After my three previous blogs covering borrowed, lost and swapped names, a course called exactly what it is.

Price Paid: £35 twilight (2023), at the starter’s box
Current Price (2026): £70 weekday, £90 weekend (£75 from noon). Twilight (April to September, from 15:36) £55 weekday, £65 weekend. Winter offer £55 weekday.
Value Rating: Price paid 5/5; current twilight 5/5; current list weekday 4.5/5, weekend 4/5

This week playing East Lothian golf has been a story of names. Luffness New plays on ground older than its name (Blog 204). Old Tom’s Luffness holes lie unmarked under Gullane No 2 (Blog 205). The original Luffness club went to the Craigielaw links and became Kilspindie (Blog 206). Gullane’s courses are simply numbered in the order they were built. No 3 opened in 1910, the third. It’s like an antidote to Kilspindie.

No 3 starts beside No 2 at the west end of Gullane, East Lothian, about 20 miles east of Edinburgh. The designer was Willie Park Jr, who laid out No 2 twelve years earlier, whereas the designer of Gullane No 1 remains a mystery (Blog 143).

The 8th, 165 yards. Don’t be fooled by 5,134 yards: my ball at the foot of a revetted face, with the flag on the green above and the Firth of Forth beyond.

I teed off alone at ten past four, with Kilspindie’s 82 already in my legs. On my own I was round in two and a half hours; the card allows three for a two-ball. The 87 is the day’s second round talking, not the course going soft.

The 3rd, 293 yards, with the path winding up Gullane Hill behind the green. It looks harmless. I took seven.

Don’t be fooled by the length. It’s par 67, with one par 5, the 443-yard 14th, and six par 3s. In Gullane No 2’s Blog (Blog 205) I said No 3 had far fewer bunkers than No 2. Fewer, maybe, but no softer: they’re deep and strategically placed. The rough is punishing on a few holes, and some of the greens are huge. After the 7 at the 3rd I added another 7 at the 16th, and a 6 on the closing par 3.

The 11th, 135 yards straight up the hill to two bunkers. The tee is the only green thing in sight on the parched June day.

After the opening holes the course climbs Gullane Hill, and the views make the case for it on their own. Look west and you see Aberlady Bay, the Luffness links and, across the water, Aberlady, where I’d started the day at Kilspindie. The whole week’s story is in one frame.

From the 7th tee, Blogs 204 to 206 in one frame: the links below, Aberlady Bay, and Aberlady across the water, home of Kilspindie. The Pentlands close the view.

Now the value. On a weekday, No 1 costs £285, No 2 £100 and No 3 £70. Same turf, same greens, same bunkering, same views.

The 4th green, with Arthur’s Seat and the Pentlands across a glittering Forth. That view costs £215 less here than on No 1.

My £35 twilight round in 2023 now costs £55, up more than half in three years, and still worth 5/5. At the £70 weekday list rate it’s 4.5/5, and £90 at weekends makes it 4/5.

The 15th, 176 yards, with North Berwick Law on the horizon and a green you could land a light aircraft on. Two putts for par felt like an achievement.

The 17th, back down to the village, with a revetted bunker right of the green waiting for anyone in a hurry to finish.

That’s four courses in three days, played, without my planning it, in the order they were laid out: Luffness New 1894, Gullane No 2 1898, Kilspindie 1899, Gullane No 3 1910. If I go back to Gullane on my own money, this is the course I’ll play.

Facts:

Course Type: Links
Par: 67 (1 par 5, 10 par 4s, 6 par 3s)
Distance: 5,134 yards (white tees)
Course Rating / Slope: 65.3 / 114
Course Quality: 4.5/5
Moly’s Gross Score: 87 (31 Stableford points)

Moly’s Gullane No 3 scorecard: 87 gross, 31 points