Page 34 - Westchester Magazine - 2020 Golf Guide

TRAVEL | Scotland
Kingsbarns
Day Four
The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, aka Muirfield, was organized in 1744, and the course we play today was laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1891. It is a spectacular test of golf that has seen 16 Open Championships contested on the links Jack Nicklaus described as “the best golf course in Britain.” This is an unique links course for Scotland, most of which are routed nine holes out and nine holes back to the clubhouse, whereas Muirfield has two nine-hole loops, one clockwise and the other counterclockwise, so that virtually every hole plays to a different wind direction. And in links golf, the wind matters a lot!
Also unique are Muirfield’s club rules, which dictate that golf attire is not permit- ted in any of the club’s public rooms and that jacket and tie must be worn after 10 a.m. in the dining room. Best of all, visitors are only permitted to play four ball matches in the morning rounds, but afternoons are reserved strictly for alternate-shot matches. This makes for a perfect day of golf, however, since it allows for a sumptuous buffet lunch (remember to change into jacket and tie!) with libations after your morning round and a fast, fun round of team play in the afternoon.
Exhausted and exhilarated, we are driven to St. Andrews, where we check into the Hotel du Vin, less than a minute’s walk to the Old Course and the R&A Clubhouse.
Day Five
Not every golf course in Scotland predates the invention of the locomotive, nor does every day need to be dawn-to-dusk golf, especially when you’re in the old town of St. Andrews. This day is leisurely and casual, with a round
at Kingsbarns in the morning and a special destination in the afternoon. Kingsbarns opened just 20 years ago but plays like it has been there for centuries. It embraces the North Sea coastline, with seven holes playing over or alongside the sea.
The highlight of the day, if not the trip, is a visit to the R&A Clubhouse in the company of a member and officer of the club whose generous hospitality we arranged through a friend of a friend. He shows us through the dining, meet- ing, social, and locker rooms before taking us across the street to the British Golf Museum for a private viewing of The Golfers, perhaps the most famous golf scene ever painted.
Day Six
The morning dawns gray and drizzly, and we solemnly gird our bodies in full rain gear to tackle the Old Course. We warm up a bit on the range, then test the roll on the putting green,
Carnoustie
waiting for our turn to play. Just as we are called to the first tee, the rain stops, and our grins widen. It is going to be a great day of golf.
Photos are taken, jocular starter instruc- tions are delivered, and we take perhaps the most nerve-jangled tee shot in golf. It matters not how much golf you have played or how jaded you are, putting your peg in the ground on the first tee of the Old Course will always be an electric moment. We aim left — way, way left — to avoid the ultimate embarrass- ment of slicing a ball out of bounds. When four balls are safely in play, we loose a com- munal exhale and stride down the fairway.
Bunkers destroy some aspirations for par, wind and fescue and gorse take their toll, lipped putts evoke groans and curses, but none of that robs the day of its wonder. Scores don’t matter when you trod the most sacred ground in golf, although I’ll never forget the impossible birdie I made on the 11th hole and my finishing pars on 17 and 18.
Our afternoon round is next door, on the New Course, which is “new” because it is only 125 years old. It’s a delightful links course that makes a perfect second round for the day.
Day Seven
Like a well-composed symphony, our trip to Scotland ends with a crescendo. We face Carnoustie, easily the most demanding course of the trip. The year before we play it, the Open Championship is won there by Francesco Molinari. The first British Amateur Championship played on the course was in 1947, and it was won by Westchester amateur golf legend Willie Turnesa.
The sun shines, but the wind blows hard this day, making Carnoustie’s unforgivingly narrow fairways extraordinarily hard to find from the tee. The course’s intricate greens and punitive bunkering punish us, as well, but the round is the perfect finale to our trip. •
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