No. 13 at North Berwick Golf Club in North Berwick, Scotland. A stone walk is near the green.

Former Tylerite Pat Wheeler, a golf correspondent for the Tyler Paper, is traveling throughout Scotland and playing some of the world’s oldest golf courses. He will be sending updates from his trip. Wheeler played golf at Robert E. Lee High School and SMU.

 

 

 

NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND – Golf has been played on the West Links Course of North Berwick continuously since 1932 and it has been a favorite stop since I first played it in 2000. On that occasion with friends, I met a guy in the golf shop I just knew I had seen before. But I couldn’t place him.

So I introduced myself that day and the man said, “Well, I’m Roy Williams of Lawrence, Kansas.”

All I could do put my hand to my head say, “Oh yeah – ESPN.”

We laughed and I noticed Roy was with a group of Kansas Jayhawks that day on a golfing trip to Scotland. He has since won a couple of national basketball championships at North Carolina. That day he was just another lover of golf enjoying this course directly across the Firth of Forth from St. Andrews.

Such was the case this Sunday afternoon when glorious sunny weather greeted us to make the day a pleasurable experience, as did meeting Graeme Oliver and his father Raymond. A Dallas friend set up our meeting and the two men were a welcomed addition to our group.

Now in real estate both in Scotland and America, the younger Oliver was once a professional golfer on the tour in South Africa and also a club professional at Turnberry, a wonderful course on the British Open rota that lies along the Irish Sea near Prestwick.

My friend Cept Harden and I were paired with Jerry Davis who works in Saudi Arabia but is originally from Henderson – talk about a small world. His wife Elizabeth walked with us as did the Olivers for the first eight holes. So with quite the gallery, we set off on the course that is not too difficult but certainly not easy.

There are many reasons this course is so charming. First off, the people who run this golf club genuinely seem glad to have you as their guests and greet you with warmth and sincerity. There are jokes all around and you almost feel like a member. The guest fees or visitor’s fees are certainly important to the clubs but North Berwick just feels better – more relaxing.

Then there is the scenery that tantalizes. There are several giant rock outcroppings perfectly spaced to give the golfer wonderful backdrops during the round. The rocks are so massive that they attract plentiful bird life. The sounds of the seagulls is ever present and then on the other side of the course is a string of stately mansions and the Marine Hotel that make you think there is Downton Abbey story within each one.

Finally, the people in North Berwick seem happy and always pleasant with a smile and a hello and a pithy comment.

“Oh you can park around the corner and that would be safer,” a lady out for a walk with her husband and their dogs tells me. “But absolutely don’t try to go down the harbor, it’s already heaving.”

Heaving? I can only imagine that means crowded and brimming with excitement. Throughout the day, we saw small hordes of people crossing the fairways for some time at the beach, with lovely red-haired children in tow.

The holes at North Berwick are nicely laid out to provide a variety of shapes and sizes so that the round is never boring. When the round reached the fifth hole, a busy Wee Links for junior golfers was pointed out.

“I played in first tournament there at age six,” Graeme Oliver said. “It was the Peter Pan Cup and I remember on the first hole, 150 yards, I hit a good 3-wood and then an 8-iron.”

Hearing such a story is heartwarming and illustrates the beauty of golf being handed down from each generation. North Berwick, much like Gullane the day before, has a family atmosphere that encourages junior golf.

The golf course has many unusual quirks that begin from the start of the round and continue throughout. Beginning with the eighth, there are three par 5s in the space of four holes. The 489-yard eighth is followed by the 504-yard ninth and the 526-yard 11th. Sandwiched between is the par-3 10th that measure 168 yards.

As I prepared for my second shot into the 12th green, I was enchanted by a panoramic view that featured Fidra Island, aka Treasure Island. As a boy, Robert Louis Stevenson vacationed here and his gifted imagination used the small island to write a captivating novel. What made the setting even more appealing to the eye was a cadre of sail boats perched on the deep blue sea.

North Berwick gets delightfully funky at the 13th and the fun doesn’t let up the rest of the way.

The 13th is “The Pit,” a short par 4 of only 325 yards but guarded down the left side of the fairway by a stone wall that runs directly in front of the green. Build this hole today and you would be laughed out of town but what a joy to play. I hit a nice short iron shot to the back of the green but Harden had his wedge hit the wall and ricochet back to him while Davis’ approach from the rough hit just short of the wall only to bounce up to hit the top of the wall and onto the green 10 feet from the hole. Harden nicely recovered with his next pitch and there was laughter and high fives all around.

The 15th is the Redan hole and it is a famous design for par 3s much copied. According to the younger Oliver, redan means trench. Thus the hole has a large swale in front of the green with a bunker guarding the front left side. This necessitates a risk/reward shot with the safe play always to the right of the yawning bunker.

Graeme Oliver knows his golf and said he heard renowned golf architect Tom Fazio once say that three of the six core design concepts for courses emanated from North Berwick. One is the Redan and the others are the second hole which is a “cape” hole, where the ocean on the right creates a forced carry to get a close approach or a safe play to the left and a longer second shot. The third concept is the 16th green which is called a biarritz which in golf means a green with a deep swale.

The 16th at North Berwick is a classic biarritz and keeping the ball on the green is a great challenge. I failed that challenge with my approach putt from just off the green that lacked enough steam and rolled right back to me. I prevailed on my second attempt.

I had to grin for it is a great thing to personally experience the evolution of golf architecture!