{"id":1260,"date":"2018-09-15T15:27:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T15:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=1260"},"modified":"2018-09-15T18:55:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T18:55:56","slug":"84-lundin-31-aug-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=1260","title":{"rendered":"84. Lundin. 31 Aug 2018."},"content":{"rendered":"

This historic links is a<\/b>\u00a0marriage made in golfing heaven<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Round \u00a375.\u00a0 \u00a0Par 70.\u00a0 Value (out of 5)\u00a0\u2013 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Winston Churchill one said \u201cthis is a long speech because I\u2019ve not had time to prepare a short one\u201d.\u00a0 That feels like my dilemma in writing about the wonderfully crafted golf course at Lundin Links; what to leave out?\u00a0 I say the golf course \u201cat\u201d Lundin Links, because that is actually the name of the town, which sits on the southerly Fife coast about 12 miles south of St Andrews, where the Lundin Golf Club is based.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s the only place in the world where the town has the more appropriate golfing name than its golf course!<\/p>\n

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Moly at Lundin’s par 3 14th – where you can see all the 18 greens!<\/p><\/div>\n

This naming conundrum is aesthetically appropriate because Lundin golf course poses a few other riddles.\u00a0 Along with the adjacent Leven Links (the name of the golf course by the way, not the town, which is simply called Leven; au contraire!) it had the first ever 18 hole golf course with 18 separate greens, established in 1868.\u00a0 That original 18 hole layout, 9 holes of the current Leven Links course plus 9 from Lundin, separated by the Mile Dyke, is still played, but only once per year in a competition to mark its history.\u00a0 I covered the history of the split in the courses fully in the Leven Links\u00a0blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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View across the Lundin course from the 13th fairway.<\/p><\/div>\n

The real riddle at Lundin was the architectural one given to James Braid, who was tasked in 1908 with adding 9 holes on the inland side of the 9 holes crafted by Old Tom Morris, to leave us with the current 18 hole layout.\u00a0 The resulting course is an absolute beauty, and I\u2019m sure Braid tinkered with the bunkering of Old Tom\u2019s holes as well.\u00a0 Old Tom\u2019s holes are now the first 5 and last 4.<\/p>\n

The course is a nice length at about 6400 yards; not long by today\u2019s standards, but with some fascinating decision making, especially from the tee.\u00a0 Until very recently it was used for final qualifying when the Open was staged at St Andrews, a measure of its quality and condition.<\/p>\n

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View from the 12th green at Lundin, looking towards Leven<\/p><\/div>\n

The course was in excellent condition when I played, as a guest of local member Eric Brown and his wife, Moira.\u00a0 I ungraciously won the \u201c6 point per hole\u201d match play game, although it was nip and tuck most of the way round.\u00a0 My 9 pars off my 16.8 handicap did rightly elicit a self induced \u201cbandit\u201d conversation, albeit my 3 lost balls (1 resulting in an 8 at the par 4 18th<\/sup>), meant that my 36 points on a fine day would likely have been only in the handicap buffer zone!\u00a0 That’s my defence anyway M’Laud!<\/p>\n

Enough about me, the golf course is the star here.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s also a good time to introduce readers to\u00a0Golf Club Atlas<\/a>\u00a0a non commercial web site run by and for golf course architects, where you can find some excellent reviews of many of the worlds great courses.\u00a0 Being reviewed by Golf Club Atlas is a measure of a course’s pedigree, as well as giving great insight as with their entry for Lundin.<\/p>\n

The first 4 holes are classic links holes, played normally into the prevailing wind, with OOB along the left with the beach awaiting a wild hook.\u00a0 The first is a difficult 400+ yards par 4, with a mid to long iron needed to an uphill plateaued green;\u00a0 the second, a shorter par 4, requires good judgement to stop short of a fairway burn with your tee shot;\u00a0 then the 3rd, another short par 4, presents a challenging drive to miss several fairway bunkers.\u00a0 \u00a0 The 4th, however, is where many a round will come unstuck.\u00a0 Any time a James Braid influenced course has a stroke index 1 hole without any fairway bunkers, one needs to probable play it as a par 5.\u00a0 I failed to adhere to this plan, and ended up hitting a decent second shot with a hybrid to the right on the green and never saw it again – whether it cleared the deep burn I will never know!<\/p>\n

