King of clubs
CARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND | In some three dozen golf pilgrimages to Great Britain and Ireland over the years, I have always been someone’s guest. But last week, I enjoyed the game’s ancestral home in a very different way, as an actual member of an association on that side of the pond, the Carnoustie Golf Club. It made what is invariably a wonderful experience even better.
Carnoustie is located on the North Sea on the southeast coast of Scotland, at the mouth of the Barry Burn. Locals have played golf on the town’s expansive links since the 16th century, and the ground today features three layouts, the best known of which is the Championship Course. The site of eight British Opens, it hosted the first of those in 1931, when my new retreat was nearly a century old and boasted a clubhouse about a mid-iron away from the first tee.
Carnoustie’s history as an Open venue is impressive. So is the roster of golfers who have prevailed there, including Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Tom Watson. But what also commends the place is how golf is such a deep part of the town’s social and cultural fabric. And the links there positively bustle with players for much of the year. The Championship Course is the favorite, for out-of-town golfers and many of the locals. But Carnoustians also enjoy the Burnside and Buddon tracks, both of which provide good fun and good tests.
As is the case with St. Andrews, the links at Carnoustie is held in a public trust and open to all comers, which endows the game there with a very pleasing sense of accessibility. And there are several associations that in effect operate as clubs without courses, organizing their own tournaments as well as matches against clubs. Their clubhouses are places to gather for drinks and meals before and after rounds. Some places, such as the Carnoustie Ladies Golf Club, which was founded in 1873 and is regarded as the oldest women’s golf organization in the game, even offers afternoon tea.
I am not quite sure how or why I got the nod at the Carnoustie Golf Club. But I can tell you that I am very glad to have been welcomed into the fold. I liked that winners of our club championship include local hero Alex Smith, who also happened to take a couple of U.S. Opens, in 1906 and 1910, and his brother Willie, who also won America’s national championship in 1899. The club also made Arnold Palmer a life member in 1992 and saw fit some decades ago to create a room in honor of Ben Hogan, who locals came to revere when he spent some two weeks in town preparing for the only Open Championship he ever entered, in 1953. Display cases are filled with silver trophies, cups, shields, plates and medals that Carnoustie Golf Club members won around the world.
Another allure of my new retreat is a sense of informality. Several caddies are members, including the 22-year-old lad Ryan, who toted my bag around the links for a few days. His father and grandfather are part of the Carnoustie Golf Club as well, as are a couple of past club champs. The bartender, Robert, went out to play the Championship Course with some mates one morning, and members thought nothing of filling in for him while he was enjoying his round.
By my third day in town, my fellow members and those who worked at the club greeted me warmly, and by name, each time I walked in. And I felt a bit of sadness when I bade them goodbye after a wonderful week in town.
“Haste ye back,” Robert said with a wide smile.
And I promised that I certainly would.
After all, I now have a club in Carnoustie.
John Steinbreder
E-MAIL JOHN
Top: Carnoustie Golf Links clubhouse
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