The Nairn Golf Club: The Old Tom Trails

The Nairn Golf Club: The Old Tom Trails

[Music] with a glut of fine golf on offer in this part of scotland nain or rather more accurately than there is the sometimes forgotten third leg of the heavyweight trifecta of courses that make the highlands the bucketness destination for golfers the world around and then is unquestionably it of its place amongst those clubs and yet despite their proud history being a mecca for the traveling golfer and the custodians of a course capable of challenging the world’s best it’s the welcome and feeling of intimacy that hits you the hardest when you arrive and long after you leave like many of the early scottish golf clubs dotted around the coast the nane golf club was founded when a local nobleman by count finley wanted to establish a formal club for the increasingly popular scottish game and much like finley himself who would go on to big things ultimately becoming lord chancellor the club its reputation and the course itself grew in stature from there land that we now refer to as the lynx the area that sits between the sea and the farmland was often of little to no use for farmers and were often turned over to the locals for the purpose of golf and then has been reconfiguring that same piece of lynx land since its beginnings one of the great but lesser-known scottish professionals archie simpson was responsible for the first routine but it wasn’t long until old tom himself left his stamp in 1890 upon an invitation from findlay to extend the course prolific scottish professional and early golf course architect james braid made multiple changes over a number of years and is arguably the biggest influence on the course other contributors include ben sayers and more recently mackenzie ebert who have completed further renovation work in the preparation for the amateur of 2021 as such it should come as no surprise that the routing has evolved significantly and those changes over time have made the creation of the second shorter course possible the cameron on the higher ground near the clubhouse the championship course today is a stern test for the low handicapper off the tee it’s a rigorous examination of your long game penal hazards flank the fairways and guard the greens green sites that revered for their pace are surrounded with contours that all too often repel the ball away from the target [Music] the results is a course where its challenge hits you retrospectively rather than when you stand on the first tee leaving you scratching your head for an explanation there is a lot of variety going out you play out and along the coast and thread your ball through the ghost line fairways and on your way back and holes 13 through 15 play uphill and inland through the pine trees [Music] of them all though the eighth probably best captures the true spirit of name short in length with nothing jumping out at you when you arrive on the team drivable for the big hitter yet it’s filled with intricate mounds and obstacles that are quick to divert your wall towards danger tulsa remains one of the few holes in the course where little has changed since old tom’s work 130 years ago that whole stretch around the turn in fact really is the epitome of name saturated with gorse with a sea in view and often in play and a quaint ice house adjacent to the halfway house online reminding you of the town’s roots as a fishing village it’s the moment in the round where you either breathe a sigh of relief with a changing wind direction or prepare to do battle on your way home a visit to nan is not complete however without a visit to the archive room of all the great rooms in golf the big room at the royal ancient or the fabled lunch at muirfield the archive room at nain must be one of those most special of rooms you will see the product of a passionate membership who in 2007 took it upon themselves to catalogue the club’s history and create somewhere to celebrate everything that has happened at name from its beginnings through to the walker cup and curtis cap history it’s a wondrous room filled with artifacts from every era and almost always someone on hand who’s only too keen to showcase them over a wee dram [Music] we’re fortunate because even in front then we’re here this is a book the art of golf you know the art of golf is the book and golf and this is viking finley’s own book found in in london and that’s a copy of the book but the original books in the cupboard so that’s that’s a great thing in in our colleague alice rallin you get all this duplicated we have the best of fa fairly there with a very prominent family in their day in terms of golf this fairly family that got the open original open the press along with tom morris we have the honours boards outside from the members that were killed in the war that and the book that alice allen put together and also we have a ben hogan putter there is ben hogan’s own putter and this actually came to us through frank granny of prestwick name is a great test of golf in a world where width angles and playability are the gold standard nan breaks the mold with its difficulty there are no towering dunes or gimmicks it’s a pure honest test of golf and it’s for this reason that nan has rightly played host to the world’s best over its history including the walker cup in 99 and the curtis cup in 2012 and the recent winner of the amateur in 2021 as his name to many greats that prevailed over the links at nan whilst the course is not somewhere artie simpson or old tom would necessarily recognize today the spirit of the club would almost certainly feel familiar perhaps that’s the greatest testament to the name how to be proud of your origins but tireless in making changes to leave it better for future generations it is indeed a lesson on how to remain relevant and still maintain a connection with the [Music] past you

Episode 1 from our Old Tom Trail begins all the way up in the Scottish Highlands at ‘The Nairn’. Revered for its fabulous greens, it should come as no surprise that this course sits on land that is packed with history. Nairn shares a history with Amateur Golf that is hard to rival, as host to the Walker Cup, Curtis Cup and the 2021 Amateur (which at the time of release is being contested for).

By modern standards Nairn is not overly long, it is not littered with quirky hazards or gimmicks to give it an identity, its just pure honest links that is difficult to navigate. Penal hazards often flank the fairways, and whilst there is room from the tee, the very subtle contours often leave you puzzled as to where the round went wrong.

Without question though, The Archive Room at Nairn is one of its standout features. A club that is this proud of its history, but progressive in developing the course and the club for future generations is a special and rare cocktail in todays world, and something we were really lucky to sample.