The agenda was:
Thursday - fly up to Edinburgh in the morning from London and 18 at Archerfield (Fidra) in the afternoon
Friday - 18 at North Berwick and then 9 with hickories at Old Musselburgh
Saturday - 18 in the morning at Craigielaw and 18 in the afternoon at Kilspindie
Sunday - 18 at Dunbar and then back to London
Archerfield is a fairly new course and is links adjacent with firm fairways and is situated on the same piece of land as The Renaissance Club where the Scottish Open has been played recently.
We lucked out with VERY firm and fast conditions at North Berwick, Craigielaw and Kilspindie but winds were tuff with sustained winds over 20mph at both North Berwick and Kispindie.
There was some light rain overnight on Saturday and the wind died so we played a slightly softer Dunbar on Sunday. A delightful place to play and was good to close out the tour with a good score and a reasonably stress free round.
Got out for some vacation golf in the VA mountains. Played Ashley Plantation at @country35’s suggestion and had a ball. Does it have some quirky real estate influenced routing? Is there a concrete bed in front of a short almost island par 3 that I parred off the concrete? Is there a par 6? Yes to all. Also, it had great conditions and $3 Hazy Little Thing in the can. Call it a solid day.
Got out to play a white whale of mine last week: Cape Fear CC. Quite c-suite. Perfect turf. Peppy walk. Played with dad and bro. Stout Manhattan. Great shower and pomade options in the locker room.
No fancy locales or cool photos on this one. Just a fun round at my local course, Creekside GC, with my Dad and two other buddies. 6 birdies and a bogey for my low rd of the year so far. Woot woot.
Played here on a lark on the way back from a trip to Roanoke a month or so ago. Delightful. Decidedly not a walking course though. Passed a couple guys doing so on the long stretch leading to the par 6 and I doubt they were through 11 or 12 by the time I finished.
Played my local muni this morning, E. Gaynor Brennan in Stamford, CT, opened in 1922. 18 holes of golf squeezed onto 70 acres of land. 5800 yards of weird, quirky golf that is just a blast to play. The course used to be called Hubbard Heights and has the nickname of “Helmet Heights” due to how close the holes are together. Tom Doak, who grew up in Stamford, famously rated this lovely piece of land a 1 on the Doak scale.
Some highlights:
The 11th hole features a downhill tee shot, you only need about 175-200 yards to end up at the bottom of the hill. The fun starts on the 2nd shot when you need to go over this tree that guards the green, usually you’ll have a wedge in your hand but it’s much more in play than it appears.
The 13th hole features a blind tee shot to the top of this hill, once up top you are then faced with a blind second shot with only the flag pole as an aim point. The hill kicks most balls on or near the green so most golf shots leave you with a chance to get on or close to the green.
Very not happy to hear this. Playing Lighthouse sound in a couple weeks as part of a golf trip. Thankfully it’s the second 18 of the day at least. Will monitor the situation.
Got out this evening on a trip in Northern VA to Blue Ridge Shadows Golf Club. Found some good intel in here about it and picked it out of about 4 options within a few square miles in the Front Royal area.
10/10 name, solid conditioning and a really fun layout. The style of the course and the agronomy at play reminded me of one of my favorite old haunts where I grew up, Makefield Highlands, but transplanted into a mountain landscape. Will definitely come back here. $35 to ride!! Insane value in this day and age. Love to see it.
And as a little Easter egg, I forget if it was this thread or another but someone found one of these for the first time and I happened to do the same today. They’re spreading.
Played Lawsonia Links today in central Wisconsin and what a gem that was! Can easily see why it’s the #20 public course in the US (no C-suite status for me yet). It was true links style weather as well, just a constant light to moderate rain all day and wind picking up towards the end. Even better, I had the whole damn course to myself. One of the best golf experiences I’ve ever had!
You had me going there for a second. Was about to get into an explanation of the similar set up of North Berwick and the Old Course at St Andrews as they both play out from the town and back again with the 1st and 18th holes sharing fairways.
We caught it on a beautiful sunny day, temps in mid to high teens C. The wind was blowing a sustained rate of over 20mph and it was very firm and very fast. On 8, par 5 playing 490 yds downwind, I hit driver and a half sand wedge on the green. On 15, the famous par 3 Redan hole at 180yds, it was playing dead into the wind and I couldn’t get it there with driver. I don’t think the wind we got was the prevailing wind as Redan was unreachable which was a shame as it would have been fun to play it as intended. Definitely get there if you can.
