My Scotland Adventure…Nairn Golf Club

Our Scotland adventure continued with a trip along the Moray Firth to another classic, historic links course, The Nairn Golf Club.

Nairn has a wonderful pedigree and is consistently ranked as one of the best links courses in Scotland. With icons like Archie Simpson, Old Tom Morris and James Braid all having spent time designing or altering the layout over the years Nairn’s lineage is unrivaled.

We were coming off our 36 hole day at Royal Dornoch and so very hopeful that this true links would be flat as our weary legs needed a rest. As luck would have it Nairn is laid out on a divine piece of linksland with just one climb that could be called steep and for that we were grateful.

The modern clubhouse hides a good old fashioned links and despite all the rain they had received before we arrived it still played fast and firm. Sitting hard against the Moray Firth we once again were thrilled by the ever-present views of the water.

The starter was very friendly and gave us a crash course on the ins and out of Nairn. We had a bit of a breeze to deal with of course and that can be a problem as the first tee asks for a shot right along the beach and the starter did tell us that with the tide out we could play from the beach if we happened to slice on onto the sand. We hoped we wouldn’t have to try that one.

As we had found with all the courses we had visited the pro shop staff, starters and members were kind and generous with their tips on how to play their course. And Nairn likes to take care of their golfers so the started gave us a menu and told us to select our lunch from the grill and check back in when we finished and they would have our lunch ready as soon as we made it up to the grill room. I thought it was a nice touch.

We were greeted with our usual Scottish weather: bright sun, warm temperatures and a slight breeze. Who says it rains all the time over here?

The first few holes play right along the water and we were having a ball once again. But for one of the rare times in our trip were were being held up by the group ahead of us.

We had seen the four of them in the pro shop all renting clubs and then watched one of them slice his first two tee shots into the firth. It was only natural we would catch up to a foursome but these fellows were having a bit of trouble. And the whole course was getting backed up.

I approached them on the next par three and offered a shot of our whisky as they let us play through. They jumped at the deal.

They were four thirty-somethings all from California there for a birthday celebration. And they were thrilled with our generosity. One of them lamented, “There’s no other group on the course that needed that drink as much as we did. I lost eight balls already” We agreed and scooted past.

There’s plenty of history on Nairn as their halfway house is an old bothy. A bothy is a building used for storing fish back in the day and this one was built in 1877. It serves as their halfway house right next to the old ice house built at the same time and the girl manning it gave us a quick history lesson.

Nairn was just what we needed an nice flat walk and our legs were holding up nicely. George had a tough opening nine and I actually played well, a rarity for me to better his score.

But as usual Big Bro found his game and proceeded to stage an historic comeback on these historic links. I was four up after ten and I could see another win coming my way. Big mistake, the Golf Gods rewarded my cockiness with a back nine beat down.

We were all square with three to play and I choked it away as George parred his way in. Ouch.

My pride was hurt but our bodies felt fine as there is really only one hole that plays up hill, the par 4 thirteenth. The rest of the layout was just what we needed, nice and flat.

We continued our love affair with the links game and George had nearly perfected the run-up shots and had had stolen my hot putting streak. I was making all the putts early in the trip but by now I had cooled off and he had the magic flat stick.

As we putted out on eighteen the sun was still shining and we were greeted by some members that wanted to know what we thought of their course.

These Scots are so very proud of their golf courses and even though many of them are private they welcome visitors and treat them like members for the day. Of course we raved about Nairn, both the course and the staff and we traded stories of their trip to the states and how they had played St. Andrews…in Yonkers, New York which is less than an hour from my house.

They talked in glowing terms of Matt Kuchar who had garnered many fans when he played there in the 1999 Walker Cup.

That Walker Cup featured Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Graeme Storm and Simon Dyson for the Brits and in addition to Kuch, Jonathan Byrd, Hunter Haas and Bryce Molder for the Americans. Those are two impressive teams.

As the starter called in our lunch order he asked us if we had seen the foursome that was ahead of us. He thought that they might have some issues and he was right. As we had our lunch we watched another four or five groups that had played through them finish up. They could still be out there for all I know.

The grill room was top notch and of course the people were so friendly. I loved it so much I had to stop by the pro shop for some Nairn branded items.

As we chatted they asked where we were from and when I said a little north of New York City one of the staff told us he’d be coming over soon for the U.S. Tennis Open.

It’s a small world after all.