Nothing causes my golf heart to flutter quite as much as a links or links-style course on the water. The wind. The salty air. The glimpses of the sea, and the chance to hit punch shots and bump-and-runs the whole round through. I love it all.
Even better is when the layout also happens to feature a lighthouse, whether on the property or just beyond its borders.
There is the simple beauty of those structures, some spindly, others stout, most bearing stripes of different colors. I also like how the towers reinforce the ruggedness of the course and the ways that golf truly takes us back to nature.
In addition, I appreciate the sweeping views from the handful of lighthouses I have huffed-and-puffed my way up narrow circular stairs to their tops. And while these days the buildings are invariably unoccupied and automated, I cannot help but think of what life was like decades ago for the keepers and their families who resided in them. Solitary, to be sure. Scary, too, when big storms rolled in. But as scenic as any place on the planet. And there had to have been a certain satisfaction in watching a ship successfully navigate the rocky waters their lighthouse was illuminating.
... the towers reinforce the ruggedness of the course and the ways that golf truly takes us back to nature.
Then, there is the history of the individual edifices. During a recent visit to Sankaty Head on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, for example, I learned the red, black and white lighthouse from which the golf club takes its name – and logo – was built in 1849 at a cost of $10,330. The structure rises 158 feet above sea level and for nearly a century used a single-wick whale-oil lamp and a French Fresnel lens to guide sailors before converting to electricity. How appropriate, I thought, for a place once regarded as the whaling capital of the world.
I also like the story of the Turnberry Lighthouse in Scotland, which has been warning sea captains of the perils of Bristo Rock since 1873 – and which stands on what was the moat of Turnberry Castle, where Robert the Bruce, king of the Scots in the early 14th century, was said to have been born.
Fortunately, Sankaty Head and Turnberry are but two of many lighthouses I have come across during my golf travels. There is Point Pinos, which is visible from the Pacific Grove Golf Links on California’s Monterey Peninsula, and Harbour Town at the Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Another beaut is the black-and-white lighthouse on the vertigo-inducing promontory on which the Old Head golf course is routed in southwest Ireland. Although I have yet to visit Cape Wickham Links on King Island in Australia, I have seen photographs of the lighthouse of that acclaimed track; with a height of 157 feet, it is Australia’s tallest.
Let there be light.
John Steinbreder
E-MAIL JOHN
Top: The Turnberry Lighthouse presides over the par-3 ninth on the Ailsa Course and rugged South Ayrshire coast.
DAVID CANNON, GETTY IMAGES