ILMgolfnut returns to Royal Dornoch

[ILMgolfnut]

Not just yet, but on 6 July (slipping into the UK date format) I'll be playing in the Robbie Grant/Duncan Murray Seniors event. Which makes the second straight year I've been entered in a tournament on the world's 10th best course as ranked by Golf Magazine last November 1 (which coincidentally was three days after I played there). That tournament didn't happen because of horrible weather; hoping the Grant/Murray event will come off as planned. Regardless, I am very fortunate to be one of the 120 tournament entries and they actually let me come back there.

Donald Ross grew up in Dornoch and learned golf on these links, and its influence can be seen on his American course designs like Pinehurst #2 (crowned greens, lots of sand and slopes around the greens).

Because I have a yardage book that didn't get soaked in that day's rain and 30-mph wind, I can show the holes here (scroll down-down-down). When I play the tournament on the 6th (which is strokeplay-handicap format, using the yellow tees) I'll put the results in with each hole as an edit. (The Grant Cup goes to the low gross score, Murray Quaich to the low net, and there are age-group prizes). Notes below are what I did in October.

Like most Scottish links, the two nines don't make neat little loops coming back to the clubhouse. As you see below, holes 1-8 head north, 9-16 head south and 17 and 18 criss cross in front of the clubhouse. 

If you look very closely at the page for each hole, a local minister wrote words to ponder for each hole as you consider that challenge. Some are profound, others just amusing. No Laying Up had fun in their Dornoch video reading these passages from the Book of Yardage.

#1 is a little bit of a nervous experience, not dissimilar to teeing off on the first hole of the Old Course. There are usually people watching, you're right in front of the clubhouse and the "Royal Dornoch Golf Club" sign and you're acutely aware of where you are. But it's a straightforward short par 4.

#2 is a rather brutal par 3. Tom Watson said the hardest shot at Dornoch was the second to the second, and he's not wrong. The green is very elevated and playing ping pong back and forth is very possible. I made a 6. I think.

1 and 2 are very nice holes, but from there you don't get the full effect of the linksland. The path to the third tee goes between two large stands of gorse and when you emerge you see the whole links spread out before you. But #3 still demands your attention.

#4 is another 400-yard par 4, still away from the water but in sight of it.

#5 is a shortish par 4, not drivable unless you can carry the bunkers just in front of the green (and Dornoch bunkers are DEEP). The green is also deep, 55 yards. Pin placement could be a bit of an issue here in club selection. It kicked my butt, as much of the front nine did in that wind.

#6 is a medium length par 3 but with gorse, deep bunkers and a dropoff to the right of the green, you can absolutely make a big number. And I did in October.

#7 is a long par 4 that turns toward the water.

#8 is a mutha of a par 4, and the last on the northward trek. OB left, gorse right.

#9 turns back south. Which may mean you're heading downwind or upwind. It is the first par 5, along the ocean, although it played as a par 4 the day I was there due to standing ocean water on the fairway from the storm. And the ocean is very much in play if you tug one. I managed to make a 5 on the abbreviated version in spite of flirting with sea foam on the fairway.

Ah, Dornoch #10. Has a warm spot in my heart. The day I played it, it was 125 to the front edge just behind a gaping bunker, the pin was cut 22 yards deep and 4 yards from the right edge. I can't hit an 8-iron 147, but downwind in that hurricane, I thought I could. Landed just over the bunker, rolled up to 12 feet below the hole (thus I hit it 143) and I made the putt. How I hit the ball that far, straight, in that wind, I have no idea. Or how I stayed on that green in the hurricane either. There is now gorse behind the green that wasn't there when they took the yardage book photo. I included a photo of the green as well; my pin was just about where it is in the photo.

 

Having made the birdie of my life on 10, had to come back to earth quickly for a long par 4 on 11. Somehow I made a 5,

#12 is a dogleg par 5 that favors a draw off the tee. I didn't have that shot eight months ago. Don't have it very often now, but sometimes I can manage one. Regardless, I made a 6.

#13 is a par 3 with lot of sand and slopes, The yardage book notes advise you to run up on the hill behind the tee and look at the beach and water. That's to take your mind off the double you're about to make, I think.

#14 is Dornoch's most famous and toughest hole. It's known as Foxy. Double dogleg par 4. Doesn't have sand, water, gorse or OB. Doesn't need any of those things. I made a double there too

15 is a short par 4, possibly drivable downwind if you're decently long. I'm not. Doubled this one too.

16 is a par 4, bunkers on the right, a quarry on the left and a road behind the green. It's a public road, which also goes in front of the first tee, and there may well be cars or bicycles or people walking their dog. The dog part applies to the entire course. RDGC is on public land and the public uses it.

#17 turns back north away from the clubhouse. I was in double bogey mode at that point and I did, my fifth straight dub. 

 

18 turns back for the clubhouse, if you're not too punchdrunk from the preceding 17 holes to notice. I'm not sure I wasn't. But I managed a bogey anyway on the long par 4. Speaking of drunk, it's named for the Glenmorangie distillery a few miles down the road in Tain. 

Scorecard says 6799 yards from the tips, 6299 from the yellow tees, par 70. But those measurements are to the front of the green. Middle of the green, add another 375. Regardless, if there's any wind (and there's always wind) it's a bear. It would probably be a bear from the green tees at 5296

Edited June 16 by ILMgolfnut
rearranging pictures