Not much land between you and the North Sea... This will all be changed when the development project gets going
Pretty good image that captures the narrowness pf the course and proximity to the sea. Bass rock way in the distance at North Berwick.
Dunbar is just one the loveliest of links courses in East Lothian. It's located about 20 minutes from North Berwick. The Club has big plans to redevelop its Clubhouse, re-siting it and building a state of the art practice area. A Residential Construction Company has bough the old Clubhouse and surrounding land and plans to develop several houses there. In return, they are going to build all the new facilities. There will also be a couple of hole changes, but won’t affect the course too much.
Sad to see the old place go, and the people at the Club are terrific. I have played here a few times, and each time enjoyed it more then the previous.
Here's a brief piece of Club history from the website:
The course features an absolutely average starting two holes, then a good par 3 back into the Firth. After that, the course really gets going. A wall divides 18 and 4, and when you walk through that entrance onto 4 tee, it feels like you are going to walk straight on out to the rocks. The next few holes head out with ob on the right, a couple of meandering burns to navigate, and the front nine finishes with a really goods par 5 and then par 3.
The back nine starts with a very tough hole back up the hill. There’s little respite as the ocean is on the right now, and there are some really great holes to test you. As you get closer to home the greens seem to get even smaller and are heavily defended with burns and bunkers.
And the whole course is laid out on what feels like a tiny strip of land. Just sensational.
Me in 2019
Gill waiting to tee off at the pro shop adjacent to the first tee. 2010.
I played again in June 2019 with some friends from new York. It was a lovely sunny day then the wind got up and clouds obscured the sun and it felt like 45 degrees.
The course runs very tight to the rocks and is highly exposed to the wind.
I played again with some friends from Winged Foot in September 2022. Covid enforced the break and it was great to be back. It was also pretty cold as the surf was up.
