XVII: Crail (Balcomie)

Often in sport, we refer to legendary teams as being ‘greater than the sum of their parts’ – they gel as a unit and produce results outside the scope of their individual components. As I look back on my day at Crail Golfing Society’s Balcomie Links, I can’t help but feel that a day traversing its sandy soil, rocky coastline and turquoise waters punches well above the weight of its golf holes alone.

Crail - surely one of golf's most spectacular settings

With ‘the ninth oldest golf club in the world’ emblazoned across its clubhouse and dating back to 1786, there can be no doubt that Crail Golfing Society is flooded with history, and its Balcomie Links was subsequently laid out by a local farmer in the mid-nineteenth century on one of golf’s most stunning sites straddling Fife’s Eastern coastline. It was the familiar face of Old Tom Morris- a man whose fingerprints are seemingly stained on all of the world’s best links courses, who transformed The Balcomie into the 18 hole delight we see today.

The stunning first tee view

Crail’s ever-growing reputation revolves mainly around the beauty of its views and the up close and personal interactions with the coastline, and standing atop its elevated first tee on a gorgeous June morning, Crail was showing off early. The first hole at Crail dives off a cliff and down toward the sea – short in length and wide open, the entrance to its tilted green is covered by a treacherous bunker which can derail a comfy start. It’s a gorgeous introduction to the Balcomie Links and a friendly handshake which may get a little strong for comfort if you get too cute with its hazards.

The Balcomie's 2nd tee flush against the North Sea

Crail’s first five holes are where much of the drama lies- each interacts brilliantly with the shore, providing a handful of opportunities to find your ball perched on the rocky coastline. The second and third deliver a nice one-two punch, the par five second hugs the North Sea to the right, climbing the hill to a wonderful perched up green site. The third is a wonderful par three with a kicker short left of the green propelling balls towards the flag.

The heart in your mouth fourth and fifth tee shots mirror each other along the coast

When I walked to the fourth tee box, a sharp dogleg right over and along the coastline with the stiff breeze pulling everything toward the ocean, I was gobsmacked by the challenge and beauty but our host quickly let us know that this was a warmup for the next tee…. Aptly dubbed ‘Hell’s Hole’, playing into the wind the fifth hole may well be the toughest of the trip so far. An almost carbon copy of the previous tee shot, it asks you to be brave and bite off as much of the beach as possible with a watery grave lurking and even the best of tee shots leave a long iron into a small green perched yards from the sea.

Beautiful, daunting and oh so tough, Crail’s opening run may force you to exercise a sense of humour with your tail between your legs, but it did a phenomenal job of making me feel oh so alive.

Crail's hills deliver challenge, intrigue and special views across the links

The Balcomie’s architecture is on the most part, basic lay of the land golf restricted by relatively flat fairways which lack the contour and randomness of the great Scottish links. A number of hills are navigated throughout the routing in a range of ways which provides much of the challenge and variety of the layout. Boasting a number of intriguingly contoured greens, headlined by the double green at 8 and 11, the Balcomie asks plenty of different questions on approach shots, particularly in firm and fast conditions with a decent breeze off the sea!

An abundance of short grass is the theme, where many holes share fairways particularly through the chaos of the middle section of the property where balls seemingly fly from all parts and holes are squeezed into a tight space. The routing maximises the coastline, starting and finishing with a gorgeous flurry of seaside holes.

The breathtaking downhill 14th

Traditional Scottish links courses are littered with quirks and the back to back one-shotters at 13 and 14 are the antithesis of one another. The 215 yard 13th which plays blind and straight uphill had me questioning everything I know about par, while the exhilarating, picture perfect and dainty in comparison 14th took my breath away. The places my mind wandered over the course of this 20 minutes alone made the journey more than worthwhile.

The views don't stop as the holes wind back towards the clubhouse

As we closed out the final stretch on the coast, it struck me that with its playability, stunning location and variety of holes, the Balcomie is the type of golf course which has something for everyone and no matter the skill level, I doubt anyone could exit the 18th green underwhelmed. It’s fun, honest and interesting seaside golf and exudes the majority of traits which bring golfers to Scotland from all over the world. On a rare Scottish bluebird day, there must be few more pleasant places to hit a golf ball than at Crail.

Bluebird Scottish golf at its finest!

Many of Old Tom’s layouts have been blessed with tumbling terrain, unique landforms and mind-bending greensites, however few can hold a candle to the sense of place and sheer beauty of Crail’s Balcomie Links. There is something intangible in the air at Crail- its hard to not walk around with a smile on your face, and as easy as it is to get lost in the nuts and bolts of golf course architecture, sometimes that’s truly all that matters. Crail is as Crail was more than 200 years ago – greater than the sum of its parts.