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Scotland on my Mind by Dan King
Tuesday, July 16th
Southerness Golf Club |
If you ever find yourself in this part of Scotland, the Cavens House is the place to stay. A very nice, 7 room B&B just up the road from the course in Birkbean. Just as you pass John Paul Jones' house, it's on the right. A small hotel sign leads you down the path. Staying at B&Bs through this trip, I was getting a wee bit tired of bacon, sausage and eggs every morning for breakfast. It was the same fair here, but the best I had. I was low on funds over the weekend, waiting for California banks to open, so my dinner the night before was very light. Lucky for me, the breakfast at Cavens House was hearty. It started with a section of the best melon I've ever eaten in my life. When I complimented the waiter on the melon, he brought me another. I decided to be daring and order Haggis with my breakfast. I figured my last morning in Scotland, I should give the national dish a whirl. Damn, I could have been eating this dish all along. Wonderful! It came with 2 perfect fried eggs, the best bacon I've ever eaten, two sausages and a potato dish to die for. The potatoes were mixed with cabbage, onions and peas. They had numerous types of honey you could put on your toast, all that I sampled were delicious. I only wished I could have spent another night or two at the Cavens House.
Cavens House
Kirkbean by Dumfries
Scotland
Tel/Fax (01387) 880234
Prices vary; my room with a double bed was £30.00
The dinner menu looks wonderful, but requires a 24 hour reservation.
Off to the course I went. The pro at Southerness had set up a match for me with two locals. Harold was an older gent who lived a mile from the course and Alfred who worked at a power plant down and lived in Dumfries. Both were about 10 handicap golfers so we were close to equal in ability. I've played some fast golf in Scotland, but these two were quick. Hit it, and take off on a trot to hit it again. We each had a match going with the other two. I won a pint from Harold 2 and 1, but lost to Alfred 1-up when I three-putted 18 for a bogey. I shot a 78 that I was very happy with.
Southerness is one of the newer links courses in Scotland, being designed by Mackenzie Ross in 1947. It has a very natural look and feel to it. The fairways have the appearance of being very rough, but the turf is soft. The greens were a little slow and took some getting used to after North Berwick. They were much less sloped than most links greens. Mackenzie Ross loves to hide his bunkers from you, and I was very happy to be playing with locals, or I would have been in numerous bunkers. There are a number of holes were a bunker would be hidden behind two spectacle bunkers. Mackenzie Ross was also a student of Donald Ross and his crowned greens.
The course starts out with a wide open first hole and then narrows from there. It's best to stay on the fairways here. They are cut out of the natural grasses, mostly heather, with occasional gorse mixed in. The routing is well done, taking full advantage of the wind that is usually prevalent. In our case, we got Southerness at its tamest, with just the slightest breath of wind. It was a beautiful day for golf, with the temperature staying above 70 degrees all day long.
After our pints, it was time to leave for me to say good-bye to Scotland. Its been fun, and I hope I'll be back soon. There are still some courses I'd like to see that I missed on this trip. Next time I'd like to spend a little more time around the west coast and also get up into the Western Islands. I'd like to plan a few days playing many of the courses my Southerness companions tell me I missed along the Solway Firth. I'd also love to get back and play my favorites such as Royal Dornoch, Cruden Bay, Machrihanish, and the West Links at North Berwick.
The drive to Lytham and St. Annes was pleasant enough, with the M6 south being 3 lanes of fast moving traffic. Why is it the British seem to know the use of each lane, while in California you have drivers camped out in the passing lane clogging traffic? I arrived at our house in Lytham at 3 o'clock just as Ed and Mark from GolfWeb were also pulling up.
A few of my favorite holes on Southerness:
Hole#2 Par-4 405 yards
A slight dogleg right with a bunker on the right side of the fairway, 200 yards out. Best to play the shot as close to this bunker as possible, as the natural grasses on the left are especially tough. Also the shot to the green is best played from the right, removing the pot bunkers greenside from play. The green is large and flat, with dunes behind giving the putting surface an amphitheater quality.
Hole#3 Par-4 383 yards
The tee shot is across a wee burn which should only be trouble for a topped shot. A slight dogleg to the left. The approach is guarded by a pair of spectacle bunkers 50 yards short of the green. Behind the spectacles, just 20 yards between them lies a very nasty little pot bunker you'd rather not have to deal with. Two trees that look much like cypress trees frame the putting surface. The green slopes from the front to the back, making holding the green difficult. The only way to make an approach that will hold this green is down the right side with a run-up.
Hole#7 Par-3 215 yards
A par-3 straight out toward the Firth. There are another pair of bunkers 50 yards short of the green, toward the left side. The green is crowned, making the only real shot a right to left tee shot avoiding the bunkering on the right. There is a large and menacing shell bunker hidden from view on the tee that runs from the right to the middle of the green.
Hole#12 Par-4 387 yards
This would be Southerness' signature hole. A dogleg to the right, heading directly toward the Firth and normally into the prevailing wind. The desire is to keep the tee-shot as close to the right as possible, but there are two bunkers there, right where you'd like to land your tee shot. The green sits on top of the dunes just before the sea. If your long here, you'll be playing off the beach. From this green, and the 13th tee you get the best views of the course, the Solway coast and Firth, and England beyond.
Hole#18 Par-5 480 yards
Not a terribly tough par-5, if you play it as one. The tendency here is too be greedy, either to make amends for a score or just to finish strong. 4 bunkers cross across the fairway, 70 yards short of the green. Unless you had a fabulously long drive, the best advise is to lay-up well short of these. Driver, wedge, wedge is usually the prudent choice. The green sits right beside the windows of the clubhouse. Not a bad finishing hole for me after my 671 previous Scotland holes of golf.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Dan King
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