What you'll find inside No.10
In No.10 travel disruption strikes fear in a father and son as they cling on to the hope of making their Old Course tee time. Murray Bothwell pens a letter to golf and asks the question of why we play the game. A trip to Machrihanish and the unknown as Sam Lowes Raby throws caution to the wind to tee it up with a bunch of strangers in Golf, Guinness and the Ghost of Old Tom. A weakness for charity shops and what you might find hidden among the tat has Richard Pennell searching for forgotten clubs in Dearly Preloved. Stewart Fotheringham has been the greenkeeper at Shiskine on the Isle of Arran since the day he left school. He's never known another job. "I'm an artist and Shiskine is my Canvas." All of this and more in The Links Diary No.10
The Game We Play
Words by Murray Bothwell
Photography by Isaac Paul
It’s a game which, at any age, gives you between 70 and 100 opportunities to execute a perfect, or near perfect, shot that will make you feel elated, boosting your confidence and your standing amongst your peers. And it doesn’t need to be that single shot off the tee which disappears into the hole that does it for most… just the one shot, at any one point in the round, is sufficient. That phrase, “the one shot that brings you back”, sums it all up.
The Art of Par
Words by Jim Hartsell
There are a few great blind par threes in golf - the 5th at Lahinch, 7th at Shiskine, 4th at Dunaverty and the 15th at Cruden Bay among them. The Himalayas hole at Prestwick is the blueprint for them all. Built on the “new” part of the course in 1882 when the layout was expanded from its original 12-hole routing by then professional Charles Hunter, it is the essence of golfing fun. Is there anything more enjoyable in golf than the sense of anticipation while climbing a dune in Scotland after a well-struck shot?
Regius et Antiqua
Words by Jim Hartsell
Photography by Stuart Currie
“You will both have to get out of the line, sir,” came the equally cold response. After standing at the counter for 20 minutes with no further acknowledgement from a single member of the Lufthansa staff, we were finally told there were no more flights to Glasgow that day. “I’m sorry sir, you will have to take this up with United,” without even so much as directions on where to go. Suddenly I started thinking of what we were going to miss, not so much for myself, but for Jake. He was visibly upset, but his sense of humor was intact. “This would be like Frodo and Sam getting all the way to Mount Doom and the Eagles grabbing them and taking them back to The Shire to start over,” he said drily.
Golf, Guinness and the Ghost of Old Tom
Words by Sam Lowes Raby
Photography by Graeme McCubbin
Folks, a journey to the sacred grounds of Scottish golf demands more than just packing a sturdy windbreaker and a healthy dose of self-deprecation for those inevitable duffed shots. It requires a swing finely tuned to battle the elements and a mental game as steady as a seasoned caddie's hand on a 40mph gust. Especially when you're about to embark on the ultimate Kintyre golfing adventure with a swing that's as unstable as mine.
Fairway to Fatherhood
Words by Reece Witters
Photography by Isaac Paul
A Dunvegan coffee mug lay on its side at the end of a well-worn strip of hallway carpet, the target of Douglas Tartanbuckle's nightly ritual. Dougie, a 41-year-old father of two, stood 5’10”, right-handed with a cack-hand grip and a mildly rotund stature that spoke of too many clubhouse pies. His lifelong addiction to golf was now squeezed into stolen moments, his passion forced into hibernation by the demands of fatherhood and the occasional rogue LEGO piece.
Dearly Preloved
Words by Richard Pennell
Photography by Simon Pope
And so, after all these years of chopping and changing; after so many clubs that have passed through my hands, I feel settled. The half set that is leaning against Eric is neither perfect nor custom-fitted, except that it is…for me. I don’t know what life each of these friends lived before they found me, but I am glad they did, and glad to care for them. Glad to be the one to take them for another spin.
Cutting Pins
Words by Murray Bothwell
Photography by Graeme McCubbin
“I don’t get approached much by the members out on the course with a variety of suggestions either, which is helpful: there used to be greenkeepers in the past who might have been requested to do a certain thing on the course by one member only to find, an hour later, that another member requested the exact opposite. I’m glad that the team here are happy with what they see and experience. Over the years, I’ve had good Greens Conveners on Committee and I don’t see them down at my shed every day, so I’m taking that as a good thing and that I can be trusted to get on with it myself! And those visitors who come here for the first time just rave about it. I suppose I like to think of myself as an artist and Shiskine is my canvas.
Pennink's Way
Words by Gary Henderson
Photography by Stuart Currie
One of the real double-edged swords with the incredible growth of the game in the past half- decade – bringing with it a slew of influencers, video series and publications - it is that it’s getting harder and harder to find a proper ‘hidden gem’ of a course. The kind of course you and your mates can book a time for the day before and not be faced with double the green fee you would’ve paid five years ago and not been near bankrupted in the pro-shop, you know the ones. Thankfully – although say it quietly and in hushed tones – there are still some incredible and relatively unknown courses to be discovered in Scotland. Technically, for this one, you need to cross the border. But not by far, and not for long.