At little over 6,400 yards, North Berwick is not a long course by modern championship standards. But then with stone walls, burns, deep bunkers, rocks, blind shots and some vicious green contours to contend with, it hardly needs to be.
With its crumpled, fast-running fairways and fantastic greens, it represents what links golf in its original form is all about. If you have not done so already, start planning now to make the pilgrimage to East Lothian to worship at this shrine of Scottish golf.
The enormous 1st green, unseen from the fairway below, falls away to the rocks that in turn lead to the beach. At the 2nd, an elevated tee tends to foreshorten the distance to a fairway that lies across the corner of the beach and tempts the unwary into hitting on an overly aggressive line.
A stone wall comes into play on the 3rd, with the aiming point for your drive being the gap in said wall. It is the hardest hole on the card for a reason. The 4th is a relatively simple par 3, but with a two-tiered green that is 50 yards long, and four pot bunkers surrounding it, there is still some danger. The 5th is a generous par 4, while the 6th is another gentle short hole. Just 140 yards from the Blues, the distraction at the 6th is the view behind the green.
The 7th has a burn that runs across the fairway in front of the green, akin to the opener on the Old Course at St Andrews (opens in a new tab). You then come to back-to-back par 5s at the 8th and 9th, with the latter having a true risk-reward nature to it. Two bunkers split a wide fairway in two. Drive between the hazards and the out-of-bounds fence at the furthest end of the course and the green might just be within range in two. The safer, but much longer, route is to head right.
The tee on the short 10th (titled 'Eastward Ho!' reflecting that the homeward nine has just begun) offers a magnificent view down the links and of the Firth of Forth. It is one of several such vantage points from where the silhouetted granite form of Bass Rock can be admired, as can Fidra Island, the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
The 11th is the third par 5 in four holes, and it is the hardest hole on the closing side of the course. After the short par 4 12th, you get to the 13th, where the green is adjacent to a wall that separates the putting surface from the rest of the hole (the advice of David Huish, the club’s pro: don’t argue with it, it’s older than you are). With stone walls, burns, deep bunkers, rocks, blind shots and some vicious green contours to contend with, it doesn't have to be long.
Highlights on the way home arrive thick and fast. The 14th, ‘Perfection’, is particularly memorable. The drive does not need to be long but must be threaded down a valley to set up a completely blind pitch towards the sea. Apart from identifying the right line, the difficulty lies in judging the strength to allow for a kick down towards the large green. With just a wedge in a your hand, this is a strange experience.
Then comes the famous 'Redan', where the raised green is set diagonally across the line of play. The further to the left you go, the longer the carry over a pair of fearsome bunkers to the green beyond. The temptation is to aim over these hazards at the flag. A better idea is to play slightly to the right, ideally with a draw, and allow the contours to gather your shot back towards the hole.
The 16th hole features a green the like of which should not and could not ever be replicated elsewhere. It comprises, from front to back, a raised plateau, then a trough some five feet deep, then a similarly elevated, yet smaller, rear section. After the headache-inducing challenge of overcoming the green at the 16th comes the only par four of over 400 yards on the back nine. The real challenge here lies in the uphill second which needs to be carried every inch of the way over the brow to the hidden green beyond.
The last hole is every inch a miniature version of the 18th at St Andrews. In theory, with a double fairway to aim at and measuring well under 300 yards it ought to be a doddle. But with parked cars lining the course boundary on the right and the clubhouse looming behind the green, it rarely is.
