Seaside links course fun and challenging
Day 5 in Scotland meant a date with the Dunbar Golf Club, established in 1856. I’d heard good things about it and it exceeded expectations. Dunbar Golf Club is outstanding, especially the back nine which played mostly into the wind on a breezy day in Scotland.
I love how the courses we have played are so simple. Nothing has been lavish or overstated. It’s all about the golf. Dunbar Golf Club certainly was the same – small clubhouse and golf shop just a hop, skip and a jump from a bustling downtown. You just show up, the starter gets you going and tells you the expected pace of play. The first tee at Dunbar is just a few steps from the pro shop, and off you go with back-to-back par 5s to start the round.
After a front nine that features three par 5s, the meat of Dunbar Golf Club is in the home nine. After playing the 195-yard 10th hole, you turn around and head into a wind that today was blowing from the north and west. It turned the four 400-plus yard par 4s into basically par 5s for the shorter hitters in our group me included. It didn’t help that I had a two-way miss going with my driver and kept finding the fairway bunkers.
Yes, it’s true that it’s basically a half-shot or one-shot penalty if your ball lands in one. I was going along pretty well on the front nine when I tried to get greedy out of a fairway bunker on No. 7, a relatively short par 4. I didn’t get out on the first try and ended up with a double bogey. Bad mental mistake on my part.
Dunbar Golf Club best holes on back nine
My two favorite holes were both on the back nine. The 12th hole (The Point) is a 445-yard behemoth that probably played 480 into the wind. It plays alongside the ocean and the green sits on a shelf just steps from the beach. It’s a brute and I hit one onto the beach and chipped in for a bogey.
The 14th hole (Mill Stone Den) is gentle 413-yard dogleg left that is just a gorgeous golf hole with a slightly elevated tee. It plays down with a green that sits in front of a stone building.
The 18th hole (Hame) has a stone wall along the right side that plays back to the clubhouse with the first fairway adjacent to the left.
Each day we play, I continue to be amazed at how well bunkered these courses are. They aren’t very large by American standards and they definitely aren’t gaudy. But they seemingly gobble up every errant shot.
Gregg Dewalt is the editor of Alabama Golf News
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Featured image of the Scottish coast courtesy of CNN.
