{"id":3531,"date":"2026-11-10T16:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T16:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=3531"},"modified":"2026-11-10T18:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T18:06:48","slug":"208-baberton-22-jun-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=3531","title":{"rendered":"208. Baberton. 22 Jun 23."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The blacksmith who did take out a patent, the poets who really did meet, and a family called Marshall who keep winning.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price Paid:<\/strong> Member\u2019s guest.
Current Price (2025):<\/strong> \u00a375 summer. On Golfnow price tbd
Value Rating:<\/strong> \u00a375 summer list, 3\/5; typically around \u00a350 on GolfNow 4\/5.
Moly\u2019s Score:<\/strong> 83 gross, 37 Stableford points<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The 3rd, The Knowe: the fairway undulates from the tee across the old Baberton House parkland, with the view running north beyond the trees.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Juniper Green is a village within the City of Edinburgh council area, about five miles south-west of the city centre. The club dates from 1893, when Sir James Gibson Craig leased it parkland from the Baberton House estate, land the club later bought. Willie Park Junior laid out the original nine holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 1st, Waugh\u2019s Knowe. The quality of the layout shows from the first tee shot: gorse, a falling fairway and bunkers framing the hole.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was the guest of Derek Phillips, the fellow Dundonian I\u2019d met at Kilspindie (Blog 206<\/a><\/strong>) the day before. His friend Mark, just back from illness, made up the threeball. Derek came armed with three claims to fame. I checked them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Moly on the 6th tee, Quarry, and swinging rather well.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Claim one:<\/strong> steel shafts were invented here, but nobody took out a patent. This is half right, and the wrong half is the interesting one. Founder member Tom Horsburgh, a blacksmith, forged steel-shafted clubs at his smiddy near Balerno and took out UK Patent No 8603 in May 1894. What he didn\u2019t take out were foreign patents. His shafts were solid, the Americans made theirs hollow, and his patent lapsed in the 1920s. The R&A only allowed steel in 1929. Some of his clubs and copies of the patent papers are in the clubhouse; the rest are in the golf museum in St Andrews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The paper trail: the agent\u2019s letter of 16 May 1894 enclosing the seal of British Patent No 8603, \u201cImprovements in Golf Clubs\u201d, which turns straight to foreign and colonial patents. Horsburgh didn\u2019t take the hint.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Claim two:<\/strong> the war poets. Historian Neil McLennan traced a letter placing the meeting of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves at Baberton on 13 October 1917. Sassoon wouldn\u2019t cancel his golf match, so Owen brought Graves to the club. Owen was dead within thirteen months. English literature owes something to a golfer who wouldn\u2019t give up his tee time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sassoon\u2019s letter to Graves on Craiglockhart War Hospital notepaper, framed beside portraits of Owen, Sassoon and Graves. Two of them survived the war.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Claim three:<\/strong> Ewen Murray\u2019s father, Jimmy, was the pro here for more than three decades and taught the game to Ewen, now the voice of Sky\u2019s golf coverage. The 11th bears his name. I parred it. Three out of three, with an asterisk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The honours board is thick with Marshalls. Joan Marshall was club champion ten times and set a course record of 68 in 1982. Her daughter Karen beat it by a stroke and has 14 titles. The 14th was renamed after Joan in 2018, and this year Karen and Ella Marshall helped retain the Edinburgh Ladies Inter-Club title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Friends Derek (left) and Mark walk up the 13th.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We played just after the club championships, and the condition was fabulous: greens, tees and fairways alike. It\u2019s hilly and a hard walk. The trees are tight, but the ground beneath them is clear. The real quality is in the green complexes and the bunkers, which were being rebuilt with rolled faces and rubber-resin liners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 5th, Garden: a 224-yard par 3 to a green tucked beneath the conifers against an old stone wall. The name hints at what that wall once enclosed.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stroke indexes 1 to 4 are brutes, with long approaches. Those four holes cost me seven shots. The other fourteen cost me six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The 12th, Whitelaw, stroke index 1: 474 yards for a par 4, rising to a green ringed by bunkers. A six felt like a fair result.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At \u00a350, typical GolfNow price, this is 4\/5 value: a historic, beautifully kept parkland course with a good clubhouse. At \u00a375 list it\u2019s 3.5\/5, still fair when Royal Burgess, across the city, charges \u00a3200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Derek on the 18th tee, Redan, with Edinburgh\u2019s skyline and the Castle on the horizon, five miles and a world away.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Facts:<\/em>
Course Type:<\/strong><\/em> Parkland<\/em>
Par:<\/strong><\/em> 70 (3 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 5 par 3s)<\/em>
Distance:<\/strong><\/em> 6,016 yards (white)<\/em>
Course Rating \/ Slope:<\/strong><\/em> 69.6 \/ 126<\/em>
Course Quality:<\/strong><\/em> 4\/5<\/em>
Moly\u2019s Gross Score:<\/strong><\/em> 83 (37 Stableford points)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The blacksmith who did take out a patent, the poets who really did meet, and a family called Marshall who keep winning. Price Paid: Member\u2019s guest.Current Price (2025): \u00a375 summer. On Golfnow price tbdValue Rating: \u00a375 summer list, 3\/5; typically around \u00a350 on GolfNow 4\/5.Moly\u2019s Score: 83 gross, 37 Stableford points Juniper Green is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,45,36,19,29,32,9,132,54,133,15,31,38,11,2,18,20,123,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-holes","category-1851-1900","category-3-5-star","category-4-star","category-course-architech","category-course-owned-by","category-course-quality","category-course-type","category-discounts","category-edinburgh-the-lothians","category-golfnow","category-holes","category-members","category-overall-value","category-parkland","category-price-range","category-region","category-when-course-established","category-willie-park-junior","category-60-79","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3531"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3555,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3531\/revisions\/3555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}