With one of golf’s most historic clubs just down the street, a neighboring course might find it reasonably difficult to establish a significant profile.
Gullane Golf Club, though, has long stood on its own accord. Featuring a picturesque panorama that arguably surpasses the august Muirfield, Gullane’s links have been romanticized by golf devotees for more than a century. And with the Scottish Open making its second visit in four years, starting Thursday, it’s also shown to be a test for some of the world’s top talent. Headliners such as Justin Rose, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler are scheduled to play using the event as a tuneup for the British Open the next week at Carnoustie.
The men will be the first of a July double feature at Gullane. After a week’s breather, the L.P.G.A.’s top names arrive to compete on the same course in the women’s Scottish Open. The tournament, co-sponsored by the L.P.G.A. and women’s European Tour, will test Gullane for the first time when that event tees off July 26. This will be the second time that the women’s event is played on the same course as the men’s, a wrinkle introduced last year at Dundonald Links.
“It’s always such an interesting challenge,” Fowler said in a statement confirming his return to the site of his 2015 victory, when he used three birdies in his last four holes to overtake Matt Kuchar and Raphaël Jacquelin.
“The first time I saw it, I liked the way it fit my eye,” he added. “Not that it’s easy by any means. It’s just visually, you can see where you’re supposed to go and not supposed to go. Nothing hidden or too tricky about it.”
And whereas Muirfield, home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, has a longstanding reputation as one of the game’s most exclusive fraternities, Gullane might be considered the “people’s club.”
“We have lawyers, builders, plumbers, doctors. All trades are members here,” said David Morgan, Gullane’s club secretary. “We have lawyers playing here with the local baker and the local plumber. Golf is the glue for the membership. It’s not about what you’ve done or how much you make.”
The starter’s hut actually sits not far from the middle of town, from where Gullane’s three layouts open up to the west and south. Membership is drawn more from the local populace, and visitors are widely accommodated.
It’s not unlike the St. Andrews Links, where the courses are woven into the community fabric. “There is probably no other golfing center that is quite so good as Gullane,” the pioneering golf writer Bernard Darwin penned in 1910.
“It is the epitome of a traditional Scottish golf club at the heart of a local community,” Paul Bush, director of events for VisitScotland, said when the Scottish Open’s return was announced last year. “I am delighted it will once again get the opportunity to welcome the world’s best players to East Lothian.”
Gullane’s No. 1 course — it’s the oldest of the three — also has staged British Open final qualifying on several occasions, primarily when Muirfield is the destination. It also has hosted four editions of both the Scottish Amateur and women’s British Open Amateur.
Among the Gullane champions: Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who in 1947 became the first American to capture the women’s British Open Amateur Championship. Her 5&4 victory in the match-play final was punctuated by a prodigious driver/4-iron play at the par-5 15th to set up the clincher. (There also was the to-do when Zaharias showed up on the practice ground one day in red-and-white checkered shorts. Tournament officials pulled her aside to suggest the attire wasn’t appropriate for the championship; she went back to change.)
Gullane No. 1 also shared host duties with Muirfield for the 1998 British Amateur Championship.
“It’s a real positive for us,” Morgan said of attracting the Scottish Open and other significant events. “It’s very much at the forefront of our thoughts, allowing us to showcase what we have here. … We’ve got a very involved membership at the club, a big membership that really stepped up last time.”
Records show golf has been played on Gullane’s land since at least 1650. The No. 1 course dates from 1884 — seven years before Muirfield opened on the east side of town — though the identity of who laid out the holes has been lost.
“There is no quainter or more romantic spot than Gullane,” wrote the Rev. John Kerr, a Scottish minister and sportsman who published a golf guide in 1894. “Nor are there finer links anywhere; try them for yourself.”
No other links has Gullane Hill, a volcanic plug rising about 200 feet above the countryside that fosters elevation change rarely seen in links golf. The second hole begins a trek up and along the hill until reaching the tee at No. 7.
On a clear day, from there one can gaze south across the town, west to Edinburgh and its majestic castle, east overlooking Muirfield and the coastline, or north across the Firth of Forth.
“Gullane Hill, with the sun shining and the wind blowing, the black clouds banked beyond the Forth, and just a glimpse in the distance of the mighty tracery of the Forth Bridge, is one of the most beautiful spots in the world,” Darwin wrote in Country Life magazine.
More recently, Gullane was selected as one of nine “most picturesque golf spots in the world” in a 2011 survey by PGA.com. And as a whole, Gullane No. 1 ranks 17th on Golf Digest’s 2018 list of best courses in Scotland.
“If there’s no wind, it’s very scorable in a way,” Fowler said after his 2015 victory, in which he posted no round worse than 68. “You can go out and make birdies and it’s fun. But it’s a fair chance for everyone.”
Source : NYtimes
