Puttering Around

The Charm of Community Putting Greens

While we did not tour enough of Scotland to be experts by any measure, there was a feature that showed up in enough places that it became one of my favorite things about Scotland¹. Putting Courses. Think of them as what we might call a putting or practice green only these are not (necessarily) attached to or even near a golf course. They are just cups and pins on closely mown turf available for play. It could be like miniature golf except for its all real and there are no windmills. I think that the realness of the turf makes you feel responsible to care for it, even as you play it. (Not so much at a mega-mini-golf emporium where the fiberglass gorilla guarding #7 has a red, rubber-coated bulls-eye putter punched through the back of its hip once a summer.)

I know that putting courses exist in some places in the US. Many Golf resorts have massive putting green complexes with courses laid out. I have been on the one at Bandon and at Streamsong and I know that the exist at Pinehurst and other places. It is not that I haven’t seen putting greens that have tiny, numbered flags, we even have one at our nearest municipal course. It’s that *these* putting courses aren’t really for golfers in the same way that most swimming pools aren’t for Katie Ledecky.

Here are a few that I made note of…

Pitlochry Putting Green - Pitlochry (Highland Perthshire Region)

  We stopped in the little town of Pitlochry as we drove between Edinburgh and the Highlands. Scotland was hosting the world cycling championships and the Grand Fondo was passing through the hills near Pitlochry on the day that we were there.  The town was buzzing with fans and support staff for the bike racers.  We wandered around and soon found signs directing to “The Putting Green”. After following signs around few turns, we couldn’t have been more delighted at what we found...  18 fun putting holes routed across a huge undulating green complex featuring the semi-manicured bumpy fescue and highlands bent grass that we would grow to appreciate on community putting sites throughout our trip. Many of the groups playing that day were tri-generational family six-somes. The greens weren’t fast, but some of the holes were so steep and contoured that no sooner than you could condescend to someone from two holes away whose ball rolled across your intended path, you would be required to sheepishly retrieve your own ball that just rolled between a wee lass and her granny holding hands on the hole behind you. Even still, it did not take that long. They weren’t devastatingly tough; they were just fun. 

Himalayas - St. Andrews

If you’ve heard of any putting course in Scotland, you’ve heard of The Himalayas Putting course at St. Andrews. You can learn about it many other places, so I will spare you those details. We played it, it was scenic, fun, and famous, but was not always easy to get on, and could feel rushed if crowded. My favorite part of that experience was that the 5 of us carried our own putters all the way from our borrowed flat on Alexandra Ct. across the 18^th and 1^st fairways of the Old Course to play golf as a family in St. Andrews. No “hiring” equipment from the St. Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club starter shed, we came prepared. We simply needed a tee time and a scorecard.

Kinburn Park - St. Andrews

Kinburn Park is a few blocks from The Old Course in St. Andrews. It has a putting course that is barely mown, and features fairways cut between wildflowers and very rough grasses. At least by mid-August, you can barely call it putting, but I would do it again. You cannot expect this spot to reward putting skill or serve as a place to settle bets, but if you are like me, your imagination will make you want something just like this in your neighborhood. One of the days that we were there, we ended up behind two men. One was clearly a caretaker of some sort (maybe family) to the older man who had some mental and physical limitations. He strapped on his golf glove tightly and played each hole with a focus and care that most of us never consider outside of a chance to play Pebble Beach for the first time. It made me smile. I love getting to see things like that with my kids. For what it is worth, there is also an art museum within Kinburn Park (and a public bowling green²). 

Miscellaneous - Isle of Arran

I cannot write anything about Scotland without mentioning this Island that feels like a soul home for me and my family. There is a community putting green between the street and the beach in Whiting Bay. It was too late in the season for us to play there. There is a putting course next to the short course at Lochranza. And there seems to have been an amazing putting green in Brodick as late as 2019. (You can see it in the foreground of the antique postcard below.)

Pitlochry from my sabbatical sketchbook, the putting green at Brodick (photo courtesy of Jim Hartsell), my daughter on the Himalayas, the wildflowered grounds of Kinburn Park, an old post card of Goatfell mountain with putting green in foreground, and an unknown bowling green that I found in my text messages with my brothers. The text said, "You can't swing a dead cat by the tail over here without hitting a community bowling club, can you believe this turf?!"

1. It would be way too expensive and impractical to have these in most of the United States, the soil and the turf and the conditions make it so much easier to maintain these kinds of surfaces.

2. It also seemed that there was a Bowling Green and Club in every neighborhood. Another testimony to the UK’s incredible turf-growing conditions. I never missed a chance to peer over an old stone wall at the HUGE flat perfectly mown and leveled surfaces that glowed well into dusk. We even went to church in St. Andrews at a church plant that met in the Club house of the neighborhood Bowling Club.