A visit to St. Andrews in Scotland is on the bucket list of most golfers. If you make it as far as Old Tom Morris’ hometown, venture a little further afield to experience some great links courses created by the ‘Grand Old Man of Golf’.
Born and bred in St. Andrews in the Scottish kingdom of Fife, Tom Mitchell Morris’ life was golf.
At the age of 14, in 1835, he was apprenticed to Allan Robertson – widely regarded as the game’s first professional – learning the skills to make featherie balls and clubs, while also caddying for R&A members. When paired together on the course, the master and his apprentice were unbeatable.
Morris was by Robertson’s side when he oversaw the building of an original 10-hole layout, which would later become Carnoustie.
But Morris and Robertson had a huge falling out when the protégé beat his mentor in a match, which was only further complicated when Morris chose to use the then new gutta percha ball. Robertson demanded he play with the more expensive featherie, which were being made in his workshop.
In 1851, the now Old Tom Morris (he become Old Tom when Young Tom Morris was born in 1842) left St. Andrews to become keeper of the greens at Prestwick – a 12-hole layout where he would go on to win four of the first eight Open Championships.
Four years after Robertson died in 1859, Old Tom returned to St. Andrews to take over the keeping of the Old Course, which had drifted into decline in the years following Robertson’s death. After more than 400 years of existence, Old Tom’s return marked the beginning of the Old Course as it is known today.
Now aged in his mid-40s and with years of experience behind him, Old Tom applied his design and greenkeeping skills to the Old Course. He built new greens on the 1st and 18th holes (reducing the layout from 20 to 18 holes) and dramatically improved the putting surfaces by introducing the top dressing of greens with sand once a year. He also invented metal hole cups, introduced mowing of the links and was the first to build separate teeing areas, where previously players teed off on the next hole from within one club length of the hole they had just putted into.
On the back of the improvements to the Old Course, Old Tom’s course design services were in huge demand across the British Isles. He would famously charge £1 a day plus travel expenses. In the nearly 39 years of keeping the green at the Old Course, he also designed or remodelled more than 60 courses in his homeland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and the Isle of Man. Some of his most famous creations outside of Fife include Muirfield, Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Royal Dornoch and Carnoustie.
Old Tom officially retired from greenkeeping and course design in 1903 and, sadly, passed away just five years later aged 87.
Today, you don’t have to venture too far from downtown St. Andrews to find great examples of his design work still in existence.
Of course, in St. Andrews there is the famous Old Course – the Home of Golf and host to a record 29 Open Championships. This is the course that will entice you to jump on a plane and fly for 25-odd hours, drive another hour or so to the Kingdom of Fife, to play it.
Old Tom was also responsible for the New Course – called the New because in comparison to the Old Course, it is new, having opened for play in 1895. The New is not as quirky and is less dramatic than the adjoining Old Course, but it is home to some cracking holes, which might be why so many St. Andrews locals prefer the New Course over the Old.
The third course on the famous golfing peninsula is the Jubilee Course, which was originally a 12-hole course laid out by Old Tom and named after Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebration in 1897. It was intended to be played by newcomers to the game but with many design changes, including an extension to 18 holes, in the years since it has evolved into one of St. Andrews’ most testing courses.
While St. Andrews is quite rightly the lure for any golfer, there are some fantastic Old Tom Morris-designed links courses elsewhere in Fife that will inspire.
Crail is an ancient seaside village about 20 minutes’ drive south east of St. Andrews. The parish church here dates back to the 12th century, while the miniature harbour with its historic fishing cottages dates back to the 1600s.
The Crail Golfing Society also has a long and rich history, having been established in 1786 at a meeting of “11 local gentlemen” at the Golf Hotel, which is still in operation in High St, Crail. (I recommend the full Scottish breakfast here … delicious!)
The society, the seventh oldest golf club in the world, today owns two courses – the Balcomie and Craighead Links – and are laid out on beautiful seaside land straddling the easternmost promontory of Fife, known as Fife Ness.
