Page 33 - Westchester Magazine - 2020 Golf Guide

bedroom lodge with commanding views of the Firth of Clyde and the Isle of Arran. A quick bite of lunch, and we’re ready for our first round of golf.
Since we’re a bit groggy, we don’t want to take on a brutal A-list course like the ones we’ll be playing the rest of the trip, so we head for nearby Gailes Links, one of two courses oper- ated by Glasgow Golf Club, which acquired the course in 1892. It’s a pure links course, true to the work of Willie Park, who designed it in 1912. Fairways are surprisingly tight and greens are small for a links course, so distance and direction control of your ground game matter at lot. Bunkers are a factor, of course, and there are just the right number of blind shots to enliven the round and give us a taste of what lies ahead.
Day Two
We start the next morning at the Ailsa Course at Trump Turnberry, a seaside gem that weaves in and out of spectacular dunes. Ailsa Craig towers 1,200 feet above the sea to command the far horizon, and Turnberry lighthouse and the ruins of Robert the Bruce’s castle are in view from several holes. The course has been extensively remodeled, but it’s not hard to imagine Tom Watson and Jack
Nicklaus fighting the famous “Duel in the Sun” in 1977, the first year it joined the Open Championship rota. Although unconfirmed, it’s believed (or hoped) the course will once again host an Open sometime after its owner leaves the White House.
One of the great advantages of Scotland’s latitude is the late sunset in midsummer. The brilliant sunny day gives us time to play
Prestwick that afternoon. Prestwick is the birthplace of the Open Championship, which was played there 24 times between 1860 and 1925. Variegated doesn’t begin to describe the landscape that shapes play at the venerable links. Pow Burn flows through the property, and tall sand dunes mark the center of it. The most famous hole at Prestwick is the baffling par-5 3rd hole, a 533-yard dogleg right. The hole begins simply enough, but the fairway disappears about 300 yards from the tee as it descends into a bunker that’s at least 50 yards across and faced with railway ties. If you’re unlucky enough to land in it, pay close atten- tion to the line your caddie gives you for your recovery shot, since you can’t see the fairway you’re trying to reach on the other side.
Day Three
Royal Troon, immediately north of Prestwick, hosted its first Open Championship in 1923 and its most recent in 2016, when Henrik Stenson won the ninth rendition of the tour- nament. Quirky greens and long holes make for exciting golf on the prestigious links. The shortest hole of all the Open venues is the 123-yard par-3 8th hole, aptly named “Postage Stamp.” The tiny green covers a mere 2,600 square feet and perches next to a steep sand dune. It is surrounded by five bunkers, the worst of which carries an ominous name: “the Coffin.”
We head east after the morning round, to Greywalls Hotel in Gullane, where we check into the Edwardian country house next door to fabled Murifield, where we will play the next day. Our rooms overlook the 10th tee, and the hotel itself is worth the trip across the Atlantic. Bedrooms are furnished in period style, there’s golf memorabilia throughout the common areas, and the restaurant, Chez Roux, serves award-winning Continental cui- sine. A visit to the hotel’s library is a must.
Turnberry lighthouse at the Ailsa Course at Trump Turnberry
Prestwick
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