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Eric Brown playing at the par 3 5th hole, one of only 2 holes at Lundin not playing in the coastline direction.<\/p><\/div>\n

After a relatively short par 3 5th, you leave Old Tom’s legacy and move to the other side of an old railway line that slices the course in half, and play the 9 Braid holes, the first 3 of which have the railway as OOBs to the right.\u00a0 \u00a0 By the time you have played the 6th and 7th, you might also have picked up another clever feature of this course – the short par 4s tend to have very tricky greens.<\/p>\n

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The view from the 6th tee, one of the short par 4s with a very tricky green.<\/p><\/div>\n

The 10th hole was another of the typical strategic challenges;\u00a0 the fairway is cut in two between the tee and green;\u00a0 go left where no bunkers exist, but leave a blind second with the green side bunkering obscured, or go right for an easier approach shot, as long as you miss the well placed fairway bunkers.\u00a0 A joy of a hole.<\/p>\n

After playing the, arguably parkland, inland holes of 11 through 13, you reach a place arguably unique in world golf.\u00a0 From the 14th tee, you can see every green on the course, along with a magnificent view of the Firth of Forth and the North Berwick coast in the distance.\u00a0 This view is worth the green fee alone.\u00a0 The 14th is also a great par 3, with a significant drop, so club selection is key to this hole – it’s better being long than short here by the way.<\/p>\n

After a nice set of par 4s, you come to the very difficult last hole, a long par 4 played to a long and slightly raised green that slopes from back to front in front of the terrific clubhouse.\u00a0 I think the number of visiting golfers that find this green in regulation will be low;\u00a0 plus the sting in the tail is that it has a very difficult green to finish.\u00a0 I ended up with an 8, having put my second OOB to the left.<\/p>\n

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The difficult long par 4 18th hole, in front of the lovely Lundin clubhouse.\u00a0 Moira, seen here playing her approach, having just stayed in bounds on the left.<\/p><\/div>\n

People say that Lundin is a “gem”, but I disagree.\u00a0 Its much better than that;\u00a0 for me, the term “gem” has evolved into one used to describe “great courses, but somewhat unknown or off the beaten track”.\u00a0 Lundin is very much on the well trodden track, is a merge of architectural significance by 2 of the greats, and it is a joy, for many reasons.<\/p>\n

A must play Scottish golf course.\u00a0 \u00a0Buy the Course Guide, and study the holes!<\/p>\n

Facts:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Course<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Type<\/em>:<\/strong>\u00a0Links<\/b><\/p>\n

Par 70\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(2 par 5s, 13 par 4s,\u00a0 3 par 3s)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Distance (yellow)<\/em>: 6138 Yards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moly\u2019s Gross score<\/strong><\/em>: 91<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Moly’s very mixed Lundin scorecard – 9 pars, but still 21 over par for 91!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This historic links is a\u00a0marriage made in golfing heaven\u00a0 Round \u00a375.\u00a0 \u00a0Par 70.\u00a0 Value (out of 5)\u00a0\u2013 5 Winston Churchill one said \u201cthis is a long speech because I\u2019ve not had time to prepare a short one\u201d.\u00a0 That feels like my dilemma in writing about the wonderfully crafted golf course at Lundin Links; what to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,36,48,19,29,32,9,15,27,10,31,71,38,2,18,57,20,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-holes","category-1851-1900","category-4-star","category-5-star-overall-value","category-course-architech","category-course-owned-by","category-course-quality","category-course-type","category-holes","category-james-braid","category-links","category-members","category-old-tom-morris","category-overall-value","category-price-range","category-region","category-the-kingdom-of-fife","category-when-course-established","category-60-79","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1260"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1272,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions\/1272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}