From a young age I have been playing golf with my Dad. It is some of our most precious time together and no matter what is going on in life, our time on the course is always special. It was his 60th birthday last year and I decided that to celebrate we should play the course that opened on his 60th year, Dumbarnie Links.
With everything I had heard about the course and from my great conversation with the course designer, Clive Clarke, I knew this was where I wanted us to play this important round. I had told my dad about my chat with Clive and about how much had gone into creating the most talked about course in Scotland.
The day started with the drive from Glasgow to Fife. We chatted about life and the upcoming round. Silence fell on the car as we pulled into the gates of the club, both of us on high alert to try and catch a glimpse of the course. It was like we were looking for a lion while on safari.
You definitely can’t play golf on an empty stomach so the first point of call was to get our hands on the famous Dumbarnie burgers. After that we were ready to hit the range and loosen off for the round ahead. I was nervous because I had heard so many great things about the course and I really hoped that it would live up to my expectations.
We were greeted on the first by the starter, who like all of the staff on the day was just brilliant. Two piped drives down the generous first fairway and we were off and running. If anyone had been following us that day or listening in to our conversations, they would have got fed up with the constant praise we were heaping on the course, though it’s hard not to and it is well-deserved.
One of the best features of Dumbarnie Links is that you can’t see much of the course as you play it. The high dunes cocoon you into the hole that you’re playing so you can’t be distracted by the next hole and you feel like you have the whole course to yourself. This feeling of it just being us out there was perfect for such a special round with my Dad.
Then, as you walk from the green to the next tee, you emerge from the cocoon for the big reveal of the next hole. It is a feature of Dumbarnie that is very underrated in my opinion. We found ourselves left speechless by the hole ahead e