The Missing Links: Muirfield

Friday, 12 September 2014

Muirfield

Golf was first played over Muirfield in 1891 on 16 holes designed by old Tom Morris and extended to 18 holes for the Open in 1892. Today's layout was the result of extending the total area and recommendations from Harry Colt in 1923. Muirfield departs from classic links courses with two loops of nine holes each, one anticlockwise and one clockwise. This adds to the challenge of the course as the wind direction from the tee differs at each hole.

The 18th green with the clubhouse behind

Muirfield is world renowned and has held 16 Open Championships, with the list of winners including some of the greatest players in the game. Jack Nicklaus described it as the best golf course in Britain and named his own course in Ohio Muirfield Village. It is the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers which claims to be the oldest verifiable golf club in the world with continuous records extending from 1744. It is an all male club which caused some controversy when the Open was staged there in 2013.

The par 3 13th requires an accurate shot.
Danger lurks for any slight deviation

We were guests of our friends David and Kath Anderson on a perfect summer's day with a light breeze and played foursomes, which is a traditional format for visitors. The course was in magnificent condition and presents a real challenge to the amateur golfer. The fairways are narrow, the rough is tough and the bunkers are deep and strategically placed. The golfer who can avoid trouble will score well but that is easier said than done - even the best in the world have tried and failed.

Worth playing? Unquestionably - it is one of the best courses in the world.

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The Links Project

There are 246 true links golf courses in the world and this blog is a record of our attempt to play all of them. My husband Ron and I are keen golfers and I came up with the idea of this project after he gave me the book by George Peper and Malcolm Campbell 'True Links' which lists them all.

The commonest question we are asked about our project is 'How do you define a true links course?' This will be debated by aficionados for long after we have (hopefully) completed our quest and there will never be a correct answer. The strict definition is from the British Golf Museum:

1. The course must be beside a river estuary

2. It must offer partial or occasional views of the sea

3. It must have few trees

4. It must have numerous bunkers

5. It must have nines that run out and back, the front heading to a far point and the back returning to the clubhouse

Peper and Campbell defined their list as follows:

Terrain - how close is the course to the sea? Do the fairways run fast and hard? Do the greens favour a run-on approach? How open is the site? How natural? Is there a freedom from trees? Is the invasion of gorse and brush controlled? How light is the environmental footprint on the land?

Turf - is there a sand base? What grasses are dominant on the fairways and greens? Is the rough managed ( creating biodiversity for flora and fauna)? How well does the course drain?

Weather - how exposed is the site to the elements? What are the typical wind conditions? Does the course play hard and fast all year round? Must temporary greens and tees be used in winter? Is the course susceptible to winter closure?

Peper and Campbell included courses which supplied the correct answers to most of these questions. But however defined, to me the poem by Sir John Betjeman encapsulates the feeling of links golf.