What you'll find inside No.9
In No.9 we discover the story of a Millionaire management consultant who started a scheme to train selected young professional golfers in a bid to produce a major champion by 1967. Jim Hartsell pens a love letter to a 9 holer in an enchanted glen on the Isle of Arran. Arnold Palmer steered the way for the American onslaught of the Open Championship in his usual flamboyant manner, and Gary Henderson admits to shamefully only discovering the joys of North Berwick in recent years. Gift yourself some quiet time with 144 pages of golf for the soul. All of this and more in TLD No.9.
Arnie's Open
Words by Gary Henderson
Alamy Photography
My one confession early doors here is that – prior to writing this article – I knew next to nothing about the 1962 Open. My own golf history starts with a baggy red jumper in April 1997. A 40 on the front 9, you know the rest.
The Art of Par
With Tom Mckenzie of Mackenize & Ebert International Golf Course Architects
Photography by Graeme McCubbin
Our vision for the 17th hole at Western Gailes was twofold: to introduce more strategic elements and to improve playability and safety. The blind second shot had long been a source of concern, with tales of golfers searching for balls in the heathery hillside and near misses as they remained hidden from the group behind. A cross positioned behind the green, that had become spiritual to some, was your guide on your second shot, or sometimes third. The mogul-like linksland approach to the green site lay hidden from the player's view, only revealing itself upon climbing the ridge.
The Piano Cover at the B Conference
Words by Richard Pennell
Photography by Simon Pope
Twice a hole has been won in no fewer than eleven strokes, and one match concluded on the twenty-eighth green, after a second pit-stop at the hut. The walk in from there is generally into a sou-wester and fairly arduous; for the losing side, it must have felt like an eternal trudge along that ancient highway, and one wonders if they stopped at the hut a third time en route, to take the edge off that bitterest of defeats. Bernard Darwin once labelled that Hewitt golf which puts up a strong fight only to lose “good useless golf”, and it is hard to imagine a more pertinent example.
The Links Gallery
With Isaac M. Paul
The combination of golf and photography or filmmaking is joining many different passions, the combination of art and science. Creativity and solitude. In the end, I'm just having fun and trying to leave something behind with my work.
4000 BC Tee Time
Words by Reece Witters
Photography by Graeme McCubbin
Selecting the terrain for the project was a process marked by both imagination and caffeine-fuelled late nights. In their quest to create an unparalleled digital golfing experience, the team went on a golf design Easter Egg Hunt, seeking a real-world piece of land that not only offered the natural beauty and strategic complexity worthy of a top-tier golf course, but also held the potential for a profound historical narrative.
Unchanged but Never the Same
Words by Gary Henderson
Photography by Stuart Currie
I’ve been lucky enough to wander the west links at North Berwick on about half a dozen occasions. No two shots have ever been the same. Conditions, angles, wind, and pins have all mingled and intertwined on every outing, presenting me with a rubix cube of pure golf.
The Butten Boy
Words by Murray Bothwell
Photography by Graeme McCubbin
“These four young men,” said the interviewer in his clipped English accent, “Sandy Wilson, Tony Martin, Jim McAlister and Tommy Horton have just signed away their freedom for the next three years. There is an escape clause if they want it, but the plan is that for those three years they'll do exactly what they’re told. They'll eat what they're told when they're told, and even learn to breathe the way they’re told, and all this is with one aim in mind… to produce a British golfer who by 1967 will win the British Open and the American Open Championship.
The Enchanted Glen
Words by Jim Hartsell
Photography by Stuart Currie
In April 2023, I convinced my friend Todd Schuster (aka Tron Carter) of the US golf media group No Laying Up (NLU)to visit Arran. The demands on NLU’s time - and the number of places they are asked to visit - are astronomical. Despite the implied pressure associated with such a strong recommendation, I was confident in my endorsement. The resulting three days of golf with old Scottish friends - and a new friend, Corrie greenkeeper Ewan McKinnon - exceeded even my highest expectations. We spent each evening in the Corrie Hotel bar - recounting the good shots and laughing over the bad ones – over a long meal, ending with a flight of Arran Ice Cream and the local oak smoked cheddar. None of us wanted those nights to end.
The Greatest Hole in One in the History of Golf
Words by Jim Hartsell
Using a 20-degree Mizuno hybrid, which he bought for £25 from a second-hand bin “because it was blue,” he struck a lovely, straight, low-rising shot. Finlay assumed it had made the green – a major accomplishment on the stunning monster of a hole. He once scored a 14 on the 3rd in the annual Iona Open; after flailing about helplessly in the colossal sand pit like Bernard Darwin’s proverbial “angry man with a niblick.” It is a hole where a bogey is celebrated like a birdie. “I can’t see it anywhere.” Assuming it had gone through the green and into the rough, Finlay walked towards the towering rock formations which frame the hole. Suddenly MacLeod-Jardine started shouting as he looked down into the deep Iona cup.