Elie and Crail

For our very first links golf outing we traveled about a half an hour south to the edge of the Firth of Forth and the small town of Elie. Here we played the Golf House Club Elie, as it is officially known.

Golf has been played here since at least 1589, when a royal charter was passed granting villagers permission to use the links. The formal club, the Elie and Earlsferry Golf Club, dates to 1832 and is one of the oldest golf clubs in the United Kingdom.

The website top100golfcourses.co.uk ranks it as the 11th best course in Fife and the 55th best course in Scotland. The current course, a par 70 6251-yard course, was largely designed by Old Tom Morris and James Braid in 1895.

The current club, the Golf House Club, was founded in 1875 with the building of the clubhouse, in this view seen across the 18th green.

An unusual feature is the periscope (in the small octagonal building on left above) from the Royal Navy submarine, HMS Excalibur, that was launched in 1955 and scrapped in 1968. The periscope is installed in the starter’s hut; players and visitors may use it to view the golf course, specifically to look over the hill in the background to confirm that it’s safe to tee off. So our adventure essentially began with the blind leading the blind to hit golf balls over a hill to an unknown target.

I don’t have a lot of photos of this course because I was pretty preoccupied with trying to figure out how to play links golf on a very windy day; but this one gives a sense of the often intimate juxtapositions between golf courses and every day life in Scotland.

Often the courses belong to the towns they’re in; and the clubs operate, maintain and use them. Generally they include walking paths or roadways that may be used at will by the community and which the golfers are expected to respect – though that respect generally works in both directions.

This view looks from the road behind the 3rd green back to the clubhouse and the 18th fairway running along the right side of the picture. We think that daffodils must be the national flower of Scotland – they were everywhere!

Finally a look at the course from their website – photo taken at a somewhat more flattering time of year, probably fall.

It gives a good sense of the rolling nature of the fairways, the coarseness of the rough, the exposure to the wind off the sea, and the hazards of leaving your shot short (the valley makes for a tricky chip shot) or letting it drift to the right (pot bunkers). With the wind, definitely enough challenge for a first outing.

Here’s a map that locates Elie and Crail in relation to St Andrews

The Crail Golfing Society, about halfway between St Andrews and Elie, owns and operates two courses, Balcomie, which we played, and Craighead, which differ in character. Balcomie, designed by Old Tom Morris in 1895, is a traditional links, retaining original holes, and a diverse and distinctive set of Par 3’s. The 14th is the most photographed hole, a Par 3 with an elevated tee high above the beach dropping down to a heavily-bunkered green. Longer holes, such as the 4th and 5th, feature doglegs around the sea edge.

This course sits on a point of land sticking out into the North Sea. Wind really plays havoc with your game, as you can imagine from these flags, which looked like that all day long. The people beyond the flag poles are waiting to tee off to the 14th green below them that sits adjacent to the beach you can see in the background.

The clubhouse sits at the top of a rise and greets you with contemporary wings that have been wrapped around an older, more traditional building. The stone front with the clock was pretty nicely details, the other wings, not so much.

On the rear side the building feels more perched and connected to view out over the heather, gorse, and the back nine to the sea.

Our round began, as it always does here, with a visit to the starter’s building. Although the degree varies, there is always a clear demarcation between the facilities used by ‘visitors’ and those reserved for members.

The Pro Shop includes the usual equipment, clothes, and balls, and is also the place you pay for your round and rent a ‘trolley’ (pull cart) or, in a very few cases, a ‘buggy’ (electric riding cart).

This course was so open it felt vast, with long shots, like the one Gary is hitting above, parallel to the beach or across wide expanses of cove, often to targets that were hard to pick out. Luckily Gary had a caddy for this round who helped us get pointed in the right direction. Below, Roger (a lefty) tees off on the 4th hole with a similar feel. (You’ll notice that he’s wearing a jacket with a hood – and using it).

In both cases above there was a swirling two-club wind blowing in from the right. Hard to know where to aim and what club to use. On the other hand, some holes played with the wind at your back; but that didn’t necessarily make them easier. Of course it was easier to hit the ball farther; but figuring out how much farther was a conundrum. Ironically, of all the courses we’ve played I did my best here, an 81; but we’ve all definitely had good and bad holes and good and bad days.

St Andrews Old Course

With three golfing friends, Bruce Disend, Gary Pitcher, and Roger DeSpain, I’m in Scotland for two weeks of links golf. I wrote some about this three years ago when Jane and I visited primarily as sightseers; and I played a little golf on municipal courses. You can read about that in the earlier posting,

https://markspitzerdesigns.wordpress.com/category/edinburgh/st-andrews-golf/

But this time we’re here to play some of the famous and not-so-famous links style golf courses, including, luckily for us, the St Andrews Old Course, the “home of golf”. Links golf derives from the old Scottish descriptive word, ‘hlincs’, a name applied to the knobby, uncultivated land between the farms and towns and the beach. The land was too poor to be of use for much else than grazing sheep. The character of links golf, therefore, tends to be a bit unruly as well, in that a lot of the irregularities of the landscape are left in place with only nominal smoothing of the putting greens and teeing areas. Here’s a view of the St Andrews 1st and 18th fairways as Jane and I toured them in 2013.

This view shows the 18th fairway on the right and a piece of the first fairway on the left. The building on the left in the background is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the official home of golf.

But as opposed to being there in July 2013, we’re here in April 2016; and the weather is a wee bit cooler and grayer. That means playing in rain suits and more importantly, as we quickly discovered, wind suits. (We’ve been here a week and haven’t really been rained on but the weather has been pretty windy almost every day)

from left to right:  Bruce Disend, Roger DeSpain, Mark Spitzer, Gary Pitcher

To my own chagrin, I’ve learned that it’s hard to play golf, be “in the moment” and all that and also be a good photographer and reporter. So I’ll just say that the Old Course has way more variety, interest and challenge than is apparent from TV; and it was tremendous fun to experience it. As an example, I’ll just show you the “Road Hole” (the holes all have names) which is the 17th and part of the 18th. The Road Hole on the aerial below comes in from the upper left corner to a green that sits right up against a course service road. (It used to be a railroad line that was eventually removed.) On the other side of the road from the green is a stone wall. The key is that everything on the course side of the wall is in play, including the wall.

So that’s why it’s called the Road Hole; but there’s an even bigger surprise up at the 17th tee. In the teeing area there used to be some big sheds that were part of the railroad services. Out of respect for history, or just to be ornery, these sheds have been retained; and to play the hole you have to hit over them to a fairway you can’t see. Here’s Bruce giving it a go, hitting over the dark green sheds, that are now part of the Old Course Hotel to the right (the guys in the blue shirts are our caddies). The last time the Open was played here, Phil Mickelson, who is a lefty and tends to hook the ball to the right, actually curled his drive around the corner and on to one of the hotel balconies – not good.

Once we navigated the tee shot we had to play long running shots towards the green and the road. Roger then had to play his third shot from next to the wall across the road.

And Bruce had to play his from the surface of the road itself

Definitely not what we normally contend with at home.

After that we teed off for the 18th hole and got to walk across the famous Swilcan Bridge that goes over the Swilcan ‘burn’ (or creek) that cuts across both the 18th and 1st fairways on its way to the sea.

Everyone has their picture taken there, with the Royal and Ancient in the background and we were not going to be the exception. We all had a lot of fun dealing with all the unusual situations we never see at home and walking in the footsteps of some famous golfers.  The only thing better would have been to play it again (and we tried) but it was fully booked for the next few days.

But there’s more golf – coming soon

8 Skamania and Stevenson

Heading west from Maryhill along the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge we experienced a much more direct and simplified view of the dramatic scenery.

