“Playing Dornoch’s Championship course is a frustration! Even if you get a decent drive away, avoid the copious gorse and multiple bunkers... you can still end up with an 8!”

— David J Whyte

The Struie mountain backs Royal Dornoch and is also the name of the 2nd 18-hole golf course here.

I could never understand why Tom Watson declared it “the most fun you can have with your clothes on”! ”Oh, wait...wrong quote! “The most fun I have had playing golf in my whole life.”

That little one-liner opened the floodgates and American golfers trundled up the ‘Great North Road’ by the tour bus load even though Dornoch is about three hours north of Scotland’s more southerly Meccas.

Golf was being played in the northeast corner of Scotland as far back as 1616 when the Earl of Sutherland ordered golf clubs & balls to take up the game that was becoming so popular in the south. This makes Dornoch the third oldest golfing community in Scotland.

A sea of golden gorse and sand trap-peppered fairways tend to promote a cast-iron grip! Keep it light!

ALL FRUSTRATION

“Dornoch is a golfing puzzle like no other!”

To me, playing Dornoch was pure frustration! You’d get a decent drive away, avoiding the copious gorgeous yellow gorse bushes and magnetic bunkers and still end up with an 8.

In my darker moments, I’d step off the final green totting up the double-bogies and worse and wonder “Where did it all go so horribly wrong?” But finally, after about a dozen attempts, a tiny sliver of light broke through.

Dornoch is a golfing puzzle like no other!

DIVINE REVELATION

I played the course last year with a Northern Irishman who lived in the English city of York and had made the trip especially. He was a bit excited…

“The 1st is an easy opener,” I offered, me being the more experienced ‘Door Knocker’ of the duo.

I nipped a 3-wood off the tee straight down the middle with a sign of relief. The 1st is a short par 4, the fairway not huge with pot-bunkers scattered up both sides. But much more importantly, the green is reasonably manageable!

The 2nd’s an entirely different matter! As is the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th and so on… As you look down these ancient dunes, you can’t help but notice the great ball-thwarting, bowler-hat greens that mockingly cock a hoop at you like the characters from ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’.

The view from the 3rd tee gives a good idea of the shape of things to come.

“The greens are like pitching on to the top of a bus,” I explained to my Irish friend. “when it’s moving”!

“I suddenly got a glimmer of where I was going wrong! ”

As I stood on the 3rd’s raised tee box surveying one of the many excellent views of these magnificent links, wondering what I would tell the Irishman next, I suddenly got a glimmer of where I was going wrong! The preceding greens stood out like stepping stones on a billowing verdant lake with rocking, roiling fairways and dozens of eddying bunkers conspiring to suck your balls into their deep, dark depths!

Dornoch is spectacular when the gorse blooms in May and June, the air full of the scent of almonds and the buzzing of intoxicated bees.

GOING FOR BUST

Like most of us, I go for bust off the tee - bang it down the middle – or thereabouts! Okay, not always… but on a ‘normal’ golf course, that usually leaves a rescue, mid-iron or shorter onto the green. Simple, formulaic golf that usually serves me well! You just can’t do that here!

Raised greens and bellicose bunkers defy your best approaches. The other problem is every single hole is dauntingly different.

WHAT’S THE ANGLE?

I sagaciously explained to my Irish friend how important it was to plan an approach ‘angle’ and play each hole accordingly.

“Royal Dornoch will flick you off like an annoying Scottish midge unless you actually play each hole as it was intended,” I heard myself say. Isn’t it amazing how circumspect you become when giving someone else advice?

“There’s plenty of room off the tee but you have to think about the next shot and aim for that position.” If only my trusting companion had witnessed my last 10 rounds!

The 10th is just a minor example of the difficulties you face in getting on to the green - and staying there!

“My newly prescribed advise seemed to be working! ”

With this in mind, it seemed, very much to my surprise that there is a route into every hole at Royal Dornoch. I wouldn’t say their StrokeSaver is a lot of use (they tell me a new and improved version is on the way). A good caddy would be worth his weight in Highland Toffee, especially for your first outing. But, whichever way you play Royal Dornoch, perhaps more than any links course in the British Isles and indeed in the world… on almost every hole, you need a game plan!

