travel From Here to Serenity Scotland’s and Highlands regions allow you to experience the subtle pleasures of some of the world’s best outposts of championship golf BY RAY TENNENBAUM

he most copied hole in golf looks as enigmatic as the Sphinx. From the tee of this par three on the coastline of suburban , all but a sliver of green is concealed by a hill set with two gaping bunkers, like eyes in the head of a whale. That’s only the most obvious part of the defense system devised by its long-forgotten designer. Should you carry the moatlikeT valley behind the mound, the deeply channeled green is apt to funnel all but the very best shots off into bunkers short left and long right. Welcome to Redan, the devilish par-three Muirfield presents a truly arduous effort to 15th hole at , one of a hand- gain a tee time: Despite a £160 ($340) greens ful of must-play courses in the county of East fee, the waiting list is very long, partly because Lothian, where superb links in sublime sur- it’s only open to visitors on Tuesdays and The landscape at Royal roundings are as common as seashells. Just a Thursdays. However, the experience is more Dornoch is memorable for few miles east lies Muirfield, whose very than worth the effort. its character and isolation. exclusive club, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, drew up the first known Rules of Golf in 1744, ten years before the Society of St. Andrews Golfers was founded. Just a stone’s throw from Muirfield are the three charming courses at Gullane, where golf has been played since at least 1650, and two dozen more lie within a 25-mile radius of Gul- lane Hill, including Tom Doak’s brand-new Renaissance Club. Fortunately, it’s possible for anyone with a Handicap Index under 20 or so to enjoy the splendid variety of these courses, since private clubs in the UK welcome visiting golfers as unaccompanied guests. And nothing against St. Andrews, but if battling the crowds look- ing to secure a tee time at The Old Course or the brand-new Castle Course strikes you as a daunting task, consider starting your next golf

OPPOSITE: COURTESY OF ORIENT EXPRESS; RIGHT: RAY TENNENBAUM OPPOSITE: RAY EXPRESS; RIGHT: OF ORIENT COURTESY trip to Scotland here, in East Lothian. Only

