Dornoch is a sensational golfing experience and not to be missed if you are coming to Scotland to play golf.
Nice view of the course
Here's a link to the Club's website. https://royaldornoch.com
And this is a very cool video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ-4bumjLSc&feature=emb_title
Gill and me at the first tee at Royal Dornoch, 2010.
From the website: The curving bay of the Dornoch Firth and its magnificent white broad beaches are backed by a narrow strip of softly contoured dune land rising in two distinctive levels, providing just enough room for parallel fairways. The ridges, hillocks, dunes and undulating links land have all the characters of the best of links courses, and most of the difficulties.
The first eight holes follow the ridge and the remaining ten holes played in the opposite direction are bounded, except the 17th and 18th on the left by the sandy beaches of the firth.
The par of 70 is evenly distributed over the two halves each having two par threes, a par five and six par fours. If the wind blows the course will demand more from the player especially the par four finishing hole where a par can be considered a birdie. Old Tom Morris was the architect responsible for extending the original 9 holes layout to 18 holes in 1886. He introduced the plateau greens which are the soul of the course, their uniqueness lies in their size and their inverted saucer shapes.
The course as it now stands is a final remodeling largely the work of George Duncan with influence from Robbie Grant the then Head Greenkeeper, the new holes are in keeping with and incorporate the features Old Tom Morris introduced to Dornoch. The holes form the present 6th to the 11th loop and were constructed in the late 1940’s after the 2nd world war.
There are few landmarks for me:
We used to go to Embo for our summer holidays and Grannies was there back then, and apparently survives to this day. It's also fun to think somewhere like Embo would be twinned with a City in Hawaii. The beaches are great in Embo, however...
There are many great and fun golf courses in this neck of the woods. Here are some links to a few:
Aigas Golf Club
Alness Golf Club
Aviemore Golf
Boat of Garten Golf Club
Brora Golf Club
Castle Stuart Golf Links
Durness Golf Club
Fortrose Golf Club
Golspie Golf Club
Highland Golf Links
Invergordon Golf Club
Maverston Golf Course
Nairn Golf Club
Nairn Dunbar Golf Club
Royal Tarlair Golf Club
Strathpeffer Golf Club
Tain Golf Club
Tarbat Golf Club
The Carnegie Club Skibo Castle
Traigh Golf Club
Ullapool Golf Club
Wick Golf Club