Great Places in Golf - Brora Golf Club (Updated)

I had no plans to discuss the delightful Brora with you, until Nick Faldo brought it to the fore.  But since Brora is, in fact, one of the great places in this game, and its mention was extremely timely, let's take a little trip shall we?

I arrived home from the office yesterday in time to watch a bit of the Golf Channel broadcast of the Bob Hope Desert Classic Humana Challenge.  The broadcast included coverage of the play of Russell Knox, a Scotsman best known for shooting a 59 on the web.com tour.  While the camera was on Knox, the usually insufferable Sir Nick noted that he had once won an amateur event in Scotland by virtue of bouncing a ball off a cow and onto the green.

I'm usually nervous playing in front of a gallery, but these spectators at Brora seemed oddly uninterested.

Later in the broadcast, Todd Lewis conducted an interview with Knox, which is unfortunately not available to embed or link to.  That's a shame, as Knox had a number of interesting observations, and filled in some details of the Faldo story.  And all of the above was delivered in that beguilingly lilting Scottish brogue.

Lewis' first question was whether it was fun playing in such perfect conditions on a perfectly manicured golf course, knowing that scoring would be insanely low.  Knox played the role of Scotsman to perfection, responding that it was far greater fun to play in actual conditions, such as a wee 30 mph breeze, where the challenge is to adapt one's game to the wind.  Well played, laddie! Take an extra $5 out of petty cash, Russell, that's the very point I've been trying to make since my first trip to the auld sod in 1979.

He also confirmed that the Faldo story was true and took place at Brora, which he described as being "located way up North in Hillbilly land."  We'll circle back to that curious slur, but first some background.  Brora is an 1891 James Braid design that is, with apologies to Theresa's pen pal, golf as it was meant to be.  That includes livestock on the course itself, mostly sheep but some cows in the mix, with low voltage electrical fences to protect the greens.  The course is an out-and-back routing typical of the era, and measures only a titch over 6,100 yards from the tips.  Contra Mark Twain, even golf can't ruin this walk, as the natural humps, bumps and hillocks of this piece of land are divine.

John C. lashes his tee shot on Brora's most picturesque hole (perhaps), the Par 3 ninth named, logically enough, "Sea Hole."

The timeliness of the mention of Brora relates to the fact that, serendipitously, we're having dinner this very evening with Elsie and John Coupland, of the Strathpeffer Couplands, with whom we played Brora in 2009.  Glenn and Jewelle, local friends who travel to Scotland annually (though never to Ireland for reasons that elude us), will fill out the dinner 6-ball (memo to P.F. Changs- check your stock of Oolong Sea Bass).

Back to Russell Knox, who explained that he did, in fact, one-hop an errant shot into a cow, which proceeded to bounce onto the green, whereupon he sank the birdie putt, thank you very much.  Knox touched on a certain local rule related to what I believe he called a cow pat.  Let's go straight to the videotape, or in this case, the Brora Scorecard's Local Rules:

All Fenced Greens and Tees:

 Electric fences surrounding all greens must not be moved and should be treated as immovable obstructions. Relief should be taken in accordance with Rule 24-2. A ball striking any part of the fence may be replayed.

Animal Droppings:

 Animal droppings through the green or on the putting green may be treated as casual water.

Theresa shows off for her new friends, top.  There guys sheep are good....notice the perfect fairway cut, presumably untouched by Man, bottom.

Brora is a truly wonderful day of golf, especially in the company of Elsie and John.  And since it's only a few miles up the road from Royal Dornoch, a bucket-list destination for any readers of this blog, there's simply no reason to deny yourself the pleasure. 

My best photo of the low voltage electrical fences surrounding each green, in this case the 9th green.

But Elsie and John, for dinner discussion, how did we feel about the "Hillbilly Land" comment?  It's certainly rural up in the Highlands (as is most of Scotland, excluding the major cities), but that's not a description that would have occurred to me.  And it's also passing strange that, per Knox's PGA Tour biography, he was born in Inverness, only some 50 miles south of Brora.  In any event, should be a lively dinner conversation.

No caption needed - simply a property meant for golf.

UPDATES:  

1. Not one to let a sleeping dog lie, I greeted Elsie and John by noting how wonderful it was to see our favorite hillbillies.  Elsie, having followed orders and read the Brora post (as opposed to Glenn, who refuses to click on any links I provide, presumably for the same reason that he won't go to Ireland, wouldn't be prudent), clarified that Russell Knox's mother is American.  She and John both confirmed that hillbilly is simply not a term that a Scot would know or use, thus blame falls on the mother.  As a Jewish man, I'm completely comfortable blaming all failings of the universe on my mother.
2. Theresa reminded us of a charming Brora story over dinner..  A visit to the ladies' room included the the most beautiful sweet peas she had ever seen.  After complimenting the woman behind the counter in the golf shop on the flowers, she quickly found herself on the phone with grower of said sweet peas.  "Lassie, ye need to be pinching the tendrils," she was instructed.  That tip, unfortunately, has not improved  her own sweet peas, but was a sweet moment all the same.