86 THE MET GOLFER • JUNE/JULY 2008 WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG THE MET GOLFER • JUNE/JULY 2008 87 The Ride the Rails fter a lot of golf I needed to put anticipation. With plenty us via bus to the Isle of my feet up without sacrificing of time before dinner, we Bute, just west of MetGolfer Reader Service Aany scenery. I’d arranged a made our way to our Glasgow, to a tour of journey on one of the great trains of the sleeping cabins: snug but Mount Stuart. This isn’t Left: FootJoy world, the Royal Scotsman, now comfortable, with quite your standard castle Fairhaven, Mass. operated by Orient Express, with two- serviceable private walkabout: Mount Stuart Right: Hammock Beach to five-night excursions beginning and showers (plenty of hot embodies a spirit of Palm Coast, Fla. ending in Edinburgh. My choice was the water), surprisingly ample riotous piety with odd three-day Western route, heading to the closets, and a small mixture of Byzantine outskirts of Glasgow, then north to writing desk set in front of architecture, elaborate Mallaig. a window. pre-Raphaelite decor, and To receive free information from The Met Golfer advertisers, please send an e-mail to Tom Gauss at [email protected] I checked my golf clubs at a hotel and The next morning the old-fashioned and indicate the companies you are interested in, referring to them by name and the corresponding numbers listed below. Please refer to the issue (e.g., June/July) you are responding to and include your full name, club or company affiliation, hailed a cab to Waverley Station, smack train breezed north scholasticism. A Scottish business phone, e-mail address, and complete mailing address. in the middle of town below Edinburgh through a rugged golden dance recital by colorfully- Castle. A host cheerfully welcomed me valley below brilliant dressed young ladies in THE MET GOLFER ADVERTISERS and my bags before leading me up to early-autumn blue skies. After a perfect the cold gray family chapel downstairs 1. Aldila, Inc. 24.GolfTec 46.Playa Conchal/ 66.The Palmyra Resort & Spa the first-class lounge to join thirty-five breakfast, many of us retreated back to was a cheery cap to the afternoon. www.aldila.com www.golftec.com Reserva Conchal www.cbjamaica.com/palmyra www.reservaconchal.com other passengers waiting for boarding. the large-windowed observation car, No murders to speak of on this 2. Archerfield House 25.Half Moon 67. The Shawnee Inn & As we assembled at the station’s decorated with velvet sofas, teak- and romantic train. The only crime seemed www.archerfieldgolfclub.com www.halfmoongolf.com 47. Pocono Mountain Golf Resort ground floor, a piper took up “Scotland walnut-inlaid walls, and fresh-cut to be in the idea of returning to Visitor’s Bureau www.shawneeinn.com 3. Ashworth 26.Hammock Beach the Brave” and led us to a velvet rope flowers, to watch the lochs and streams Edinburgh on Monday morning: the www.800pocono.com www.ashworthinc.com www.hammockbeach.com 68.The Woodstock Resort before the train entrance, where our whiz by. By mid-afternoon the peak of anticipation of return mixed with the 48.Premier Golf Bedford Springs www.woodstockinn.com host, Michael, assisted by several staff Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the pleasure of new memories—idle hours 4. 27. Haversham & Baker www.premiergolf.com www.bedfordspringsresort.com 69.Titleist Golf members, offered glasses of UK, came into view, and we peering out into epic scenery, late Golfing Expeditions www.haversham.com 49.Prince Resorts www.titleist.com champagne as we boarded. Within disembarked for an excursion to the nights sipping single malts and trading 5. Ben Sutton Golf School www.princeresortshawaii.com www.golfschool.com minutes the train was off and we were beach at Mallaig, with a view of the Isle tall tales. Might have to be a twice-in-a- 28.Hidden Creek Golf Club 70.TournEase www.hiddencreekclub.com 50.Reunion www.tournease.com cheerfully sitting inside a plush of Skye. lifetime trip. For more information, visit 6. Blue Heron Pines www.reunionresort.com www.blueheronpines.com 29.HIP 71.Troon Golf observation car, buzzing with The following day’s journey brought www.royalscotsman.com. --R.T. 51.Reynolds Plantation www.hipusa.com www.troongolf.com 7. Canon www.reynoldsplantation.com One of the most celebrated and difficult speedy putting surfaces, for instance, and www.canon.com 30.IJGA 72.Trump International Golf 52.Rio Secco Golf Club & Residences courses on the British Open rota, Muirfield’s treacherous escapes out of six-foot-deep 8. Carroll Valley Resort www.ijga.com Club/Cascata www.carrollvalley.com www.trumpgolf.com fairways are tough to hold even on a calm day, bunkers. The setting is almost spooky, thanks 31.Innisbrook Golf Resort www.harrahsgolf.com As the site of 15 British 9. CHAMP/MacNeill & Golf Club 73.Trump National Opens, Muirfield has a much less when the wind is up. The intricate to the moor-like feel of the grassy landscape 53.Rolex Engineering www.innisbrookgolfresort.com www.rolex.com www.trumpnational.com history to match its green complexes present a breadth of chal- as well as the club’s fabled formality—should www.champspikes.com 32.Jamaica Tourist Board 74. Turning Stone challenge. lenges—downhill chips from thick rough to you elect to play again in the afternoon (alter- 54.Rose Hall Resort & 10.Commerce Bank www.visitjamaica.com Country Club Resort & Casino nate-shot only) after a morning round, you www.commerceonline.com www.turning-stone.com 33.Kensington C.C. www.wyndham.com change into a coat and tie for lunch, then 11.Crystal Springs Resort www.kensingtoncc.com 55.RSM McGladrey 75.United Sports change back into golf clothes for your second www.resortscrystalsprings.com www.rsmmcgladrey.com Technologies 34.Kingsmill Resort & Spa www.ustgolfshaft.com round. Still, you don’t see anyone complain- 12.Cutter & Buck, Inc. www.kingsmill.com 56.Sawgrass Country Club ing, nor should they. www.cutterbuck.com www.sawgrasscountryclub.com 76.United Van Lines 35.Lake of Isles www.unitedvanlines.com A good match in the breeze is one of the 13.Fairmont Hotel & Resorts www.lakeofisles.com 57. Seaview www.fairmontgolf.com www.seaviewgolf.com 77. uPro GPS great pleasures of golf, and you’re apt to find 36.Lamkin Fiddlesticks Country Club www.uprogps.com it at delightful Gullane. At first glance, the 14. www.lamkingrips.com 58.Sherbrooke Golf & www.fiddlestickscc.com Country Club 78.Vecci Sportswear holes look to be comprised of nothing but 37. Las Vegas Paiute FootJoy 1-561-964-6011 www.golfknickersusa.com 15. www.lvpaiutegolf.com blonde links woven over a hill overlooking the www.footjoy.com 59.TaylorMade 79.Vineyard Golf 38.Leviton sea. However, that all changes when you actu- 16.Ford Plantation Golf Company www.renaultwinery.com www.leviton.com www.taylormadegolf.com ally walk the fairways and play the shots, as www.fordplantation.com 80.Visit Scotland the subtle challenges and striking scenery 17. Gel Golf 39.Mariner Sands 60.TerraVista www.visitscotland.com www.gelgolf.com www.marinersands.com of Citrus Hills combine for an enjoyable round—or if you’re www.terra-vista-florida.com 81.Walters Golf lucky, rounds—of golf. Of the three courses 18.GlenLakes 40.MetLife (Bali Hai) www.glenlakes.com www.metlife.com 61.The Cliffs www.waltersgolf.com here, No. 1 is the oldest and also the hardest, Communities an elegant path of fairways with an unusual 19.Golf Mesquite 41.Okemo Mountain Resort www.cliffscommunities.com 82.Westin Grand Bahama www.golfmesquitenevada.com www.okemo.com www.westin.com/grandbahama scope of elevation changes. 62.The Equinox Resort 42.Panther Woods CC A few miles east is Craigielaw, designed 20.Golf Portraits www.equinoxresort.com 83.Winn Grips www.golflinksportraits.com www.pantherwoodscountryclub.com www.winngrips.com by Donald Steel’s firm and completed in 63.The Forest 21.Golf The High Sierras 43.Pebble Beach Resorts Country Club 84.Yes! Golf 2002. It has a regular site for Open Champi- www.golfthehighsierra.com www.pebblebeach.com www.theforestcc.com www.yesgolf.com onship qualifying, and is an entertaining low- 22.Golf-Art.com 44.Pinehurst 64.The Landings Company 85.Zero Restriction land links with difficult, turtle-backed greens www.golf-art.com www.pinehurst.com www.thelandings.com www.zerorestriction.com and ruthless pot bunkers—not superbly con- 23.GolfPac 45.PING 65.The Links At Union Vale 86.914 Spinedocs ditioned, but still lots of fun. www.golfpactravel.com www.pinggolf.com www.thelinksatunionvale.com 914spinedocs.com TOP: ORIENT EXPRESS; LEFT: RAY TENNENBAUM RAY EXPRESS; LEFT: ORIENT TOP:

