Words by David Shaw Stewart, April 2024
As the days shorten and time is tight, we asked golfer, artist and owner of the wonderful Traigh David Shaw Stewart to pen some thoughts on the shorter form of the game. Illustrating the article are a selection of David’s watercolours:
9 Holers
In a busy world, many of us find it difficult to toil round 18 holes for 3 ½ hours and the attractions of a shorter adventure are alluring. Some courses facilitate this by both nines looping back to the clubhouse, but for others the halfway point is way up country, and in any case it may be difficult to cut in on the 10th. So the prospect of nine-hole courses is an attractive one, particularly as so many of them are remote and idiosyncratic. There are of course exceptions that stand up in any company – Royal Worlington, Cambridge University’s home course, springs to mind – but I have a particular affinity for hidden gems in Scotland and Ireland. So here are a few of my very favourite ones that I think reward long pilgrimages to far-off places, and which I highlighted in my book Views from the Tee.
Cruit Island
Pronounced ‘Critch’, Cruit Island is a stunning nine-hole course in Donegal. It sits on the very edge of the world, thrust out into the Atlantic in the teeth of every roaring westerly gale. The course has views stretching over miles of islands and coastline and the soaring hills of the mainland. You have to take on leaping chasms over the boiling Atlantic amidst sunshine, gales, crashing breakers and the bluest of seas. Cruit has more rocks and cliffs than my beloved Traigh, and is a fiercer course overall, but it is another real seaside experience, with all its defences in the bones of the land and the howl of the wind.
Traigh (a confession, I am one of the owners of the course)
If you take the Road to the Isles and follow the setting sun, then above the silver sands of Arisaig you will come upon Traigh, my favourite course in all the world. Traigh is a tricky challenge and, I hope, a delight in every sort of weather. The Isles of Eigg, Rum and Muck adorn the western skyline, while inland the rocks of Creag Mhor loom over the course. Where else on earth would you rather be than standing on the second tee, looking out to sea with an eagle three surely beckoning?
Traigh was designed by course architect Johnny Salvesen to replace the holes that I remember so well from my boyhood. Before 1990, the greens were fenced and livestock grown the fairways; brand-new Dunlop 65’s would disappear into great clumps of grass in unexpected places. All great fun at the time, but I cannot confess any nostalgia. The new course was my dear father Jack’s great vision and I think of it as his memorial, giving a huge amount of happiness to the many golfers who have played there.
Allendale
(one from England)
Perched on the Northumbrian skyline are Allendale’s nine holes, which rise and dip across the steep hillside. This is a charming course at the heart of its community, where the pride and passion of local heroes keep it all afloat. There are wonderful views to be enjoyed – and a lot of climbing to be done! Of course, it is far from a championship track, but Allendale is an enormously entertaining golfing experience.
Ullapool
Way up north, next to the fierce fishing port that has slid seamlessly into a pit stop for bikers and climbers and stalkers, there lies Ullapool’s nine-hole course on the edge of Loch Broom. It has split levels between seaside and peaty Highland Heath, all challengingly exposed to the wind and with soaring views down the law and nightly Atlantic. The second hole plummets to a par three green beside the ocean and, like most of the course, it plays much longer than it looks, as the ball sits down on the soft fairways. Pausing for a joyous round at Ullapool is surely an essential component of any Highland tour.
David Shaw Stewart
David is a regular contributor to Golf Quarterly magazine, available by subscription from www.golfquarterly.co.uk , and his book Views from the Tee can be purchased from the website www.viewsfromthetee.com