Royal Dornoch, An Appreciation

Good morning, dear Reader, from Pittenweem.  For those with us last year, we are on the north side of the Firth of Forth, looking south to East Lothian villages such as North Berwick and Gullane.  The latter is home to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (d/b/a Muirfield, and the former is where the Scottish Open is being held as we speak.

Our trip down from the Highlands took some three hours, closer to four if we include the leg to Inverness Airport to collect our rental car.  I had heard a dire forecast for that Scottish Open, though we had only off and on rain, yanno, just enough to realize how badly the car's wipers function.  Oh well, at least we're not in a locale that typically gest much rain....

Amusingly, our driver on the trip from Edinburgh to the Strath posited an interesting theory, to wit, that it's actually Ireland that gets all that rain, on account of its exposure to the Atlantic Ocean.  Scotland just gets tarred unfairly due to its geographic proximity....  Yeah, that's the ticket.

We had a delightful dinner at The Dory Bistro, which by day is an art gallery located down on the harbor.  Last year, we steered clear of it until the Pittenweem Arts Festival had concluded, but ate there on our final evening in country and we'll be back with Elsie and John next week.  We walked down in dryish weather, prepared for an after-dinner stroll to the Pittenweem Tidal Pool, but the brolly was necessary for the walk home.  This is the weather to which we nodded off:

Right now, as it approaches 7:00 a.m., it's dry and seemingly pleasant, with small patches of blue to be found.  But both the Met Office and BBC are promising a rough day, each hinting at the possibility of thunder and lightning, which is rare in these parts (though we did get a bit last year).  If there's a silver lining, Sunday looks a wee bit better than it did previously for our first trip to Crail Golfing Society.

We've also put in our first Old Course Daily Ballot entry for Monday, so we'll keep you posted on that process.  

We'll talk some more of Pittenweem, but our thoughts today remain further north.  If today's post carried a dateline, it would be this:

That photo is from a prior trip, but always nice to be welcomed back.... We trundled up facing a fairly dire weather forecast, although the last version thereof improved slightly, indicating that we'd have just enough time to reach the ninth tee, as far out from the clubhouse as one gets, before the fun might start...

You could draw whatever conclusions you wanted from the sky, which featured blue patches amidst those dark, foreboding clouds:

There were actually two choppers there, quite the clever means of dealing with Dornoch's perpetual parking shortage.  We were on No. 15 or 16 when we heard them take off, heading back to Loch Lomond for dinner according to John.  

One doesn't take ball-washers for granted over here, but the tartan towel is a nice touch:

If only I could identify the clan whose tartan is used, though my guess would be Sutherland.  Amusingly, there is an app for that, this Tartan finder, although in this case I think we need a reverse model, a Tartan Shazam if you will.

Your humble blogger began his day and trip en fuego, rolling in a twelve-footer for birdie on the opener and making par on the iconic second hole:

The old joke is to ask what the hardest shot at Dornoch is, the answer being the second to the second (the joke being that it's a Par-3).  In this case it was a learning experience, as in proper links conditions one doesn't carry the ball past the front of the green.  After a warm and dry May and early June, it's been wet for weeks and the balls are simply not releasing as they typically do.  We're green this year, not brown.

Last year our day at Dornoch ended in tragedy on the twelfth hole, at least for tours truly.   Lost in that drama was that I was hitting the ball so poorly that day that I subsequently joked that the hand injury was a relief, as it saved me further clanking those irons.  

We got as far as the seventh hole before getting wet, but it got a bit ugly there for a while....  The rain started without sufficient warning to allow preparation, by the time I got my rain pants on I was already soaked.  But the bigger problem is that it just came down awfully hard for 20-25 minutes, and while we waited it out under the brolleys for a couple of minutes, the group behind us continued to play on.  

Here are a couple of snaps from before the deluge:

It's quite the beautiful property, but what separates it from other links are two features, first the rather significant elevation changes.  Here's an overly long explanation thereof from Golf Club Atlas:

There are three linked geological formations on which RDGC is built. All are linksland, i.e. land that now or once was ‘linked’ to the sea, but they have different characteristics, based on their elevation and their age. The highest, oldest ground is that on which sit the clubhouse, the first two holes, the 3rd tee, the 5th tee, the 7th, the tee and upper fairway of the 8th, the 16th green, the tee and upper fairway of the 17th, and the final hole. It is slightly harder and more compact than the ground on the lower levels, but still good springy links turf, with fine grasses and wispy rough. That the land is a bit different, however, is clear from some agronomical observations. For one, it is only on this plateau that heather can be found, most notably on the left hand side of the 7th. For another, the grass on this plateau is sometimes subject to a disease which brings rise on the 8th and 17th fairways to one of my top 10 golfing signs-‘Beware of Slime!’

The second plateau is a small one, but fundamental to the greatness of Dornoch. It comprises the 3rd fairway and green, the 4th, the 5th and 11th greens, the right hand bail out areas for the 12th and 14th fairways, and the world famous 14th green. This plateau, the result perhaps of some mini-ice age at some time, gives a vertical texture to the course which allows for the use of subtle and not so subtle elevation changes between holes, and also gives character to the holes themselves. The view from the 3rd tee to the lower plateau is incomparable. The 4th hole, which requires a drive of both length and precision to stay on the middle plateau and offer a shot to the green. The incredibly complex and fascinating 4th green complex. The great 5th green. The great 11th green. Foxy.