With this almost divine revelation, my own approach and appreciation of Dornoch grew with each & every stroke. It’s only around 6300 yards off the visitor tees but as Gary Player says, “It’s all about 70 yards and in!” And at Royal Dornoch, it’s never been more so!

HOLE WISE

The course wraps around the wide, sandy bay of the Dornoch Firth Estuary with a higher escarpment to the northeast supporting the 7th and 8th holes before the latter drops back down to sea level again.

The 7th has been recently transformed, a much more interesting par 4 that’s finally been allowed ‘to breathe’.

MODERN UPGRADES

There’s a lot of work been done at the 7th and 8th holes of late which, to be honest, surprised me! ‘Door Knocker’ golfers are as conservative as they come but it’s interesting to note that this has been happening a lot in Scotland these recent years with traditional old tracks being dragged, their members kicking & screaming, into the 21st century!

“They let Trump loose on Turnberry and look what happened! The results were tremendous. ”

But here at Dornoch, they’ve taken a ‘nouveau regard’ and thankfully have enhanced the overall golfing experience. The 8th for instance was always a ‘filler hole’ to my mind but now it’s a good contributing factor to that slightly bland stretch.

Looking back down the 10th overlooking Dornoch Bay and the great North Sea.

We made the turn and thankfully the wind was not too strong. West and southwest winds are helpful on the front nine but they can play havoc with the longer back half. Like all coastal courses, the wind can change with the tide so once again, you need to play each hole as you find it.

The 10th is a lovely, bottle-neck, bold par 3 by the sea. It’s only 147 or 142 yards (visitors) and well-protected with four front bunkers. Downwind makes it a little hard to stop on the firm green but generally, you’d be teeing off into a southwesterly.

FOXY’S TAIL

Foxy (14th) doesn’t look so cunning from the tee but the rampart green defies almost all approach shots.

“The feature hole on the back nine is the 14th – Foxy! ”

There are no bunkers on this long, double-dogleg but a series of grassy fingers reach out into the fairway. I managed to draw one off the mild westerly wind (the most common) and had a good line into the green but on this par 4 of 439 yards, I still had plenty of distance to cover.

“Layups are actually a blessing on this golf course! ”

A low running shot into the 14th green might occasionally work but only on the oddest of occasions. The green is long and side-on to the fairway so it would be a hugely lucky shot to roll up the rampart and stay on the green. Dornoch dictates a cannier approach where you lay up ahead of the parapet and chip or manufacture a soft flop onto the slender putting surface. Employing this very approach, I parred Foxy for the first time!

CLOSING HOLES

The last few holes are a fairly tough series of par 4s. The 15th is the shortest at 298 for visitors but ‘confused’ by two grassy humps that distort the distance perspective. I’ve never played this one well!

‘Pistols at dawn’. Don’t let the easy 16th fairway full you. Single putts are at a premium on that glassy surface.

The 16th is indifferent compared to most of Dornoch’s magnificent holes, a modest trek uphill to a reasonably flat green. Most come up short but stepping onto the green is like slipping onto an ice rink. Elevated and open to all the elements, the 16th’s surface can be super-speedy. All of a sudden, you lose your advantage and 3-putt.

I asked my Irish friend if he was enjoying himself. He too had succumbed to the dastardly raised greens but seemed to be getting the hang of it.

The 17th is another tee-time conundrum: too much club off the tee ends up a mystery.

The 17th is one of the more technical holes on the golf course, a dropping dogleg to a hillcrest that looks down onto a gathering green. We hit irons off the tee!

I told him “you can easily run out of room and into the gorse on the right or end up with a bad lie on the slope”. Amusingly he followed my advice and we both parred, again a first for me on this hole.

The 18th is fairly flat off the tee with much of its trouble hidden just in front of the expansive green.

And so this time, for the first time in my golfing life, I came off Dornoch with a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and a sub-90 score. I had learned a lot! Royal Dornoch is an experience that warrants repeating and each time you play, you should come away with a little more information and a slightly better education on what golf and Royal Dornoch is really all about.

I can’t wait to get back up there!

Dornoch Dilemna!