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Nairn Golf Club is located on an elevated, rumpled piece of linksland on the Moray Firth coastline, close to the historic fishing port. It’s one of Scotland’s lesser-known gems.

 

This is a course which has been touched by many great architects. The club was founded in 1887 to an original design by Andrew Simpson. A few years later Old Tom Morris extended the layout and, prior to the Great War, James Braid made further alterations. Directly after the Great War, Ben Sayers added his mark to the course only to find James Braid itching to polish off the design. It is no wonder that Nairn is such a detailed masterpiece.

 

One of the most spectacular seaside courses in Scotland, Nairn boasts sea views from every hole. If you are a right-hander and you’ve got a slicing problem, you could find the beach from your very first tee shot. The sea is in play on six of the first seven holes; make sure you’ve got an adequate supply of balls.

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Royal Dornoch Golf Club is spellbinding. It seems to mesmerise amateur and professional golfers from all over the world and many make the pilgrimage to this natural links at some point in their lives. Let’s be honest, for most people, it takes a concerted effort to get to Dornoch. For those who live in Glasgow, the drive by car will take about four hours.

 

In 1630, according to the Guinness Book of Golf Facts and Feats, Sir Robert Gordon described the course in glowing terms. Dornoch... “doe surpass the fields of Montrose or St Andrews”, he wrote. There are also written records showing that golf was played at Dornoch in 1616, long before its first nine-hole golf club was founded in 1877.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Castle Stuart the opening three holes on each nine run away from the clubhouse along the edge of a raised beach by the side of the Moray Firth, offering spectacular views across the water to the Black Isle. In order to reach shore level from the escarpment above, a thrilling drive must be struck from tees cut into the cliff side down to the fairways below on holes 1 and 10—a heart- pumping way to start both the outward and inward half.

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As with so many modern designs, clever mounding ensures most holes are played in isolation to the rest, with the next hole only revealed after the current one has been played. Another eye-catching feature throughout the entire layout is the use of expansive, wild-looking waste bunker areas to fringe the sand capped-fairways and green sites, adding a wonderfully natural feel to the course.

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There is reference to golf being played here at Fortrose & Rosemarkie as far back as 1702 (making it the 4th oldest golf course in the world), though it was not until 1889 that a formal golf club was established with a membership of fifty playing over six holes. Play was suspended during the First World War when the clubhouse was used by the Highland Cyclist Battalion as a guardhouse!

 

The course was extended to 18 holes by 1924 but it was ten years later before James Braid shaped the links to its current design and Sir Hector Monro opened the revamped course 1935. War intervened again in the early 1940s when the military requisitioned the course and clubhouse as a training ground during the Second World War but all 18 holes were back in play by 1947.

 

Fortrose & Rosemarkie lies out on a narrow peninsula named Chanonry Point, just north of Inverness – jutting out into Rosemarkie Bay – protecting the entrance to the Moray Firth. The road to the lighthouse divides the course in two, with just enough land either side to accommodate a 5,881-yard long golf course.

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Gleneagles may be more glamorous, Carnoustie more prestigious. It is Brora which is the most northerly golf memorial to James Braid in his native Scotland.

Brora is also the headquarters of the James Braid Golfing Society, and while its President, Peter Thomson, and fellow member Ronan Rafferty annually enthuse, the club golfer, the bedrock of the game, will derive equal pleasure and satisfaction from Brora's 6211 yards.

 

Given 194 acres of Scottish links land to work on, what in 1923 was entitled "Braid's Plan" is hardly altered. Here the visitor will enjoy the mixture of bent grass and beach sand, burn water and gorse in glorious yellow May bloom. There is even a railway which comes into play from the tenth tee.

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