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Golfers have been enjoying the links along the Scottish coastline around the town of Montrose in one form or another for nearly half a millennium.
Those days may be numbered, however.
In recent years, an accelerated rate of sea level rise and coastal erosion has begun to threaten the existence of several of the world's most celebrated and historic golf courses.
One of these: Montrose Golf Links, where people have played golf since as early as 1562. Indeed, the course's main course, which plays in an out-and-back C-shaped routing, is called the 1562 Links.
The term "links" refers to sandy, transitional land between fertile inland flats and the water - in this case, the North Sea, which in just 15 years has thrashed away at Montrose, forcing the abandonment of several tee boxes and squeezing several fairways. The course runs right along the sea at holes 2, 3, 6 and 7, and with erosion rates topping two meters per year of late, the confines of those holes have grown tighter than centuries of golfers could have ever imagined.
The second fairway, which in 2006 sat a comfortable 50 yards from the beachline, is now fewer than 25 yards away. The old third tee, which used to be on a crescent-shaped promontory, is gone, squeezed inland to a less scenic spot.
Soon, if the erosion continues unabated, entire holes will be irrevocably compromised and Montrose, which savvy Scotland golf travelers know to be a hidden gem (peak-season green fees are just £100), will lose a great deal of its charm.
Thankfully, in recent months, an effort has gotten underway to stem the advancing tide. A recent report by The Courier news site explains that the Angus Council will devote £350,000 in Scottish government funding to combat the erosion.
It's something, but compared to estimates of the cost of more permanent solutions, it's pennies.
One idea favorable to a government-backed group that includes a former chairman of the golf links is a "sand motor" - an artificial landform build out of millions of cubic feet of sand, which harnesses the power of the sea and coastal winds to push that sand back toward the land in a way that creates new dunes. A similar project in Netherlands has cost about £60 million, or 171 times the infusion granted Montrose so far.
Whether or not local and national governments will devote resources of that amount in Montrose remains to be seen. If they do, it will likely mean a respite not just for the golf course, but the town as well, where erosion poses ever-increasing flood risks.
More golf course news and notes
@prestwickgc is to mark the 150th @TheOpen by recreating the original 12-hole course that hosted the first @TheOpen in 1860.
— Prestwick GC Pro (@prestwickgcpro) October 6, 2022
Hole 1- Back of Cardinal - 578 Yards
Tom Morris Junior played this hole in 3 shots in the first round in 1870
Video @iainjforrest@prestwickgcpro pic.twitter.com/NGkfczou1q
PRESTWICK THROWBACK - Prestwick Golf Club, the host of the first 12 Open Championships and 24 in all from 1860 to 1925, is celebrating its place in competitive golf history by reviving the original 12-hole layout that served as the playing field for those early championships. It's a limited engagement - just two weeks of play in October - but its popularity has us wondering whether it might become more of a regular opportunity for golf history buffs. [LINK: Golf Business News]
NEW ASGCA PREZ - Brit Stenson became the newest president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, succeeding architect Jason Straka. Stenson has been involved with more than 70 new course designs over the course of a nearly 40-year career. In the 1980s, he was the PGA Tour's lead in-house architect, and he later spent 25 years with IMG, designing golf courses around the world in collaboration with pro golfers like Mark O'Meara, Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer. His term as ASGCA president runs through fall 2023. [LINK: The Golf Wire]
NEW NAME FOR NEWEST CABO FAVE - This Greg Norman-designed course, which opened in 2019 as Rancho San Lucas, has been rechristened Solmar Golf Links by its new owners, Solmar Hotels & Resorts. [LINK: Visit Los Cabos]
GOLF-ADJACENT - It's uncommon for a facility to totally redo its golf courses less than three years after opening, but when the courses in question are putting courses, it's a little more understandable. The original Port St. Lucie location of golfertainment venue PopStroke just reopened its 36 holes, which now carry Tiger Woods' TGR Design stamp. [LINK: WPTV.com]
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