When folks discuss golf in Fife, the dialog is sort of all the time assured to show to the Outdated Course at St Andrews. It’s, in spite of everything, The House of Golf and a bucket-list vacation spot for many golfers. However this {golfing} kingdom has a lot else to supply.
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Inside half an hour’s drive of certainly one of golf’s most well-known golf programs lies a group of programs which can be various, conventional, and each bit as thrilling as their well-known neighbour.
That was the invention for Tom Irwin and Mike Robertson once they spent 48 hours on the highway filming for NCG Prime 100s YouTube channel. What they discovered was a {golfing} area that refuses to be outlined by one course.
Their journey included stops at historic hyperlinks programs in Elie, characterful seaside classics in Dumbarnie and Kingsbarns, and even a hidden heathland course within the type of Ladybank. Every cease was completely different and confirmed why the Kingdom of Fife is probably the best short-break vacation spot in golf.
Dumbarnie Hyperlinks – A Enjoyable Hyperlinks Course
Dumbarnie is not like many trendy championship hyperlinks. Relatively than bludgeoning gamers with brute problem, it units out to be a golf course that’s enjoyable to play. To not point out the excellent views gamers are greeted with on practically each tee field, looking to the beautiful shoreline.
“That is formally the very best clubhouse in Europe. That’s due to the view,” mentioned Tom Irwin. “Each time you go spherical a nook and stand on a tee or step onto an elevated inexperienced, the views are superb. There are many beneficiant fairways that the ball kind of desires to get again to the center of. I believe it’s a very, superb vibes kind of place.
“The fifteenth is fairly cool right here. I’ve performed a great deal of golf programs which have tried to construct in a break up fairway and I’ve by no means seen it work as a result of there may be by no means any cause to minimize the mushy possibility. However the one right here, I do suppose it really works due to how slim it’s down the appropriate hand aspect and golfers can nonetheless stand up down the left hand aspect. I believe it’s the greatest break up fairway I’ve ever performed.”
Watch 48 Hours In Fife
For Mike Robertson, the joy of the spherical is about even earlier than you arrive on the golf course. “Tom mentioned on the best way up right here that it’s simply birdies a a lot – and he was proper.”
Dumbarnie is enjoyable, forgiving, and spectacular on the attention. It’s the type of course that makes each Fife journey stronger. “I believe you’d must put this place in your listing of golf programs to play if you happen to have been coming to Fife on a multi-course journey,” mentioned Irwin.
“Simply due to the range the golf course gives and I believe you’ll have a extremely good morning or afternoons golf right here at Dumbarnie, no matter the way you play.”
Elie Golf Membership – Golf in One other Galaxy
Elie is certainly one of Scotland’s most characterful hyperlinks. It represents what the sport is all about and its traditions are woven into the very cloth of the sport. Elie is the kind of course to make you fall in love with golf yet again.
“If I solely had one spherical of golf left that I may play earlier than I die, I believe it could be at Elie,” mentioned Robertson. “The entire place from the minute you get into the automobile park to the clubhouse the place you may see the empty bottles of claret that the members have drank earlier than they exit to play. You then get to the golf course and there’s a periscope on the primary with the starter who provides you a thumbs as much as let you realize you’re good to go.
“It simply seems like enjoying golf in a unique galaxy, principally. Elie is simply all the things that’s proper concerning the sport of golf.”
Irwin agreed, “I believe it is without doubt one of the purest hyperlinks golf experiences wherever. It’s got the entire St Andrews feels of enjoying within the city. The holes down by the coast are simply sensational however the turf the entire manner round is amazin. And it provides you an opportunity. It’s the kind of place you need to play endlessly, principally.
“I’ve been right here three or 4 instances over possibly two or three many years and it’s each single bit nearly as good as I bear in mind.”
Kingsbarns Golf Hyperlinks – A Trendy Traditional
Kingsbarns has a popularity amongst many eager golfers as certainly one of Scotland’s must-plays. When it comes to golf programs, Kingsbarns is as cinematic because it will get. Seemingly each nook turned seems like one other postcard image simply ready to be taken. However, from a {golfing} perspective, its not overly intimidating.
“It’s a playable golf course,” mentioned Irwin. “It provides you an opportunity off the tee with loads of width on provide and there’s all the time an apparent miss. I discover it aides in getting you again to the centre of the golf green.
“The enjoyable begins across the greens. They’re huge and slopey. They’re additionally extremely pure and tremendous quick.”
“All the things about this place is kind of dramatic,” mentioned Robertson. “They need you to stroll by means of little pathways after which immediately there’s a huge reveal out to some beautiful golf gap.”
Ladybank Golf Membership – Fife’s Woodland Secret
Not all of Fife’s best are hyperlinks. Simply inland lies Ladybank, a pine-clad gem that provides one thing solely completely different. It additionally hosted a well-known match between Jack Nicklaus and Steve Ballesteros who rocked as much as the course by way of helicopter and ended up enjoying in entrance of 1000’s of spectators who swarmed the course.
The compact greens and complicated shaping reward precision, make Ladybank a change, however a welcomed one, of tempo from different coastal checks.
“It was my first time enjoying Ladybank and I didn’t actually know what to anticipate,” mentioned Robertson. “However I assumed it was actually, actually cool. The turf may be very springy, virtually such as you’re enjoying golf in Surrey. It doesn’t notably really feel as if you happen to’re in St Andrews, nevertheless it’s an epic course and would add it to any journey to Fife, undoubtedly.”
The Magic of Fife
Fife is commonly described because the cradle of golf, and we discovered there may be good cause for that. Fife delivers unrivalled selection and, probably even, high quality.
As Irwin put it: “Folks say there’s something magical concerning the Kingdom of Fife on the subject of golf. We’ve had all types of climate, a tremendous evening in St Andrews itself and we’ve skilled 4 completely distinctive {golfing} experiences.
“The massive, blown up hyperlinks at Kingsbarn advert Dumbarnie, an 150 yr previous hyperlinks at Elie and a comparatively younger golf course carved out of a pine forest that couldn’t be extra completely different in Ladybank golf membership.”
Sure, the Outdated Course will all the time reign supreme over this area and lots of others, however to play solely there may be to overlook the total riches of this superb place. A golf journey to Fife is just not full with out stepping past St Andrews’ boundaries and discovering some actually unimaginable golf programs.
Watch 48 Hours In Fife
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Have you ever performed golf in Fife earlier than? That are the programs, in Fife, you’d most prefer to play? Have you ever performed at Dumbarnie, Kingsbarn, Ladybank or Elie? Let me know your experiences of {golfing} in Fife by leaving a touch upon X.
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