Near Edinburgh
Golf Near Edinburgh: Field Notes from Every Course Within 45 Minutes
Rather than a list, a diary. Nine visits across the spring, every one of them inside a 45-minute drive of the city centre. The greens, the starters, the wind.
A running log rather than a list. Times and dates are as they happened. Courses are ordered by the drive from the city centre, shortest first. Green fees are weekday unless noted.
Tuesday 4 March. Braid Hills No. 1. 08:42.
Frost on the first tee. The starter, a man in his sixties with a heater pulled up to his knees, nods and hands over a scorecard without being asked. "Six groups out. You'll catch them by the turn." The course is running slower than it looks; the ball sits up on the tight lies and then doesn't move after landing. Views over the Pentlands one side, the Forth the other, the city sitting in the middle looking complicated. A 5-iron on the 7th finishes pin-high. A father is teaching his son on the practice green, both of them in layers that don't match.
Twelve quid. Drive from Tollcross: fourteen minutes.
Sunday 15 March. Carrick Knowe. 10:05.
Flat. Simple. A dog walker cuts across the 3rd fairway and apologises without stopping. The course has the kind of calm that you only get from a muni in the middle of a big city: nobody here is trying to impress anybody. A four-ball ahead of us play in a steady rotation that feels rehearsed. We tip our caps at the ranger who isn't really checking anything. No wind to speak of. The short par-4 7th plays its full length anyway. A bacon roll at the clubhouse afterwards, £3.20.
Friday 27 March. Musselburgh Old Links. 14:10.
Nine holes, because that's all it has. The course sits inside the horse-racing circuit, and the white posts of the rail border two of the fairways. The clubhouse is in a caravan. An older couple are just finishing; the husband says "not bad, not bad" to nobody in particular. Hickory clubs are available for hire: we don't take them up. The 5th hole has a bunker in the shape of a bowler hat. The wind is what it is. £18, three sandwiches.
Saturday 11 April. Duddingston. 11:30.
Parkland right under Arthur's Seat. Buses of tourists stop at the Holyrood gate; none of them know there's a golf course here. The course itself is surprisingly good — contoured, mature trees, a burn that comes into play on three holes. A wedding party is spilling out of the clubhouse as we tee off; somebody's father in a kilt is photographing the 1st tee and we wait. The starter tells us the greens were dressed ten days ago. You can tell. Visitor green fee £55. A Saturday at peak; worth it for the location alone.
Wednesday 22 April. Mortonhall. 09:00.
The highest golf course in Edinburgh. You can see why on the 14th: the Pentlands rise up like they're yours for the round. The fairways have been cut but the rough hasn't. A couple of retired men are on the 16th with buggies and a thermos. One of them waves. The pro shop is small and smells of waterproofs drying. £55 weekday, which is what you pay for a course that's in this condition with this view. The clubhouse has a coffee machine that costs £1.20 and doesn't get better the longer you wait.
Sunday 3 May. Longniddry. 13:15.
Half-links, half-parkland, halfway to Gullane. A crab-apple tree on the 2nd that has been there longer than the club. A group of three Americans are trying to work out how to pronounce the hole names. We let them through on the 6th. They tell us they played the Old Course on Friday "but this is better" — they've said it twice by the 10th tee. They may be right. Wind up and a ball lost on the 14th. £75. Good value for what it is.
Saturday 16 May. Craigielaw. 08:20.
The starter is apologetic about the divots on the 1st fairway: "corporate day Thursday, not been able to get over them." Modern links (opened 2001) which still plays like it's had two hundred years to settle. A heron on the pond by the 9th that doesn't move. We take a buggy because the 3rd has a hill on it that neither of us fancies this early. Lunch is a bowl of soup and a roll for £8.50. £95 visitor fee, which is a lot, but this is a Saturday morning in May.
Friday 29 May. North Berwick West Links. 16:40.
Right on the 45-minute edge. The town is busier than the course. We pick up a twilight tee time at four forty because the evening light is long this time of year and the fee drops to under £100. The 13th green ("Pit") is as peculiar as everybody says. The 15th tee shot over the Redan ravine cuts the handicap out of at least one of us. Two rabbits on the 16th fairway who do not move for the buggy, the mower, or our approach shot. We play the last hole into the sun and neither of us sees the ball land. Fine.
Thursday 11 June. Haddington. 10:30.
Parkland on the edge of the market town. Quiet in a way that feels almost apologetic. A greenkeeper on the 3rd tells us that the whole of East Lothian will be busy by July and to enjoy "what's left of the reasonable weeks". £40. Pie and chips in the clubhouse for £6. We leave the car park at two, and the traffic on the A1 back into Edinburgh has already started.
Notes kept in a yellow Rhodia pad. Weather varies. Prices occasionally. The lines across these fairways do not.