routed out and in on a narrow strip of sandy links land that sits between a tall, gorse covered dune wall and the beach on parallel shelves, the front eight on the higher shelf at the foot of the dune with the inward ten running lateral to the beach on a slightly lower shelf.  Unlike some out and in routings like the Old Course the tiered shelving provides distinct playing areas for the parallel holes.  You will not all that often find yourself playing out of another fairway by intention or just chance.

            The daily wind speed and direction are the most important playing parameters at Dornoch because they will change your teeing club selection and preferred lines into the greens dramatically.  Be discerning in picking your tees to play from so that you have a chance to enjoy your round each day.  Prevailing wind is downwind the first eight and upwind coming home which makes the back side a much tougher scoring challenge.  Having played it the opposite I can tell you that controlling your distances downwind on the back 11 is no piece of cake.

Seemingly innocuous Par 4 starts your round but beware harm is lurking.

            After a somewhat meek opening hole, the holes from two through six make as tough a start as anything you will every play.  Your total focus is required right out of the gate if you scorecard stands a chance of not being in tatters by the time you hit the high ground.  The dune wall on the left smothered in gorse dominates your view on the early holes and forces your mind to want to play safely to the right but you have to resist that temptation since the ground pitches right toward the sea and there is plenty of sand and furry mound trouble waiting below the fairways.

The sixth is the doorstep to the balcony level.

            After putting out on the sixth you have a Machu Picchu hike up a steep dune to a balcony above the links to play the next two holes.  The view off the back of the seventh tee is a Kodak moment you do not want to miss,  a spectacular visual of what you have already played and what will come in the second have of the inward side.  Playing the next two holes along the ridge will give you maximum effect of the day’s wind.  Plummeting back to the floor on the second shot on eight can provide a vertigo moment.

Atop the ridge on 8 you see green, beach and 9th tee turning for home.

The ninth turns you back in the direction of the house so your wind direction will change 180 as will your attitude of how to play the rest of the way.  Keep in mind as you play in this direction the beach on your left is kindly considered a lateral hazard so if you should turn your Titleist into fish food you can play next to where you cross the line to the beach with a single stroke toll payment.  The trail along this lower shelf is vintage links golf with rumpled fairways and creative green complexes that will require creativity and precise shot execution to be successful.

Short 10th can be a bear into the wind or a unruly cub with out it.

From ten to thirteen you get two really short par threes and a par five that could give you a chance for some scorecard triage.  But the four par in between is a survival moment.

The Par 3 13th is about controlling your ball in the fierce cross winds.

From fourteen to the house just grab a hold of your bootstraps and pull hard, staying atop the steed the rest of the way is a major effort in this stretch of holes.  There is a symbiotic relationship between the lay of these holes and the land that is just exquisite.  The designers just needed to discover the inherent lines of play and let the land dictate the challenge.  Throw a little wind into the batter and this is a recipe for a sequence of some of the greatest golf holes you will ever play.

A bit of Pine Valley the 17th would make George Crump smile broadly.

            When you are done make sure to take the time amble through the clubhouse and sit in the grill for a refreshing one so you can take in the enormous cache of memorabilia that hangs on the walls throughout.  The Carnegie Silver Plate upstairs is one of the most impressive looking trophies I have ever seen.  If it is late in the day and the sun is setting  over the golf course below, listen carefully, you will swear the walls are whispering and sharing the secrets of Dornoch with you.

The clubhouse is a museum of Dornoch memorabilia and lore.

(Note: I would like to acknowledge a useful resource I purchased in the Royal Dornoch pro shop called “Experience Royal Dornoch” by Richard Goodale.  This is a unique book with wonderful topographical photos and descriptive text of every hole which was invaluable in reconstructing and clarifying my impressions of the course in preparing this review.  You can buy it through their website at http://www.royaldornochproshop.co.uk/shop/prodtype.asp?strPageHistory=compare&CAT_ID=60 for about 20 pounds sterling.  Not sure if the shipping will be prohibitive. )

Sutherland, Scotland

Architect:  Old Tom Morris, John Sutherland (1886)

Tees                 Par       Yardage          Rating             Slope

Blue                  70          6711                74                  139

White                70         6626                73                  137

Yellow               70         6265                71                   135

(Click here to review the complete Royal Dornoch Golf Club hole-by-hole descriptions)

For more pictures click to review Northern Scotland-Day 3: Royal Dornoch Golf Club