Craighead is the most recent addition, having been designed by American Gil Hanse and opened for play in 1999. Hanse created a memorable modern links that certainly offers a contrasting experience to the adjoining layout. He was challenged to produce a layout that had to incorporate several stone walls running through the property, including Danes Dike – a 1,200-year-old defensive wall built by Viking marauders to keep out the local Pictish tribes – which comes into play on four holes.
But, in my opinion, it is Old Tom’s Balcomie Links you will long remember for its quirkiness, challenge and the fun you had playing it. He created the original nine holes in 1894, before returning four years later to extend the course to 18 holes.
Of course, Old Tom’s era of course design was very different to what it is today, and even what it was a few decades after his death. It was an era where the natural features of the land, rather than moving tonnes of earth, dictated where and how holes would be laid out.
And this was much of the genius of Old Tom, who could visualise a routing from the highest point of a property, while taking into account the rise and fall of the terrain as well as the humps and hollows littered across the property.
The opening hole of Balcomie is a wonderful example of this. From the elevated tee, the course stretches out along the shoreline to the right, but it is the wide green lying next to the nearly 140-year-old lifeboat shed that immediately grabs your attention. At 322 yards (294 metres), this is one of the best short par-4s you will find in Fife. The fairway beneath the tee is pock-marked with little bumps and hollows, which can complicate the approach of any player laying up off the tee. Those tempted to go for the green with their tee shot need to negotiate a mound that isolates the big putting surface from the fairway, and three deep pot bunkers – one in front and two on either side of the green.
First-timers to Crail will wonder about the beachside green to their right as they walk along the first fairway. This is the green for the par-3 14th hole, which is the best of an impressive collection of six one-shotters on the Balcomie links. The large two-tiered putting surface that lies 147 yards (134 metres) from the elevated tee is accompanied by a magical view down the neighbouring Balcomie Sands beach and out across the North Sea. A deep, wide bunker covers the entire front edge of the green, while five much smaller, but just as deep, pot bunkers ring the target.
Less than a year after overseeing the building of the original nine holes at Crail, Old Tom was on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, some 12 miles south of St. Andrews, at The Golf House Club, Elie. Golf has been played across the historic Elie course since 1589, when a royal charter was passed allowing villagers permission to play the links. Given the setting and brilliant views it’s no wonder the game has remained a part of the fabric of this small town for all that time.
Old Tom added his touch to Elie in 1895 when the links was extended to 18 holes. Elie is another of Fife’s great links courses with an unusual twist on the courses most of us play all the time. There are no par-5s, and only two par-3s here, which might suggest a certain degree of sameness about the layout but that is definitely not the case. There is an incredible mix of short and long two-shotters, quirky green complexes, amazing natural rolling fairways as well as inspiring views during a round here.
Quirky opens the round. The first drive of the day, on the 422-yard (386-metre) par-4, is a blind one over a hill with out of bounds and a scheme of bunkers lying just right of the fairway. The Elie starter will let you know when it is clear to hit as he watches play in front via a submarine periscope that extends 10 metres above the starter’s hut.
A similar blind tee shot awaits on the exquisite 316-yard (288-metre) 6th hole, known as Quarries. As you top the crest of the hill here the chilly-looking waters of the Forth come into view, beyond the six fairway bunkers and wild rumpled land ahead of the 6th green.
At 131 yards (119 metres) the 11th is the second of only two par-3s at Elie and is certainly its shortest. That said, it’s no pushover and as you stand out on the tee perched just above the rocky shoreline, you’re wondering how you’re going to keep your high-flying short iron tee shot off the rocks as the stiff breeze blows from right-to-left. Also, you don’t know it at the time, but there is a hidden bunker short left that you don’t really see until you have walked halfway to the green.
Five-time Open Champion James Braid learned the game at Elie and would later carve out a prolific career as a course designer. He obviously drew on his Elie experiences to become one of the best players of his generation, as well as gaining a mental blue print for more than 200 future course designs.
Heading further west along the north shore of the Firth of Forth, and about 20 minutes’ drive south of St. Andrews, you will find two courses – Lundin Golf Club and Leven Links – with very close historic links to each other and Old Tom.
Golf was first played over the Leven Links as early as 1846, with nine holes laid out across a dramatic rolling landscape west of the Mile Dyke – a stone wall that dates back to the early 1800s which today forms the divide between the two courses. But that wasn’t always the case.
