A glance up the sixth gap on the Previous at Leven, a course that exists principally in golfers’ fantasies.
Sam Cooper
“Think about a golf course worthy of the World High 100, a basic Scottish hyperlinks, tucked alongside the coast simply 15 miles from St. Andrews that few individuals are conscious of and even fewer get to play.” As attractive openers go, it was robust to prime the primary line of what turned out to be the best-read journey story on Golf.com in 2024.
Its creator, Timothy Gallant, a GOLF Journal course rater primarily based in Scotland, went on to color a portrait of a purist’s playground, with bouncy turf, “spectacular sea views” and “an eclectic set of holes that imprint themselves in reminiscence.”
“Its par 3s are crafty, its par 4s as authentic as these of any hyperlinks. Its routing works harmoniously with the winds,” Gallant wrote.
There was only one catch, Gallant famous. Touchdown a tee time on this alluring-sounding structure is just about not possible — not a lot as a result of the course is unique however as a result of it’s elusive.
It’s only open at some point a yr.
Come once more? How does a course with a mayfly’s lifespan exist within the first place?
In his story, which you’ll revisit right here, Gallant mentioned the historical past of a one-of-a-kind hyperlinks and the uncommon alternative he received to play it.
Like numerous nice tales about golf in Scotland, the story has a tie to Previous Tom Morris, who within the latter half of the 1800s, constructed out an present 9-hole course right into a full 18.
The expanded structure, alongside the Firth of Forth, sat alongside the boundary line between two hyperlinks, Leven and Lundin, and it was beloved. So coveted have been its grounds, the truth is, that by the flip of the century, the course had been pulled aside, with 9 holes going to Leven and 9 holes going to Lundin — a King Solomon-like state of affairs that left the unique 18, often known as the Previous at Leven, cloven in two, with a dyke working between the nines.
From that time on, golfers on both aspect of the dividing line may solely dream of taking part in the Previous in its entirety.
Yearly, although, that dream comes true when the golf equipment at Leven and Lundin come collectively for a pleasant competitors referred to as the McDonald Trophy, held on the reconstituted hyperlinks.
Gallant scored an invitation to the occasion and recounted the expertise of what ranks among the many hardest tee instances within the sport.
Sometime, it’d get simpler. Lately, the memberships at Leven and Lundin have mentioned the opportunity of permitting restricted exterior play on the unique 18. If that have been to occur, the lifespan of the world’s most ephemeral course must be prolonged past a single day.