88 THE MET GOLFER • JUNE/JULY 2008 WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG THE MET GOLFER • JUNE/JULY 2008 89 East Lothian and the Met Area acter traits a golfer can grow quite fond of— an ancient ruin greets you after your blind any of the figures who and Inwood, took over. At the 1901 helped bring golf to the U.S. Open at Myopia Hunt Club, approach shot to the seventh green, a rocky MMet Area a hundred years which he won, Willie refused to eat in retaining wall holds back a forest from the ago hailed from East Lothian. the kitchen, anticipating Walter ninth fairway. The fabulous sunken green Musselburgh Links Hagen’s rebellion some complex on the 377-yard 13th is unforget- PLAY LIKE THE PROS. produced the great British years later—like Hagen, table—the putting surface occupies the upper Open champion Willie both Willie and Tom part of a bowl, with a pot bunker offering Park whose son, Willie Anderson were known for trouble to the left. The inward holes bring Jr.(pictured), can be fairly their sartorial displays. called a father of modern Seaton writes, “at the village back into view— playing alone MOVE WITH THE LEADER. golf and a seminal 1912 U.S. Open, Tom on a Sunday afternoon, I eventually caught up architect, creator of Anderson decked himself to a four-ball of locals putting out on the par- Sunningdale, Maidstone out in a pure white silk three 16th for the match, lifting caps and and Woodway. shirt adorned with red, shaking hands. The great Willie blue, yellow and black Duly energized by the golf in East Lothi- Anderson, winner of two U.S. Opens, stripes, a natty bow tie, pleated white was the first pro at Baltusrol, a job he flannel pants with the cuffs rolled up, an, I set forth for Inverness, five hours north also held at Apawamis—his father just one turn, a bright red bandana of Edinburgh, for the pilgrimage to Royal Tom became pro at Montclair Golf looped casually around his neck, a Dornoch. The days when Dornoch was con- Club from 1903 until his death in blinding plaid cap and gleaming sidered off the beaten path (the great golf 1913, when Willie’s brother Tom, white buckskin shoes with thick red- writer Bernard Darwin apparently never made having already worked at Oakmont rubber soles and wide white laces.” it up here) are long gone. This corner of the Highlands has become a very popular desti- On the other side of the East Lothian penin- nation, though the countryside is still relative- Being on top of your game applies to more than just sula, Dunbar is as unpretentious as it is delight- ly spare—the residents are a bit rougher, their Tall fescue grass and ful. After the first three holes, the course brogues somewhat more impenetrable. golf. That’s why United is proud to be America’s #1 hillside views of the Firth stretches eastward along the coast, like twin Only St. Andrews and Leith are older than van line. We strive to take all the stress out of your of Forth highlight the golf slender ribbons of fairways on the rocky these links where golf has been played since experience at Craigielaw. shoreline. It’s full of the kind of gentle char- at least 1616. As Pete Dye observed once after relocation and focus on providing premium services

without the premium price. Let the pros at United Van

Lines worry about your moving needs, and we’ll let

you worry about your swing.