In 1868, Old Tom was commissioned to extend Leven to 18 holes by playing out to, and across Mile Dyke, and continuing east into the sandhills toward the Lundin Golf Club, which had been established earlier that year. To mark the opening of the new course, a 36-hole tournament was played and duly won by Young Tom Morris.
Both Leven and Lundin shared the holes east of the Mile Dyke for nearly 40 years before the growing popularity of the game and swelling memberships of both clubs led to Mile Dyke becoming the boundary between the two links as new holes were opened for play in 1909.
A year later, esteemed golf writer Bernard Darwin wrote: “Leven, a truly charming course, has, alas! ceased to exist in its old form. Nine of the old holes now belong to a new and reconstituted Leven, and the other nine belong to Lundin Golf Club. It is a sad pity, but the difficulty of two starting places made it in these crowded times inevitable.”
At Lundin, James Braid was brought in to incorporate existing holes into a new layout and remains largely unchanged today. The opening four holes follow the shoreline straight out to the Mile Dyke, with the 455-yard (416-metre) par-4 4th, which plays into the prevailing wind, proving to be a brute early in the round. For mine, it is Lundin’s finest as the fairway bumps and rolls across the dimpled terrain before dropping out of sight in front of the green. Here you will find a narrow burn twisting through the valley and flowing out onto the beach.
The following hole is also a memorable one. The 141-yard (130-metre) par-3 5th plays inland from the beach and alongside the Mile Dyke and what a green complex. The burn you probably hit into on the previous hole comes into play short of the 5th green, while seven pot bunkers – three short and four long of the green – add some spice to the tee shot.
From the back of the 5th green, you can look straight across the easternmost holes of Leven Links on the other side of the dyke.
Like Lundin, Leven Links has changed very little in the past 113 years since the ‘new’ courses were formed. It covers some amazing land for golf, with each step during a round here seemingly climbing a ‘wee’ mound or dipping into a hollow.
The crumpled landscape is at its most pronounced on the holes that run closest to the beach overlooking Largo Bay. Most of these holes cover the valleys between ancient dunes, while some greens like the 1st are perched on the ridge of a dune.
It’s not often you will find a hero water carry required on a Scottish links but you will find one to close out the round at Leven. The 456-yard (417-metre) 18th is a cracking par-4 where the wind of the day will determine whether you are able to find the green in regulation. The prevailing wind is into your face here so chances are you will be faced with a long shot into the large green that lies beyond the wide ‘Scoonie Burn’, which snakes its way along the right edge and front of the putting surface before flowing into the Firth of Forth. Even the lay-up shot here is nerve-wracking as the crumpled ground can quite easily add unwanted yards to your shot and bring the burn into play.
Leven Links, Lundin, Elie and Crail tick all the boxes for a great Scottish links experience, all within 25 minutes’ drive of the Home of Golf.
PLAY OLD TOM’S DESIGNS
ST. ANDREWS
Visit the St. Andrews Links trust website, www.standrews.com , to view green fee offers and course access information for all St. Andrews Links courses.
CRAIL GOLFING SOCIETY
Green fee: £120 (High season, Balcomie course).
THE GOLF HOUSE CLUB, ELIE
Green fees: £100 (High season, weekday); £115 (High season, weekend).
LUNDIN GOLF CLUB
Green fee: £120 (High season).
LEVEN LINKS
Green fees: £95 (High season, weekday); £105 (High season, weekend).
*High season is from May 1 to September 30.
WHERE TO STAY
LOMOND GUEST HOUSE, LEVEN
Located a stone’s throw from the beach and a smooth 3-wood from the 1st tee at Leven Links, the Lomond Guest House (pictured) on Church St, Leven, is nicely located for visiting golfers.
The guest house has recently been renovated with all rooms tastefully decorated. The cooked breakfast, especially the porridge, is also outstanding.
Hosts Carol and Jim are both golfers and beyond their warm welcome they can also assist with play and stay packages.
UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS
If you are on a budget, the historic University of St. Andrews has a range of accommodation choices during the northern summer months, from bed and breakfast through to self-catering options. The buffet breakfast here is also something not to miss.
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