{"id":336,"date":"2012-05-13T02:16:04","date_gmt":"2012-05-13T02:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daviddesmith.com\/?p=336"},"modified":"2013-05-10T00:48:05","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T00:48:05","slug":"machrihanish-dunes-offers-golf-the-way-it-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/golf\/336\/machrihanish-dunes-offers-golf-the-way-it-began","title":{"rendered":"Machrihanish Dunes Offers Golf The Way It Began"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The par-3 14th at Machrihanish Dunes<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1879, Old Tom Morris traveled all the way across Scotland from St. Andrews, down the Mull of Kintyre, to the quiet village of Machrihanish.\u00a0 He\u2019d come to aid in the design of a golf course that\u2019s known today as Machrihanish Golf Club.\u00a0 Morris loved the site of the course, telling the world that God clearly had created it just for golf.<\/p>\n

One hundred and thirty years later, a second course opened in Machrihanish \u2013 right next door to its older neighbor.\u00a0 But giving birth to Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club was by no means easy.\u00a0 That\u2019s because Machrihanish Dunes sits on what the U.K. government calls a \u201csite of special scientific interest.\u201d\u00a0 The presence of several rare species of orchids and moths meant that building anything on the site would be all but impossible.\u00a0 But the course\u2019s developers weren\u2019t daunted.\u00a0 They worked with the government agencies to find a way \u2013 and brought in Scots golf course architect David McLay Kidd to explain how a course could be built in such a place and be a boon to its ecosystem.\u00a0 Kidd, he of Bandon Dunes fame, had frolicked among these dunes as a child while on holiday in the area with his family.\u00a0 He explained how a great course could be built with minimal disruption of the land \u2013 not with heavy equipment, but the old fashioned way.<\/p>\n

The land didn\u2019t need much; when I visited the site prior to the beginning of construction, it was easy to see where the holes would go.\u00a0 Kidd ended up identifying 23 natural holes on the course\u2019s 250 acres, chose the 18 best ones, and created a routing and construction plan that in the end met with the approval of the land\u2019s protectors.<\/p>\n

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Machrihanish Dunes' incomparable 13th green<\/p><\/div>\n

When all was said and done, Kidd and his crew (which included noted designer Tall Paul Kimber) only touched seven of the 250 acres.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, just seven.\u00a0 They identified tees and greens and shaped those to some degree, but the rest of the course you play today is by and large just the way Nature created it.\u00a0 It\u2019s golf the way it used to be \u2013 with blind shots, humps and hollows, dips and swales and greens the likes of which you won\u2019t encounter in too many other places.\u00a0 Machrihanish Dunes reminds me of courses like Lahinch, The Machrie and Ashkernish, courses where it\u2019s the land that dictates what kind of shot you\u2019ll play, not your GPS or yardage book.<\/p>\n

Here you\u2019ll find reachable par 4s and all-but-unreachable ones, along with a group of par 3s that are as scenic and challenging as any you\u2019ll find anywhere.\u00a0 There are six greens and five tees right at the ocean\u2019s edge, so the sound of the pounding surf is your constant companion.<\/p>\n

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Sunset over the 9th green at Machrihanish Dunes,<\/p><\/div>\n

For Golf Director Keith Martin, Course Superintendent Kevin Smith and the rest of their crew, course maintenance is a challenge.\u00a0 Because of the ecological sensitivity of the site, chemical fertilizers and herbicides are not an option.\u00a0 Instead, they pick the daisies by hand, and have a herd of Hebridean black sheep to assist with the trimming of the rough.\u00a0 This is golf the way it began, and from beginning to end, it\u2019s absolutely marvelous.<\/p>\n

Today the Golf Road Warriors took on Machrihanish Dunes in bright sunny weather with just a gentle breeze.\u00a0 It was the highlight of the golf trip \u2013 and memories of its tumbling fairways, amazing greens and unmatched setting will stay with me for a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1879, Old Tom Morris traveled all the way across Scotland from St. Andrews, down the Mull of Kintyre, to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[420362,420363,420366,420369,9,420357,17],"tags":[1023,56,358250,4282,420398,104484,420399,104486],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visitscotland","category-venues-scotland","category-machrihanish-dunes-gc","category-grw-scotland","category-golf","category-machrihanish-dunes","category-courses-and-travel","tag-david-mclay-kidd","tag-old-tom-morris","tag-southworth-development","tag-scotland-golf","tag-machrihanish-dunes-golf","tag-machrihanish-golf-club","tag-paul-kimber","tag-the-village-at-machrihanish-dunes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/05\/Machrihanish-Dunes-15.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}