The great 17th green. Enough said.

The final plateau is that land which now links the course to the sea. The 5th fairway. The lower 8th fairway and green. The 9th, 10th, 11th (sans green), 12th, 13th, 14th (sans green), 15th, 16th tee and lower 17th fairway. This is rolling dunesland, at or near sea level. It is shifting land–even in the 24 years I have known it, the features have changed. It is endangered land. The seas encroaches on the 9th and 11th fairways and on the 16th tee, requiring periodic shoring up with large boulders and rip rap. Environmental activists in Scotland cite the land around the Dornoch Firth as one of the first places which will be reclaimed by the sea, if and when global warming occurs. It is a beautiful, but fragile place.

I only wish I had read this before going out to play, because it's a little hard to follow.  But the weakness of a traditional out-and-back links is that you'll play a long series of holes either into or against the wind.  This is mitigated at Dornoch by slight changes in direction, but also by incorporating elevation changes as well, as the 5th and 7th tee boxes are up on that highest ridge line, but they routed that 17th hole as a U-turn.  

This is that fifth tee box, though lower because it's from the ladies' tees:

It was brutal there for a bit, as water was temporarily pooling.  I had asked Theresa to take a photo of me on one of the tees, and she took some of Ross, who hit first.  Thought you might enjoy seeing our varying costume choices, one being quite different from the other three:

By this time the heaviest rains were behind us, though we certainly hadn't dried out and weren't at all sure that we'd be dry to the clubhouse.  We were actually lucky in a couple of ways, there wasn't much wind and it was sufficiently warm that the rain gloves were viable.  Just a few degrees cooler and my hands would have been icicles.

Last year's hand injury happened on the twelfth hole, and old habits die hard.  here's a view of what faces the player on his second shot (assuming a good drive):

It's a shortish Par-5 that sweeps from left-to-right, and those folks are on the green.  Obviously, given the shape of the hole, one's miss should be right, and last year I blocked my second to the right, just clearing that bunker and settling between two large tufts of grass.  So, what do you think your humble blogger did on his second shot this time?  Yup, sprayed it even further right, though this time without gouging an inch of skin off my right hand.....  I'm not the quickest learner, but I did realize after the fact that I should be laying up short of that bunker, as it's still only a wedge in.

The other unique feature of Dornoch is the extent to which the greens are pushed up like Donald Ross greens, unsurprising since Ross grew up and learned the game in Dornoch, before moving to the U.S.  Most links greens sit at fairway level, allowing for the run-up shot. That joke above about the second hole encapsulates this point, that when you miss a Dornoch green, especially when hole high, you're likely to face a nearly impossible shot.  I don't have a perfect photo to demonstrate this, but here's one from the side of that second green:

The picture is unfortunately too dark, but some of these side banks have longer grass than the fairway cut, and you'll not run the ball up easily.  Forced to pitch the ball from a tight fairway lie, you'll understand why it's the hardest shot at Dornoch.  Alas, the next one might not be any easier...

John suggested laying up short on both this hole as well as the sixth, and there's merit to that for some players.  Ross and I both agreed that it especially makes sense on the second, which is the much longer shot and offers a nice, flat landing area.  I don't see it on No. 6, but that hole has been livinf rent-free in my head for some time:

That's a pic I grabbed from the Internet, but you're landing your golf ball on the hood of a Pontiac.  Last year I pushed my tee ball right of that bunker, pitched it across the green into one of those bunkers on the left, then put my bunker shot right where my tee ball had landed.  Ross later told me that I had played the correct shot, as you simply cannot either putt the ball up the bank or chip it into the bank, but that was small solace.

This year I discovered a workaround.... I hooked a 7-iron so deep into the gorse that we didn't even look for it.... I then put my second shot on the back fringe and made the putt for what Ross called an "Easy four," a score you would take any day of the week.  Or at least I would....

My game went south as we trudged back, as did the bride's.  John seemed to have been strengthened by the rain, though, and took all of our money, as he seems to do all too frequently.  But no one got hurt, which is more the standard these days, so we have that going for us.  It's quite the magical place, and we are so grateful to John and Ross for the opportunity, including persevering on what was a difficult day out there.  

We have plans to host Ross at the Balcomie next week to return his hospitality.  Dornoch is not now taking applications for new Overseas Members, having been overwhelmed like so many during the pandemic.  But when and if that changes, Employee No. 2 and I hope to be early in the queue.  

I'll leave you here with the final thought that the sun has been breaking through over the Firth of Forth, quite the contrast with the afternoon's dire forecast:

That's the view from outside our kitchen looking west towards St. Monans and the Tidal Pool.  You can make out the Fife Coastal Path winding up the hill towards that shelter.  

Exit question:  While the weather forecasts indicate a drying towards dinner time, can we trust it enough to fire up the grill?