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Scotland on my Mind by Dan King Thursday June 13th
Gullane Golf Club: No. 2 Course |
Sorry for the delay in getting out my first reports. It hasn't been as easy as I imagined to get hooked up to the Internet. I had some reports ready, but couldn't get them out. The phone jacks in the United Kingdom are different than in the United States. There was no where in the vicinity to where we are staying that sold the adaptor. I had to do a lot of searching around looking for the adaptor. I'm also stuck with a 14,400 connection which now seems incredibly slow.
We made it. After 11 hours from SFO to Scotland, and about 1 hour queuing in the Heathrow airport, a 1 hour flight to Edinburgh and a 3 hour wait for our van, we are in Scotland. The only part of the trip so far that didn't go exactly as planned was the car hire. They told us we had to pay an additional L2.70 per day for each additional driver. That would have been an extra L160.00 which we hadn't planned on. We said no thanks, so it looks like I'll be the designated driver on the entire trip.
Driving on the left side: I'm left handed. Driving on the left side should be a piece of cake right? It wasn't quite. I tended to drive toward the middle of the lane endangering everyone on my left side. I also often turned on the wind shield wipers when I meant to turn on the blinkers, which my companions thought was very funny. I haven't killed anyone and I have only hit one curb, so all in all, not bad.
Our first few nights in Scotland we will be staying in Haddington, at the Maitlandfield House Hotel. Haddington is 18 miles east of Edinburgh and 8 miles south of Gullane.
Maitlandfield House Hotel
24 Sidegate. Haddington, East Lothian. EH41 4BZ
Tel#01620 826513
Fax#01620 826713
Once we arrived, after it took a while to get our car hire, it was get to the hotel in Haddington, change in to golf clothes and get over to Gullane #2 for our first round in Scotland. We made it with out any trouble (accept for the previously mentioned hit curb.
My game has not been very good lately. I have not been able to hit my driver and my irons have been shorter than I am accustomed to. I figured maybe coming to Scotland would inspire my game to return to form. It hasn't. However, I was able to scramble around on a links course better than I can on American courses. With the bump and run, precision distance on your irons isn't as critical. Unfortunately, my driver was constantly putting me in trouble. Gullane#2 is not a long course. 6,244 yard par#71, but I was hitting long irons to most greens. My companions were inspired in Scotland, all playing much better than me and winning all the nassaus.
Gullane#2 was a very good introduction to links land golf. Not overly long, but a decent hike over some of the hills and great views across the Firth of Forth. You can see Edinburgh to the west, the north are the hills of Fife and Bass Rock sits out there on the Firth. While we played golf there on a Thursday afternoon, we only saw one couple of golfers on the course with us. They played through us on the 11th hole. It seemed Gullane #1 and Gullane #3 were much busier, and with Luffness bordering the #3 course, there were plenty of golfers about, just few on the course we were playing.
Golf has been played at Gullane as far back as 1650. Originally only 7 holes, it was expanded to 18 holes in 1882. With the invention of the gutty,the popularity of golf grew and in 1899 Willie Park was commissioned to layout the number#2 course. Gullane#3 was opened in 1910. My first real experience with links golf was interesting. In looking
at links courses in pictures or video, the mediums do not do the courses justice. It flattens out everything. The links I saw had few flat areas. The undulation through the holes was much more severe. It's fun watching your bump and run disappear from site, only to re-appear later running along happily to the green. You're left there wondering for a while if something gobbled up your ball when it disappeared behind a hullock.
The routing was interesting. You head out west for a time, and then it's north over Gullane Hill and a view of the Firth. The beautiful 7th hole is the one closest to the Firth, with sand dunes only separating the course from the water. Then on holes #8 through 15, the routing takes a variety of angles. We played on an afternoon with little wind, but I can imagine how interesting this routing would be with the typical easterlies. The final 3 holes head back up over Gullane Hill and then back down to the Visitor Center. In America, greens are almost always sloped from back to front, making them much more receptive to the high, soft shot. Not so here. With more natural green setting, the slope of the green can vary. You need to be more aware to the lay of the land to gain a clue on how your ball might react once it gets to the green. Looking for how rain will travel across the landscape can give you some idea how to play a shot.
The big difference I see between American golf and links golf is the nature of luck. American golf is about precision. Play the shot to a designated area and score. Miss the area, and you will not score. UK golf so far is about hitting to spots and hoping the ball will react well. Some times it will go the direction you want, sometimes not. The key to it is patience. If your run up doesn't work on one hole, don't get frustrated and try to fire at the pin at the next. Fire at the pin and more often then not it will bound over the green. You have to decide how to play the hole and not let the irregularities change your plan. Also, sometimes the mis-hits end up being the best shots. I've hit a thinned 3-iron, from 200 yards out that in American wouldn't get half way to the hole. Here you look up and see your thinned shot merrily bouncing along all the way to the green. Many would feel this is an un-fair game. But that is one of the aspects I love about golf. It isn't meant to be a fair game. We play it in the out of doors on living, breathing playing fields that are constantly changing. Fairness is computer golf. Golf is about handling the un-fairness of the game. American golf has been about trying to make a un-fair game fair.
Off my soap box for now (don't even get me started on cart-ball). I should tell you about my favorite golf holes on Gullane#2.
Number#1 is a good starting hole. Not much difficulty involved. 366 yard par-4 with ample fairway and just a few small bunkers down the right side that are helpful for guidance. A fairly large green, with plenty of thick rough beyond the green.
Number#3 is a hole Tom Doak mentions in the Confidential Guide to Golf Course as part of the reason he doesn't rate Gullane#2 as highly as he might. It's a very short Par-4 of 237 yards, but it goes straight up a very steep portion of Gullane Hill. I liked the shortness of the hole combined with the challenge of getting the ball high enough to not just hit it into the side of the hill.
Number#4 is our first trip out toward the Firth. The yardage book actually shows trees on this hole down the left side. They are what we would usually call bushes in the states.
Number#7 was my favorite hole on the course. It is the point closest to the Firth and is a beautiful golf hole. 358 yards, it can play much longer with the prevailing easterly cross wind. A few very nasty pot bunkers 40 yards short of green left the impression that your second shot was shorter than the actual yardage.
The Par-3 #11 is 215 yards but with a 40 foot drop where we head down to a valley. From the tee box the green looks incredibly narrow with no room for error. However, the bunkers that appear green side are really 50 yards short of the green giving the tee shot plenty of room in front of the green.
The par-4 #13 was the toughest hole on the course. Back up to the top of Gullane Hill with a climb of 50 feet. The hole is 400 yards with some nasty pot bunkers protecting the right side and a solitary pot bunker on the left. From the tee you think there is plenty of room to drive past the bunkers, but the up-hill shot never goes as far as expected. The second shots seem to tend to go over the green leaving a nasty little chip to a very severely plateued green. I was happy walking away from this hole with a bogey, as were my companions.
The par-4 17th hole was one of the easier holes, 361 yards, with a tee shot from atop the hill back down to the bottom. The tee shot can be tricky with the entire slope of the fairway going left to right while the hole plays right to left. But a tee shot in the fairway leaves a very short bump and run to a reasonably flat green.
All for Day 1. Glad to be in Scotland. Talk to you tomorrow.
DanKing
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