To learn more, visit us at www.unitedvanlines.com. TOP: USGA ARCHIVES; LEFT: RAY TENNENBAUM TOP: RAY ARCHIVES; LEFT: USGA

90 THE MET GOLFER • JUNE/JULY 2008 WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG US DOT No. 077949 shots to thread through craterlike bunkers Pound-wise and ravines and over gorse and heather. It was the site of the 2003 Walker Cup matches, and hile travel to Scotland has never been cheap, and the dire the outward linksland nine gives way to sev- exchange rate has made golf trips even more costly, economizing Wis a challenge. Whatever else you do, plan to plan ahead: eral holes set in a forest of brush and pine. Muirfield’s waiting list can stretch to 18 months. Many clubs now offer online Brora, another Braid design, which like many booking, but a courteous letter, if need be followed by a polite phone call, Highland courses doubles as a grazing pasture might not be a bad idea. for cows and sheep, makes the most of its Since practically everyone in the UK seems to drive unusually rolling linksland terrain—a wee bit a stick shift, you’ll pay a premium short (6,110 yards), but shallow greens with for renting a car with an automatic transmission. While looming sandpits make for an effective test. the prospect of shifting on the Don’t be fooled by the charm of the Royal wrong side might compound Scotsman and the ancient feel of the links your healthy fears about left- courses dotted around the country—Scotland hand lane driving, after a few is a place where modernity still has a place. In miles it becomes second fact, a number of noteworthy new courses will nature—especially as you think of make their debuts in time for a trip in 2009. the money you’ll be saving. Traveling in a small group in a van can help save. Besides the aforementioned Renaissance Club in East Lothian, another newcomer is Castle Stuart, on the shore of the Moray Firth just across the landscape of Scotland is part of outside Inverness. A creation of Kingsbarns what makes a trip there so memorable. Com- developer Mark Parsinen in partnership with bine of full slate of golf over some of the Gil Hanse, the course—the centerpiece of a world’s most celebrated links with an unfor- planned resort and fractional-ownership gettable journey on one of the world’s great development—follows the shoreline of the trains, and you have an itinerary that cannot Firth on a shelf just above the sea before turn- be duplicated.  The inbound holes at playing here, “If an old Scot in a red jacket in a crosswind, the slender green is extremely ing inward, yielding inspirational views. Ray Tennenbaum writes from his home in Dunbar are framed by the had popped out from behind a sand dune, difficult to hold with a lofted shot. It’s a sim- The juxtaposition between new and old Brooklyn, New York. charming village. beating a feather ball, I wouldn’t have blinked ple but effective hole which schooled not just an eye.” Yet there is something extraordinar- Ross, but architects like Pete Dye, Tom Fazio ily modern about it—scarcely any shots are and countless others. blind, and there is a sense of separation from From the second green, you walk through other golfers that other old courses lack. And an opening in the hedgelike gorse and emerge Dornoch has influenced countless designers, into one of the great views of golf—a hum- most famously Donald Ross, a native son who mock-strewn lowland with fairways leading worked as the greenskeeper. through corridors of rough and ancient gorse. After the relatively easy par-four first hole, Three superb par fours set your heart racing, you’re faced with a medium-length par three and without thinking, you take in countless with a long, narrow, elevated green placed on details: the seamless interplay between fairway a mound largely obscured by a big grass-cov- and gently raised putting surfaces; the mod- ered dune—an opening between two giant ulated threat of pot bunkers—just as you have bunkers offers one a way in, though a couple cheerfully forgotten about them, you’ll plunk of big humps will escort an off-line or short into one, very possibly on the 180-yard par- run-up into either bunker. On the other hand, three 13th, surrounded by seven of the little buggers. Even the nature of the routing—the Fast Facts fairways on the back nine open up as the holes Where to Play lengthen. It’s one of the great experiences in golf, and the only regret you’ll have walking North Berwick; www.northberwickgolfclub.com; green fees from £30 to £85 off the course is that you don’t get to play Muirfield; www.muirfield.org.uk; green fees from £160 for one round and here every day. £200 for two rounds to £90 in winter Dornoch has some very good company in Gullane; www.gullanegolfclub.com; green fees from £70 to £150 Scotland’s northern region. Two very reason- Craigielaw; www.craigielawgolfclub.com; £52 to £75 ably-priced courses where you’re apt to enjoy Dunbar; www.dunbar-golfclub.co.uk; £50 to £60 an excellent, leisurely round lie within an Royal Dornoch; www.royaldornoch.com; £52 to £82 hour and a half drive of Dornoch. Nairn, laid Nairn; www.nairngolfclub.co.uk; £50 to £75 out by Old Tom Morris with later contribu- Brora; www.broragolf.com; £35 to £40 tions from James Braid and Ben Sayers, is a

muscular challenge in the wind, requiring low TENNENBAUM RAY

92 THE MET GOLFER • JUNE/JULY 2008 WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG