April 1st, 2024 —
After a half day in Edinburgh, Tim and I gathered our bags, picked up the rental car, and headed for the airport to unite with the rest of our crew. Miraculously there were only minor delays and all bags made it on time, a huge relief. Picking up Mark and Phil we loaded the car and drove directly to our first stop, Dunbar Golf Club.
It’s been called the Pebble Beach of Scotland. In our own words it has been called the biggest hidden gem of our trip, one of us even went as far as suggesting it may be the biggest hidden gem in the world, but we have been known to be a bit hyperbolic at times. Either way, there was no doubt that Dunbar was a special place, and an incredible way to start our trip.
Driving straight from the airport we had lunch and a couple beers at the lovely Black Agnus on High Street. After that it was only a 2 minute drive from downtown to the course entrance, a common theme throughout the trip. We arrived 20 minutes before our tee time, we had just enough time to unpack the travel bags, put on every layer we brought, repack the car, raid the pro shop and hit the first tee.
A couple rusty swings and a breakfast ball or three eventually led to 4 pars on the gentle opening par 5 1st. The 3rd, a downhill par 3 playing out toward the water and dead into the wind was a memorable one. The team of Phil and Mark stuck 6 and 5 irons from 145 to set up 2 pars and take a 1UP lead, one they would not relinquish the rest of the day.
Off the back of the 3rd green we encountered our first of two wall crossings. The wall at Dunbar runs all down the right side of the front nine framing the course with a hard OB line. The 4th tee really sets the tone for the round as the sea breeze hits you in the face for the first time and continues to do so for the next 3 hours.
We played through some serious weather on this day. The temperature reached a balmy high of 45 degrees with constant wind and a pestering rain that occasionally became hail. Hands were cold and everything we owned was wet but the brilliance of the golf course still shone through. A couple of our favorites were the par 4 7th.
The par 5 9th which presents a hidden tee shot up a big slope, then a second back down into a huge valley and towards a well bunkered green, here is Tim’s second at the 9th.
The par 4 12th was a bear on this day playing into the teeth of the wind, but even my double bogie (or “x”) wasn’t enough to hide the beauty of this hole. This sweeping fairway bends right the whole way and the approach shot onto this peninsula green with water all down the right was one of the best shots of the day.
The short par 4 13th had a top 5 green site on the whole trip. Walking up the slope just short of the green reveals a magnificent punch bowl style green, this was a truly fun hole that could’ve been played a hundred different ways.
And last but not least, one of the signature holes, teeing off with the North Sea just steps behind us, the par 3 16th played dead down wind to a deceptive green – Mark hit P-wedge from 170, landing it short and rolling it 30 yards to finish pin high.
All in all we walked off the 18th green completely soaked through our rain gear, cold to the bone, and wholly blown away. The prior 4 hours had taught us 2 things: 1. if the rest of golf we had planned was half as good as this one we were in for a heck of a ride and 2. if the weather was going to stay this way, despite using every inch of our airbnb as a drying rack, we were going to run out of dry clothes.
–Luke