Scotland vs. Ireland - How Can You Choose?

By: Blaine Newnham

Although we play year-round in the Pacific Northwest there are some days when it is better to stay inside and dream about golf, rather than try to play it. As much as I long for sun and warmth, my fantasy is always about returning to the British Isles, to play links golf where the game and its pursuit are random, unpredictable and adventuresome.

But where? Invariably - although a disservice to England and Wales - the discussion comes down to Scotland or Ireland. We're more sophisticated about it all now with the advent of post-modern links golf in America at places like Bandon Dunes and Chambers Bay, and even inland with courses like Sand Hills, Erin Hills and Gamble Sands, spectacular if in out-of-the-way locales.

But no matter how wonderful our new courses might be, they don't have Old Tom Morris looking over your shoulder, with a glass of single malt in hand.

My first trip to the British Isles to play golf was in 1991, although I had reported on the 1986 Open Championship at Turnberry, Scotland, and absolutely loved the possibility of returning.

Ireland or Scotland?

One member of my group - we were four guys who had golfed together since our college days at Berkeley and were now turning 50 - had played extensively in Scotland. I pushed for Ireland, and when we were finished he concluded that if you could live without playing the Old Course at St. Andrews, Ireland was better than Scotland.

In 1991, it wasn't that difficult to get a tee time at Ballybunion. And green fees at a place like Royal Portrush were $35.

We landed in Dublin, squeezed into a rental car and took off for Portrush in Northern Ireland. From there it was an adventure around the entire island - Portrush, Royal County Down, Portmarnock, then across to Lahinch, Ballybunion, Waterville, Dooks and Killarney.

Spectacular. On a trip eight years later, we did the Atlantic Coast - Sligo, Donegal, Narin & Portnoo, the old course at Rosapenna, Portsalon, both courses at Ballyliffin, Enniscrone, Carne, Connemara and to cap it, a return trip to Lahinch.

A few years ago, I made one more trip to Ireland, this time concentrating on the Dublin area. We played Portmarnock again along with places like the Island Club near Portmarnock and Pat Ruddy's European Club, and then north to Royal County Down and Royal Portrush, but also County Louth and Ardglass, both wonderful courses.

So, I'm an Ireland guy, right? Not so fast.

In 2000, I returned to Scotland to cover the second leg of Tiger Wood's romp through the majors, with him winning the Open Championship at St. Andrews.

There was no chance to play the Old Course, but I did get on for the opening weekend at Kingsbarns, played nearby Crail and on the way to the airport and a return home at Glasgow Gailes and the Glen course at North Berwick.

Nice, but Ireland was still the best.

Then came an extensive look at Scotland two years ago, including a round at the Old Course that required 10-hour wait and $246, in both cases well worth it. Though we missed on the lottery for the Old Course, while my compatriots were ready to bolt for another of the fine courses in the area I talked them into a 5:30 a.m. check-in with the starter to put our names on the singles list. I was No. 12.

Finally, at just before 3 p.m., I teed off toward the Swilcan burn, playing with three Frenchmen - in the Scotch business ironically - who agreed to allow me as their fourth after three Italians rejected me.

It was sublime, better than I had ever imagined. When you cover the Open you never really see much of the course, certainly not those treacherous inward holes. We had wind, rain and sunshine. It couldn't have been better.

What about the rest of Scotland, could it compare with the Old Course, let alone Ireland?

We headed away from St. Andrews not having played the other courses in its Land Trust, or the remarkable village courses nearby at Crail, Elie and Anstruther.

Next stop away from St. Andrews and toward Aberdeen should be Carnoustie. But I lobbied to play Montrose, where they've been playing golf since 1562. Carnoustie, from what I had heard, seen and Jean van de Velde had experienced, was simply too difficult for us and at the same time lacking in the beauty of a Turnberry or a Royal County Down.

Montrose was perfect, a terrific seaside layout and, from what we could tell, as much a part of the town as the church steeple on its logo. There are two courses and 1,200 club members in a town with barely 12,000 citizens.

From Montrose we headed to Aberdeen and played Donald Trump's new Trump International one day and the venerable, kooky-but-not-to-be-missed Cruden Bay the next. It was a great contrast of what Mother Nature left and Trump could produce. Trump built his course to please touring pros, while Cruden Bay was built to please nature.

Further north, toward the Arctic Circle, was Nairn near Inverness, Castle Stuart - the sister course to Kingsbarns - and then the ultimate, Royal Dornoch, the home of Donald Ross and generally revered as the Mecca of links golf.

We toured the nearby distillery at Glenmorangie, but didn't play the course there, Tain, or farther north, the gem that is Brora.

So there is now a wonderful northern grouping of courses with the newer Castle Stuart and the Trump course to go along with Royal Aberdeen, Nairn, Cruden Bay, Dornoch, Brora and Tain.

We played our next two rounds at Gleneagles - an hour from Edinburgh and the site of the recent Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup course - a Jack Nicklaus design - was our least favorite on the trip. Gleneagles is a magnificent resort. But who wants to steer clear of classic wind-blown links golf for a nice hotel?

Our trip was to finish at North Berwick - an hour east of Edinburgh - but a conflict made our last round at Gullane No. 1. It became our last two rounds as we liked the course so much we played it twice that final, blessed day.

It was driving out to Gullane, which is next to Muirfield in an area called East Lothian, that I realized golf in Scotland was more about communities and people and history than Irish golf.

If you have only one trip in you, it's hard not to go to Ireland, land in Shannon and play Ballybunion, Lahinch and Waterville. I haven't played Tralee or Doonbeg, but this neighborhood is truly blessed.

Irish golf is an adventure; Scottish golf a celebration.

More than one visit? I think it would be Scotland - and the third and fourth trips as well. There are nearly twice as many courses in Scotland and, while the second tier might be stronger, the third surely is.

Right now, I'd return, if I could, to East Lothian and play what they call the Scottish Golf Coast, across the firth from St. Andrews where in a stretch of 25 miles there are more than 20 superb links, almost cheek-to-cheek on the way to North Berwick, possibly the most replicated course in the world.

But how can you go wrong with golf in either country?

Blaine Newnham has covered golf for 50 years. He still cherishes the memory of following Ben Hogan for 18 holes during the first round of the 1966 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. He worked then for the Oakland Tribune, where he covered the Oakland Raiders during the first three seasons of head coach John Madden. Blaine moved on to Eugene, Ore., in 1971 as sports editor and columnist, covering the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. He covered five Olympics all together - Mexico City, Munich, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Athens - before retiring in early 2005 from the Seattle Times. He covered his first Masters in 1987 when Larry Mize chipped in to beat Greg Norman, and his last in 2005 when Tiger Woods chip dramatically teetered on the lip at No. 16 and rolled in. He saw Woods' four straight major wins in 2000 and 2001, and Payne Stewart's par putt to win the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. In 2005, Blaine received the Northwest Golf Media Association's Distinguished Service Award. He is the author of the book, "America's St. Andrews," which tells the colorful back-story of how Chambers Bay was selected as the site of the 2015 U.S. Open. The book was released October 1, 2014, and may be ordered at www.AmericasStAndrews.com. He and his wife, Joanna, live in Indianola, Wash., where the Dungeness crabs outnumber the people.

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