Playing Royal Dornoch on a Scottish golf Trip- content duplicated in pages, potential to delete this
The Monarch of the Glens - World ranked top-10. One of Golf's 'truly great' links
Like up-turned saucers
Royal Dornoch is Scotland’s fourth course that routinely achieves a World top-10 ranking. So why haven’t you heard or seen more of it? Well it’s a long way north and been deemed too remote for major championships. Those who make the effort however will reap the rewards.
The philosophy is simple. Good shots are rewarded, poor ones are punished.
Dornoch is a supreme test of iron play. Many of the greens resemble up-turned saucers, the putting surface like a plinth with bunkers typically guarding the front making the traditional bump & run a high risk option if we’re trying to thread that particular needle. Instead we need to risk going through the air here, and then means surfing the wind.
We’ll also encounter gorse (whins in Scottish) which thrives in Dornoch’s micro-climate. This prickly yellow flowering plant explodes in colour during spring, but sadly it devours errant golf balls too. Hit into one of these and you need to get the waterproof trousers out, or simply accept defeat and mark a new one up
Royal Dornoch appears in the following itineraries >>>>>>
How to include Royal Dornoch
A top-10 ranking alone is enough for golfers to yearn for and cast a longing eye towards Royal Dornoch, but very often its high northerly latitude is a barrier. Aside from other highland courses notably Castle Stuart, (which it’s often played in combination with) it’s not really doable unless we’re prepared to make the effort. There are a couple of ‘tricks’ though
If we come into London, then we can take a direct flight to Inverness and begin a trip at Dornoch rather than needing to break out of one to get there
Surprisingly perhaps, there is also a direct route to Inverness from Belfast, which means that despite its geographic separation, Dornoch links better with Portrush and RCD than people realise. This is what allows us to include it in some Scottish/ Irish combo’s
We can include Dornoch as follows
With the Highlands & Aberdeenshire package
Part of the Golf & Whisky package
Part of the ‘Best Tour’ in Scotland & Ireland
A guide to the holes of interest
It was Tom Watson no less who described the second shot to the par 3 second hole at Royal Dornoch as “the most difficult shot in golf”. He was only half joking!. The green has precipitous roll offs all round and deep bunkers either side. It’s a small target that you simply have to hit in order to avoid playing a hideously difficult rescue from below the putting surface that even Phil might blanche at before attempting. After the second though, you walk around the corner and the whole majesty of the links opens up before you
Although the 14th will usually wins the vote, the 4th stands alongside it on merit. Donald Steel no less, included ‘Achinchanter’ in his 18 best holes in Britain and Ireland.
From a tee on the side of a hill the hole runs adjacent to steep bank of gorse along its length. A tee drawn shot has to find the runway to stay on the sloping fairway. Miss, and it slides away in a series of gullies on the right, which begins to become difficult. It’s about strategy now though.
A triangular green with vicious swales is typical of Dornoch’s raised putting surfaces. The approach can be pitched to the green and risk running off on the right or behind, or to play through the valley in front of the green and risking falling back off the front bank and into the bunkers left or right.
Holes 3, 4 and 5 play under a ridge of steeply banked gorse which explodes into colours of golden yellow in the spring. The par 3, sixth represents something of a departure from this. Instead the green has actually been cut into the bank requiring you to play straight into the stuff and trust that you can hit the landing area. ‘Whinny Brae’ has been the source of bemusement and frustration in equal measure. The green is narrow and small.
Two bunkers sit in the hillside left and a massive slope defends the right. There might be a case in going a little bit too long if anything and trusting the contours to deliver a rolling ball, but if you over-cook it you’re in the gorse though – ouch! and if it doesn’t release, or catches a rear bunker you have truly awful chip downhill
At 146yds, Fuaran is the shortest of Dornoch’s charismatic par 3’s and perhaps makes you wonder how a navy pilot might feel trying to land on the deck of a carrier. At face value its a downhill flick but this risks coming in on too low a trajectory. The task is made harder still by the fact that the hole normally plays downwind. There’s even less chance to apply the brakes. Ironically this is one hole where a headwind helps. It’s almost impossible to hold the green on a low trajectory, and the penalty for skidding off through the back is unforgiving. A steep slope ensures you’ll continue to run further and further away from the flight-deck. Only the most exquisitely executed flop shot from below the surface will save you now.
The ‘bunkerless’ fourteenth has been described as “the most natural hole in golf” and is the most difficult assignment on the course by stroke index. Raised dunes with thick grass run down the right side, drastically narrowing this fairway and cutting off angles and lines of sight. It’s a tougher tee shot down the left, but the bolder play is rewarded with an unobstructed view of the green and a superior angle. Just where the best place to launch your approach from is a question that continues to defy even those who have developed an intimate knowledge of it. There’s a scarcity of aiming points in the landscape and skyline to assist the bewildered golfer trying to solve this problem. It’s all about strategy, flair and your own instinctive feel
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