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One of two golf courses within North Berwick, the West Links is by far the more renowned. It regularly holds various championships and is used as a qualifying venue when The Open Championship is held at Muirfield (most recently 2013). It was opened in 1832 and occupies a place at the centre of golfing history.
The area which is home to the course today - a strip of land adjacent to the beach and extending westward over 2 miles from the edge of the town centre to the nature reserve at Yellowcraigs - has been used for golf for at least 400 years, although early participants were not welcomed by local landowners or authorities. The course was officially opened in 1832 with 6 holes, necessitating competitions to be played over 3 rounds. After a period of expansion which began in 1868, the course featured 18 holes by 1877 and was extended to a "full length" of 6095 yards in 1895. The last major alteration to the course was masterminded by Ben Sayers in 1932, since which time the layout of the course has hardly changed. Today the course measures 6,420 yards.
Four golf clubs are based at the West Links - the North Berwick Golf Club (founded 1832), Tantallon Golf Club (1853), Bass Rock Golf Club (1873) and the North Berwick Ladies Golf Club (1888). The North Berwick G.C. is the 13th oldest club in the world and only St. Andrews has a club which has continuously played over the same course for longer. In 2005 it voted to give ladies full rights as members for the first time - ironic as it was originally the first club in the world to allow ladies to become members.
Its signature hole is thought by many to be the 15th, "Redan", a par-3 which starts with a blind tee-shot over a valley towards the green which is perched on a hill beyond and tilted away and to the left. The design of the hole has been copied on several newer courses around the world, particularly in Japan. One of the earliest copies of the Redan hole is the 7th at Shinnecock Hills, famous for the trouble it caused players during the 2004 U.S. Open. The Redan at North Berwick is preceded (see map) by an heroic stretch of three holes: The 12th hole "Bass" which requires a knowledgeable tee shot in order to afford the best angle into the green, the 13th hole "Pit" where an ancient stone wall fronts a relatively small green, and the blind-approach 14th hole "Perfection" which can yield a wide range of scores even in ideal conditions. The 16th hole "Gate" features a divided green, with two raised surfaces divided by a punishing valley, a rare feature in the golfing world because of the lack of courage among modern architects to propose such a hole to golf course developers.
The North Berwick Golf Club and the Tantallon Golf Club both maintain clubhouses, the former with the prime location off the 18th green and the latter just over the road. Both clubhouses have changing rooms and dining facilities. As part of "The Sayers Project", the NBGC is planning to expand their clubhouse to include better leisure facilities. They also intend to incorporate the David Huish Pro Shop into the main building and use the site currently occupied by the shop for state-of-the-art practice bays and swing analysis technology.
At the far end of the course there is a practice area within the loop created by the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th holes. The area features a driving / iron play field (no automatic ball retrieval) and a multi-hole putting green.
In 1980 Alistair Beaton Adamson, a lifelong member of the club, wrote a history of the club entitled "In the wind's eye" with humour and deep appreciation of the important part the course has played on the world golfing stage. The book includes many b&w photos, colour illustrations and a plethora of facts. It is now very rare and cherished by those lucky enough to own a copy.
A golf course is the grounds where the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The cup holds a flagstick, known as a "pin". A standard round of golf consists of 18 holes. Most courses contain 18 holes; some share fairways or greens, and a subset has nine holes, played twice per round. Par-3 courses consist of nine or 18 holes all of which have a par of three strokes.
Redan is a feature of fortifications. It is a work in a V-shaped salient angle towards an expected attack. It can be made from earthworks or other material.
Royal Troon Golf Club is a links golf course in Scotland, located in Troon, South Ayrshire, southwest of Glasgow.
The following is a glossary of the terminology currently used in the sport of golf. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Old names for clubs can be found at Obsolete golf clubs.
Royal Portrush Golf Club is a private golf club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The 36-hole club has two links courses, the Dunluce Links and the Valley Links. The former is one of the courses on the rota of the Open Championship and last hosted the tournament in 2019.
Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich is a links golf course located in Sandwich in Kent in South East England. Prince's is immediately adjacent to the more famous Royal St George's golf club, and both clubs lie on the same stretch of coastline as nearby Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club. It is notable for hosting the 1932 Open Championship.
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is a links-style golf club located in an unincorporated area of the Town of Southampton on Long Island, New York, situated between the Peconic Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
The Riviera Country Club is a private club with a championship golf course and tennis courts in the Los Angeles, California neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, in the Westside of Los Angeles.
The Olympic Club is an athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, California.
Oakland Hills Country Club is a private golf club in the central United States, located in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, a suburb northwest of Detroit. It consists of two 18-hole courses designed by Donald Ross: the South Course (1918) and the North Course (1923).
Sand Ridge Golf Club, was designed by Tom Fazio and is located in Munson Township, Geauga County, Ohio, near Chardon. Construction on the course started in late 1995 and opened for its private members on May 18, 1998. The course was built on 370 acres (1.5 km2) of woods, pastures and wetlands located next to the Fairmount Minerals sandstone quarry in Chardon. It also contains the headwaters of both the Chagrin and Cuyahoga rivers.
Waialae Country Club is a private country club in East Honolulu, Hawaii. Founded 95 years ago in 1927 and designed by Seth Raynor, it is a par 72 championship course at 7,125 yards (6,515 m) from the Championship tees. From the Members tees at 6,456 yards (5,903 m), the course rating is 71.8 with a slope rating of 136.
Panmure Golf Club is a golf club close to the village of Barry, Angus, Scotland. It is one of the clubs that originally helped purchase the Amateur Championship trophy, and is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world, dating back to 1845. It is a private club that plays over the Barry Links, and is sometimes referred to as Barry or Panmure Barry. Due to its location next to Carnoustie it is often overlooked by visitors, and with the number of members limited to 500 it is one of the most underplayed courses in Scotland.
Kingston Heath Golf Club is one of the premier golf clubs in Australia, located in Cheltenham, Victoria. The course is situated on the sandbelt region in the southeast suburbs of Melbourne famed for its golf courses, with Kingston Heath consistently ranked in the top 3 courses in Australia and top 20 courses in the world.
The Santa Anita Golf Course, located in the city of Arcadia, California, was operated by Santa Anita Associates for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation from 1986-2016. New operators will take over beginning September 2016.
National Golf Links of America is a prestigious links-style golf course in Southampton, New York, located on Long Island between Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and Peconic Bay. Though the course is noted for hosting the initial Walker Cup in 1922, which the United States won 8 and 4, it has never hosted a major men's championship. The Walker Cup was again held at the National in 2013. The private club has been called "America's snootiest golf course" due to its exclusive nature.
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
The Detroit Golf Club is a private golf club located in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan in the middle of a neighborhood area on north side of the city near the University of Detroit Mercy and Palmer Woods Historic District. Bert Way designed the original 6-hole course. It was expanded to 9 holes, and finally Donald Ross built the current 36-hole course. The club grounds crew maintains two courses, the North and the South Course. The head pro is Josh Upson. Starting in 2019, Detroit Golf Club began hosting the Rocket Mortgage Classic, a new annual PGA Tour event.
Harpenden Common Golf Club is a private members' golf club in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.
Robert Chambers was a Scottish publisher, editor of Chambers' Journal, amateur golfer and encyclopaedist, the son of Robert Chambers, the co-founder of the W & R Chambers publishing house in Edinburgh.