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 Prime 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 writer, 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 unique 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 inconceivable — not a lot as a result of the course is unique however as a result of it’s elusive.
It is just open in the future a 12 months.
Come once more? How does a course with a mayfly’s lifespan exist within the first place?
In his story, which you’ll be able to revisit right here, Gallant mentioned the historical past of a one-of-a-kind hyperlinks and the uncommon alternative he bought to play it.
Like loads of 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 current 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 had been its grounds, in truth, 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 situation 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 facet of the dividing line might solely dream of enjoying 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 occasions within the sport.
Sometime, it would get simpler. Lately, the memberships at Leven and Lundin have mentioned the potential for permitting restricted exterior play on the unique 18. If that had been to occur, the lifespan of the world’s most ephemeral course must be prolonged past a single day.
