Ship, Beautiful Scenery and a Love of Anything to Do with Poet Robert Burns … Welcome to Scotland’S South-West
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THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP, BEAUTIFUL SCENERY AND A LOVE OF ANYTHING TO DO WITH POET ROBERT BURNS … WELCOME TO SCOTLAND’S SOUTH-WEST. WORDS: STEVE KEIPERT & BRENDAN JAMES COTLAND’S south-west boasts an embarrassment of golf Ayrshire Coast, 30-odd miles outside Glasgow. Home to numerous riches. There are more than 100 courses to choose from, top-league amateur championships through its long history, Western S making it one of the most popular regions for golf visitors. Gailes started in 1897 as a seaside escape for Glaswegian golfers There are the celebrated famous names like Royal Troon, Turnberry seeking a site where year-round golf was more viable. and Prestwick and the remote Machrihanish. They stand alongside The course sits on a long, thin stretch of land wedged between lesser-known gems and those layouts which have hosted Open the railway line and the sea. The land is so lengthy and lean that the Championship qualifiers and big national tournaments. distance from the 5th tee at the course’s northern tip to its 14th tee Off the course, the links to poet Robert Burns are everywhere, as to the south could be two or three miles but the layout is never wider are the chances to sample some fine whisky, and as you make your than about 300 yards. way from one course to another the beautiful scenery can become It’s a club for true golfers, but is a course often overlooked due to mesmerising. its close proximity to the more vaunted Open venues of Troon and Golf Australia deputy editor Steve Keipert tested his game at four of Turnberry, plus Prestwick, the birthplace of golf’s oldest major. In the Ayrshire Coast’s most famous layouts, while editor Brendan James reality, it’s an integral part of a run of four outstanding links and I was went in search of some hidden gems and treasured links beyond the grateful for the chance to sample it. Open Championship trail. Western Gailes’ 6th and 7th holes are worth the green fee alone. The club calls the 6th the only links par-5 in the world that’s all carry AYRSHIRE’S FANTASTIC FOUR on a direct line from tee to green. It’s a statement that takes a moment The approach to Western Gailes’ Western Gailes Golf Club was my first of four ports of call along the to decipher but once you see the bending shape of the fairway you GETTY IMAGES winding par-5 6th hole with the par-3 7th tee set against the sea. PHOTO: 106 MARCH 2016 | golf australia golf australia | MARCH 2016 107 soon realise that the tee-to-green line is not ideal and how a thoroughly that generally plays downwind heading out and into the breeze coming particularly when it came to spectator flow. a second time around. And, during your round, check out the plaque different path is required. The putting surface is set in a dell with slopes home. Only holes 8 and 12 switch direction within the two nines. Many Open history drips from the Prestwick dunes. Willie Campbell lost commemorating the first Open Championship, which can be found near feeding balls onto the green from the right to crown a tremendous three- astute Open contestants regard Troon’s inward half as the toughest nine the 1887 Open when he needed four swings to escape a bunker on the the boundary fence to the right of the 14th hole. shotter. The 7th is a brilliant downhill par-3 from a tee overlooking the on the Open rota. 16th hole, losing to Willie Park Jnr and thus earning the offending pot Malcolm, the starter on Trump Turnberry Resort’s Ailsa course beach to a green ringed by swales and sand. The most famous hole at Troon is its shortest. The ‘Postage Stamp’ the name “Willie Campbell’s Grave”. this perfect Sunday evening, gave me some sage advice as he The layout features 13 par-4s but into the wind at least a few will 123-yard 8th is picturesque and evil all at once (the lone bogey in The quirky links is in the heart of town. In good guided me towards the 1st tee. Other than at the par-3 play as par-5s, while trekking into a southerly wind from the 5th to the Norman’s closing 64 in ’89 came at the 8th). From an elevated tee the weather you’re guaranteed to see locals walking 15th hole, he said, hitting towards the centre-rear of 13th is a brutal test with the reward being a downwind beginning and shot to the tiny green below must combat the wind. Balls drifting left find dogs or taking an afternoon stroll across the every green won’t put you in any trouble. end to the round. Visitors are entirely welcome and effectively become a