Reader Mark W. has responded to his call out in the trip preview post above, offering several helpful suggestions, including a restaurant and chippie ( a purveyor of fish & chips) in Anstruther. But it was this that caught my eye:
There is a fabulous 9 hole course in Anstruther with one of the best par 3s in the Kingdom.
Not sure of the sense in which Mark uses "Kingdom", but your humble blogger is always looking for hidden gems, especially as a possible means to get through that first day. Of course, ours will be a Friday in August, so showing up at the last minute might not be practical. But this sounds perfect, so perhaps a call in the morning to get a sense of availability?
The hole in question if their fifth, with the Americanized name of Rockies. Here's a description from the club's website:
Where is it? Anstruther, Fife.
Why it’s so tough: the inside story You’re firing blind from an elevated tee to a tiny sloping green, nearly 240 yards away, sitting next to the dark, jagged rocks of the Firth of Forth. Oh, and the fairway is pencil-slim and, like the green, falls away to the sea. There’s also knee-high rough and the wind is always against you. No wonder most locals play it as a par four – bogey is a great result here.
Anstruther club captain David Boyter knows ‘The Rockies’ as well as anyone and says: “If you come off it with a par, you’ve done well, very well. Only the really good, brave or daft actually go for the green if the wind is blowing. There’s trouble everywhere.
“It’s a total card wrecker. And the unfortunate thing is, being a nine-hole course, you have to play it twice!” On a calm day, good players hit a mid-iron. In the wind it’s either 3-wood or driver. And that’s for competent players. The only saving grace is that there are no bunkers – this hole simply doesn’t need them.
A measure of The Rockies’ toughness can be gauged from the fact that, some years ago, a player went on to clinch the club championship despite taking a ten at the hole. On another occasion, in a mixed foursomes event, a lady player well known for her air shots turned to her partner for advice. He advised her to miss it. She duly obliged and the man proceeded to try his luck off the tee!
The Rockies has yielded three holes in one, but most players are left either cursing their fate or admiring the views across the Firth of Forth.
Clearly the hole is a beast, yet amusingly it's only the number two handicap hole.
Golf here dates back to 1891, when the good folks of Anstruther tired of the trip to their shared 5-hole links in Pittenweem, and passed the hat to build their own links here.
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| The members of Anstruther Golf Club in 1893. |
Here are a few images from the club's website:
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| No. 2 - Monument |
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| No. 4 - Magazine |
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| No. 9 - The Hynde |
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| The Rockies during a storm. |
It looks quite dramatic and spectacular, and I suspect we'll venture over there for sure. If not one loop on the day of arrival, perhaps otherwise during our stay.
But it's the process in which friends offer suggestions to like-minded souls that I wanted to share. I've long lost count, but this is approaching my tenth trip to Scotland, yet there remain links unknown to me. Is that a great country, or what!
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