It’s not everyday you find yourself on a plane on the way to find a golf course designed by Old Tom Morris himself, but that’s just what happened on the 15th of March this year, and what we found was beyond any golfer’s wildest dreams
By CHRIS HASPELL Looking for the
fter speaking with a greenkeeping colleague at a recent conference and hearing his enthusiasm for a course restoration project in the
Scottish Islands I was hooked. When I saw the pictures I booked the flights. Now, being a traditional golf enthusiast, the thought of helping create a links is second to none, but when the legend says Old Tom had been there before it was a must.
The story starts when my colleague,
Gordon Irving, went to the factor of South Uist, one of the islands of the Hebrides, to hear if he could develop his passion for fishing. Little did he know what he would be asked to look at, after a couple of cups of tea and a few yarns. The factor heard that Gordon’s other passion was golf, not playing but maintaining courses, and not just any golf course, but links courses. The stage was set. Gordon had spent his apprenticeship
at Turnberry, and had gained a reputation in the industry for his passion for links and traditional golf, latterly reinstating one of England’s finest links at Deal. With this knowledge in his armoury he set out on the short journey to where the course lay. He had not anticipated what he would find. The story goes that Lady Gordon Cathcart invited Old Tom Morris to lay out the 9 hole course at Askernish in
1891. Rumour had it he had come to the island for a fishing trip. If the records are correct the course was laid out at about the same time as Machrihanish, which is regarded as one of Old Tom’s best. If the course at Askernish proved to be half as good, it would still be an excellent links.
ON arrival at the airport on the island of Benbecula, with some spectacular views of the island of South Uist on the way in, the scene was set. The snow at Glasgow was in the past, and the sun shone on our arrival. The man who started the project, Ralph Thompson, a true Scot in every sense of the word, proud of the islands and proud to be Scottish, met us. Ralph had played golf on the Askernish course for 20 years. He did not know if the holes were the same as Old Tom had laid out, and it was thought there were originally 18. The challenge was to find the holes or at least try to recreate what Old Tom might have done. Having read the book by Robert
Kroeger on Old Tom Morris courses the references were there. Coupled with islander accounts from before the war, they seemed to concur. There were reports from one islander that he had caddied at the north end of the site, and a book from the early 1900’s by a local teacher made reference to the course. All we had to do now was find it! Also meeting us at the airport was
LEGEND A
Martin Ebert, a golf course architect who had previously worked with Donald Steel. Martin, a talented architect in his own right, had significant experience with links, working at Hoylake, Deal and Rye along with many others. This was going to help. Adam Lawrence, editor of Golf Course Architecture came along too, an avid links fan with the research and enthusiasm to back everything up. Having been lucky enough to have
worked on what I consider to be some of the best links in the UK I felt also that I had something to offer the team. We seemed more like archaeologists than course architects and course managers. On the way to the course site we took
in breathtaking views of the barren land. There are no trees, just heather and peat, and you really get a feeling for how hard it must have been to be a crofter on the island. This was backed up by the history lesson we gained from Ralph about just how hard life has been and how many people are now leaving the islands. I could not help thinking,
“This is not man against man, it’s man against nature”
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