North Berwick Golf Club Course Review - There are some towns where golf seeps from the very bricks, North Berwick is one of them
North Berwick Golf Club Course Review
Green Fee Range: £45-£110
Medal Tee: Par 71 – 6,551 Yards
Visitor Times: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:30-15:00, Tuesday & Thursday 10:30-16:00, Sunday from 12:30
Website: www.northberwickgolfclub.com
North Berwick Golf Club Course Review
North Berwick, on the golf-rich East Lothian coast, is living proof that the design philosophies of a bygone era can still be very much part of the modern game.
Indeed, many would argue that the challenges of some of the quirkier elements of this wonderful old links are exactly what the game is missing in certain quarters.
The club was founded in 1832, but golf has been played here on the Firth of Forth from the 17th century.
Much like St Andrews, you start and finish in town, and those with a slice will need to pay particular attention to the beach on the 1st and rows of parked cars on the tantalisingly reachable finale.
There is a genuine feeling that precious little has changed here since the earliest days, whether the 13th green stoutly defended by an eminently adjacent wall that takes the links chip and run firmly off the table, the blind approach to 14, or the remarkable raised 16th green in front of the Marine Hotel, where two distinct plateaux are separated by a deep gully.
Then, of course, there is golf’s original ‘Redan’ hole in the 15th, where the well protected green is wider than it is deep, angles across you and slopes significantly – a design strategy copied the world over, but most definitely pioneered in North Berwick.
There’s no doubt that certain elements of the North Berwick design would be dismissed as folly elsewhere, but here, in this most ancient of golfing arenas, they seem entirely relevant and wholly appropriate.
North Berwick Golf Club Course Review – Golf Monthly Verdict
An unadulterated, traditional links layout, this is a real golfer’s course and one of the most characterful on these shores
This article North Berwick Golf Club Course Review appeared first on Golf Monthly.