Without the curving switchbacks of the Oregon historic highway, the broad gestures of the river valley assume more importance and the smaller details get lost. After a moderate amount of time we arrived in Stevenson, just to the right of Skamania Lodge on the map below.

We still needed a place to stay for the night and assumed – correctly – that we’d be able to find a room at the Skamania Lodge. I’d like to be able to say that it was truly a lodge in the grand sense – like Timberline Lodge or Yellowstone – but it’s more of a pleasant hotel, lightly styled as a lodge and used for conferences and meetings as well as for general travelers like us.

It does sit far enough from the river to gain a view from the elevation.

And when you have one big view, all the big rooms take advantage

Some of the open space around the lodge has been dedicated to a nice looking golf course – which also makes it a different level of destination.

I’m not sure what drives the desire to have art trinkets pop up out of the lawn, but here is Skamania’s – a metal and boulder sundial, which was done well enough to keep the time – both standard and daylight.

Finally, here’s the lobby / lounge, a comfortable enough space but also a bit generic and without the charm and craftsmanship of the real lodges.

We had discovered on our way to the hotel that there was an interesting looking Interpretive Center just across the road. It was the one that balances the Discovery Center near the Dalles at the eastern end of the Gorge. The ‘take’ on both the building and its contents varied from the Discovery Center in scale and character.   For example, whereas the Discovery Center used an intimate walkway, water-wall and agrarian inspired architecture, this Interpretive Center adopted a bold, industrial character, combined in an equally bold way with references to volcanic history of the area. I liked the change, though I hope the entry lawn area gets more attention. Right now the display of vehicles seems unfinished or left over.

The entry walkway contrasts older pole construction against a contemporary glass-enclosed lobby. It’s not clear what produced the curved roof. Some thematic basalt column type forms (in concrete) begin a sequence here that carries into the building.

The plaza outside the lobby features some poles carved by Dudley Carter to honor the indian heritage of the area. I think I might have set them in the ground instead of on concrete. The braces are unfortunately necessary and are perhaps symbolically appropriate in showing the remaining indian cultures held up by a modern structure.

The concrete wall arcs across the lobby, defining the connection to the main exhibits with a coarse punched opening that effectively increases the drama of the space.

This carries to the other side of the lobby as well.

Some carved stone with petroglyph markings gives a more organic contrast to the straight lines of all the concrete.

The ruggedness of all this construction carries through to the exhibits as well. This museum clearly focuses on the energy involved in ‘conquering’ this rugged land – and extracting its wealth.

Here’s a really dramatic before and after presentation. First this, now familiar, indian fisherman, presumably at Celilo Falls, using a dip net for salmon,

and then this fish wheel, a contraption constructed to be mounted out in the river and driven by its currents to catch migrating salmon and automatically dump them into containers off to one side. These salmon would then be taken ashore to basic warehouse processing plants where (mostly) immigrants from Asia would cut them up to be packed in cans for shipment around the country.

It’s another reminder of the state of the art technology that came with the settlement by white immigrants of this part of the world – a shock to both nature and the indians.

This Interpretive Center also included many of the domestically scaled elements of settlement, and did not shy away from showing Asian contributions, such as this lovely kimono.

Other examples show the merging of Indian and white cultures. Beads, buttons, and coins were highly prized, along with shells, as decorative elements.

Once the area began to grow out of its raw and rugged phase, people took pride in showing that they knew about finer scaled and crafted household items.

And of course, quilts were created to capture meanings and memories

I love the way the black background brings out the decorative richness.

After this dose of delicacy we finished up outdoors again. Here it appears that the collection of items goes well beyond the 19th century. I didn’t expect to see a diesel engine; so it may be that this museum means to continue to extend the collection farther towards the 21st century.  If so, they’ll need an addition !

For me, this last picture sums the place up.

In the next post I’ll wrap up our trip with one more geologic adventure – Beacon Rock