The Missing Links: Gullane No 3, Scotland

Saturday 11 October 2014

Gullane No 3, Scotland

www.gullanegolfclub.com

SSS White tees 66
Red tees 69

Gullane No 3 is the third of the courses in the town of Gullane on the east coast of Scotland. It was designed by Willie Park Jnr and opened in 1910. It is the shortest of the three measuring 5259 yards for men and 4920 yards for ladies but it does not suffer in quality. We played the course with Fiona and Mike Ford on a clear crisp winter's day with a moderate breeze.

Look behind you! The view backwards from the 6th tee
to the Pentland Hills and Edinburgh

No 3 may be the shortest of the courses but it still packs a punch! The course heads into the prevailing wind for the first five holes, climbing over the side of Gullane hill just to the west of Gullane No 2. It then has a loop from the 7th to the 12th before turning back towards the clubhouse with the wind. Pot bunkers abound and there are some tricky approaches to the greens. Notable holes are the 7th with magnificent views across Aberlady Bay to Edinburgh from the tee, the par 3 11th with its plateau green guarded by bunkers and the par 5 14th sweeping up Gullane Hill. The weakest hole is the 15th which is so precipitous that it is a 160 yard wedge shot. The greens were magnificent - fast running and true even in winter. This course is a scaled down version of its bigger brothers Gullane No 1 and 2 and just as much of a pleasure to play.

The uphill par 3 11th. Don't be short!

Worth a visit? Yes - an excellent links experience although there are longer more challenging courses in the area.

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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.