Second impressions
One personal lesson from 40 years of visiting and revisiting golf courses is that we should be wary of forming strong opinions on first sight. It’s understandable to be wowed by an amazing design or setting, and equally easy to not ‘get’ a course the first time you play it. This was confirmed when I visited East Lothian in October for a forthcoming feature and returned to several courses, two of which prove my point.
When I last played Muirfield 30 years ago, my appreciation of architecture was only just forming and I remember disappointment that it was not closer to the sea, that there were no dunes and that it was simply so difficult. As I played it again, I was constantly impressed by the subtlety, the variety and the quite brilliant challenges that it sets. I now fully understand why it is considered one of the very best courses in the world.
A few miles away, I had played Dunbar during a freezing January in 2015 and wondered what the fuss was about. This time, I loved every minute. Physically and metaphorically, I saw it in a quite different light. Beauty in golf, for the most part, is not skin deep.
Did you know?
Muirfield has hosted no fewer than 16 Open Championships, including the first to be contested over 72 holes in 1892.