Golfing News & Blog Articles

British golf was first played over links or “green fields.” The earliest of them were sited at points up and down the eastern seaboard of Scotland, of which Dornoch, Montrose, Barry, Scotscraig, St. Andrews, Elie, Leven, Musselburgh, North Berwick, and Dunbar were, and Dornoch, Barry (Carnoustie) and North Berwick are typical. Nature was their architect, and beast and man her contractors. GUY CAMPBELL

The grounds on which golf is played are called links being the barren, sandy soil from which the sea has retired in recent geological times. In their natural state links are covered with long, rank, bent grass and gorse…links are too barren for cultivation; but sheep rabbits, geese and professionals pick up a precarious livelihood on them. WALTER SIMPSON

Muirfield…is curious that it has but little outward attractions. There is a fine view of the sea and a delightful sea wood, with the trees all bent and twisted by the wind; then, too, it is a solitary and peaceful spot, and a great haunt of the curlews, who one may see hovering over a championship crowd and crying eerily amid a religious silence. All this is charming, but there is a fatal stone wall that runs round the course, giving the impression of an inland park, and it is, I believe, this purely sentimental objection that has brought Muirfield so many detractors. BERNARD DARWIN

When we reach Gullane we come upon the four links of greatest interest to us--Gullane, with its threefold choice of courses, Muirfield, Archerfield, and North Berwick--all of them remarkable for the contrasts they offer. They show in the most convincing way how character changes with environment and design follows its natural trend. TOM SIMPSON

The charm of the seaside courses of Great Britain lies in their multiformity, their unconventionality, their infinite variety. There are eighteen holes, and the yardage is up to standard, but comparison largely ends there. The terrain itself has an individuality all its own. In its uneven diversity, its tumbling irregularity, its unrivaled originality, links-land bears no resemblance to any other territory. ROBERT HUNTER

The charm of the seaside courses of Great Britain lies in their multiformity, their unconventionality, their infinite variety. There are eighteen holes, and the yardage is up to standard, but comparison largely ends there. The terrain itself has an individuality all its own. In its uneven diversity, its tumbling irregularity, its unrivaled originality, links-land bears no resemblance to any other territory. ROBERT HUNTER

The Nature the golf architect has in mind is linksland upon which golf has been played for hundreds of years, and remained through a major part of this time uncontaminated by the hand of man except for the cutting of the holes. Whatever beauty such land possessed was inherent in it, and those today who have played golf amidst such primeval surroundings are conscious of a certain charm wholly lacking upon a palpable man-made golf course. MAX BEHR

I know of no other course on which, if you do not lay your shot down in the right place, an apparent insignificant bunker in your path can make it so utterly impossible to remain anywhere near the hole. As a necessary corollary there is great scope for thought and for taking alternative routes. The course always keeps you thinking, and you must think afresh with every change of mind. BERNARD DARWIN

St. Andrews is the least obvious course in the world. It is covered with concealed rolls, bunkers, hollows, and hummocks, which become more and more bewildering as the ground becomes harder. BOBBY JONES

St. Andrews is the least obvious course in the world. It is covered with concealed rolls, bunkers, hollows, and hummocks, which become more and more bewildering as the ground becomes harder. BOBBY JONES