grassy dune, while right is a deep bunker. Erring short and long offer course, meanwhile Prestwick Railway Station I love simple tips that can be recalled members for a day, although in truth a day is the bare minimum to unfriendly options, too. It offers a simple equation: hit the green or work sits beside the 1st tee and the railway runs throughout the round, yet as my score drifted allocate to getting to adequately know Western Gailes. hard to rescue par or even bogey. alongside the right edge of the hole. Old Any modern to six-over-par through as many holes it felt Playing the host venue for this year’s Open held extra significance The only change to Troon in recent times came at the 11th hole. It was Tom Morris’ blueprint, which began as course architect like the course had my number. Then, with for me, as the 1989 Open at Royal Troon Golf Club was the first major a par-5 up until and including the Open in ’89, when 490 yards was still 12 holes, features shapes you won’t see my hopes of a memorable score dashed, championship I ever watched on television. It was an epic finish – Mark enough real estate to be called a par-5. Now it’s Troon’s toughest hole replicated anywhere else. In fact, any presenting a blueprint I began playing smarter. I saved par at Calcavecchia holing one of the most outrageous shots in history in the as a long par-4 where the tee shot must fly a stretch of thick gorse to modern course architect presenting a for a design like the difficult 8th hole while adopting “The final round from atop a grassy bank left of the 12th green (a ‘slam dunk’ an obliquely set fairway. It was here that Ernie Els saved a miracle par blueprint for a design like Prestwick might Prestwick might just Malcolm Strategy”, as I dubbed it, then pitch with the ball never touching the ground) to join Queenslanders in the 2004 Open after his ball finished suspended partway up a gorse just be led away in a straitjacket. birdied the tough par-4 10th and began Wayne Grady and Greg Norman in the Open’s first four-hole play-off. bush. More gorse flanks the left edge while lining the right side is the For instance, the 3rd is a par-5 split in half be led away in a a run of pars that, aside from two careless Twice that Sunday Norman looked to have the Open in his grasp only railway line, a stone fence for which is just a few paces off the green. by a wall of sleepers and a broad bunker. straitjacket. double-bogeys at 13 and 14, carried me all to have the American pinch it away. Most gallingly, after Calcavecchia In the same vein as several other top links, Troon isn’t particularly The 5th is a blind par-3 where hope-filled the way to the clubhouse. Playing one club drove wildly on the final play-off hole, the Shark busted a drive so far up spectacular but rather it challenges from start to end. Even the tee shots are struck across a huge dune with a extra on approach shots rescued a dire score the 18th that his ball trickled into a bunker jutting into the right side of downwind opening holes make holding half wedge shots into the greens white marker as an aiming guide. The 17th green and turned it into something respectable. the fairway that no one else had reached all week. a difficult task. is tucked over another big dune with a hidden bunker Turnberry’s most famous layout, host of the 1977, I’ve also always loved the club’s motto, Tam Arte Quam Marte, or, Golfers should include Prestwick Golf Club on a Scottish itinerary to catch weak approach shots, yet firing in an over-clubbed 1986, 1994 and 2009 Open Championships, is currently “As much by skill as by strength.” That last hole of the 1989 play-off for no other reason than to experience the place where the Open approach will not only miss this deep pit but catch a steep slope undergoing a significant redesign to eliminate some architectural epitomised this notion perfectly, with Calcavecchia’s canniness from the Championship began. The first 12 Opens were held there, 24 in total at the rear of the putting surface that feeds balls back towards the hole. shortcomings and enhance its stunning coastal setting. My hope is that GETTY IMAGES6; X BRENDAN JAMES (PLAQUE) rough thwarting Norman’s raw power. but none since 1925 as the growth of the championship rendered the Characteristics like this make Prestwick a layout worth playing twice, the resort’s new owner, the inimitable Mr Trump, includes Malcolm in the Like Western Gailes, the Old course at Troon is an out and back layout boutique Prestwick club too logistically difficult to retain on the rota, PHOTOS: as you’ll learn so much on a first loop that you can put into practice redesign process.