Will Golspie break Dornoch’s hold on county cup?
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Sutherland’s leading golfers will be making their way to Dornoch tomorrow (Saturday) where the Sutherland County Championship will be staged.
The renowned golf course retained its ninth position in the recently published Golf World magazine’s 2014 biennial review of the top 100 golf courses in Britain and Ireland.
Holder of the Sutherland Cup, which has been in existence since 1922, is Alex MacDonald. He won last year for the first time as a member of Royal Dornoch but has since changed his home club to Golspie and a retention of the cup by MacDonald would break a nine-year hold by Royal Dornoch members and means the cup returns to Golspie for the first time since Roddie Cameron brought it to his native village in 1992.
A look back through the records has revealed that the championship of 50 years ago, in 1964, when the entry fee was a modest 7/6, was played at Golspie and in the years leading up to it Royal Dornoch golfers were the prominent winners.
Aged 24 in 1964, Hamish Sutherland was beginning to challenge the dominance of leading Dornoch golfers, Willie Skinner, Tommy McCulloch, Saunders MacDonald and Gordon Fraser and at Golspie he took the field by surprise on a very windy day to be the only player to break 80 twice and put on hold for another year the emerging talent of the young Brora protégée, Jim Miller.
Not known for his length, Sutherland depended on his accuracy from the tee linked to a perfect short game to post 73 and 74 and win by six shots from Brora’s Jim Miller (79/74). It was surprisingly Sutherland’s only win but Miller’s wait for the County Cup was only delayed twelve months when he won his first of eventually 15 county titles over the next four decades to rewrite the record books.
Taking another look at the top ten golf courses listed by Golf World, I am beginning to have the singular view that it is becoming elitist, not on quality but on price, and their panellists are either very rich or receiving complimentary rounds.
There is only one golf course in the top 20 which can be played for under £100. A green fee at Woodhall Spa, ranked 18, costs £89 or if a member of the English Golf Union, £74.
Biggest "jumper" since the last review is Skibo Castle, up 40 places from 64 to 24 but at £300 per visit, who other than the very rich will sample what is on offer? Sky pundit Ewan Murray did and wrote an exemplary review of the course and clubhouse and he is now one of its biggest fans.
Fourteen readers formed the panel to shape the Top 100. One was a 22 handicapper from Foxhills Golf Club and has played 99 of the 100 golf courses. My list is 13, Lotto help required!
