At the end of the trip, sitting in an Irish Pub in old town Edinburgh, we put together a composite course from the 7 courses that we played. There were so many good contenders for each hole – it was tough to pick only one. Amazingly, all 7 courses that we played are represented on the list, which we didn’t try to do that, but certainly speaks to the quality of courses that we played. North Berwick leads the way with a whopping 6 holes. We loved so many par 3s on the trip but ironically only one made the list…guess it’s tough to beat so many all world two-shotters.
Hole # – Course (par)
1 – Berwick (4) [honourable mentions: Prestwick, Elie, Old]
2 – Old (4) [honourable mentions: Berwick, Elie, Carnousite]
3 – Prestwick (5) [honourable mentions: Dunbar, Berwick, Elie, Carnoustie]
4 – Dunbar (4) [honourable mentions: Prestwick, Old]
5 – Carnoustie (4) [honourable mentions: Prestwick, Old]
6 – Elie (4) [honourable mentions: Prestwick, Carnoustie]
7 – Dunbar (4) [honourable mentions: New, Elie, Old]
8 – New (5) [honourable mentions: Prestwick, Elie]
9 – Berwick (5) [honourable mentions: Dunbar, Prestwick, New, Elie, Carnoustie]
OUT – 39 (par)
10 – Elie (4) [honourable mentions: Berwick, Prestwick]
11 – Old (3) [honourable mentions: Prestwick, New, Elie]
12 – Dunbar (4) [honourable mentions: Elie, Old]
13 – Berwick (4) [honourable mentions: Dunbar, Prestwick, Elie, Old]
14 – Berwick (4) [honourable mentions: Old, Carnousite]
15 – Prestwick (4) [honourable mentions: Dunbar, Berwick, Elie, Old, Carnousite]
16 – Berwick (4) [honourable mentions: Prestwick, Old, Carnoustie]
17 – Old (4) [honourable mentions: Dunbar, Berwick, Prestwick, Carnoustie]
18 – Berwick (4) [honourable mentions: Prestwick, Old, Carnoustie]
IN – 35 (par)
TOTAL – 74 (par)
We also tried to come up with “superlatives” for each course since it’s too hard to pick our “favourite” course or the “best” course. Overall this is what we came up with on our last night:
- DUNBAR: biggest hidden gem (maybe in all of Scotland?)
- NORTH BERWICK: where we would all pick to have a membership
- PRESTWICK: most different/unique/profound course we’ve ever played
- NEW: most pleasant round of the trip (the walk, the weather, the conditions)
- ELIE: most fun course we’ve ever played (+ shoutout to the bagpiper and the 19th hole pub next to #4 tee)
- OLD: if we could only play one course for the rest of our lives (not an insignificant course/town in the game of golf)
- CARNOUSTIE: most (thoughtful) championship test
And only half joking, I said this line the last night of the trip which seemed to encapsulate our golf experience: “#11 at Prestwick might’ve been the best par 3 we played on the entire trip, and it wasn’t even the best par 3 at Prestwick”
In the wise words of Chris, “yeaahhhh golf shot”.
–Mark