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A Zen Approach To
Playing Golf In
Scotland

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James C. Plowden-Wardlaw

James Campbell Plowden-Wardlaw hit his first golf ball into the gorse bushes at Old Prestwick -- the cradle of championship golf and site of the first British Open -- at the age of nine, during a family visit to a great aunt in Ayr, Scotland. He returned home to America impressed by the game, but waited more than fifty years to play again in Scotland...(More...)

Alex B. Pagel

Alex B. Pagel dubbed his first shot at the Maidstone Club course on Long Island in the 1940s under the Scottish eye of the club professional Jack Ross. This legendary man endeavored to teach him how to hit a ball, never a total success, and how to enjoy the game, by contrast a long and continuing success story. Old Jack also frequently implied that the true object of the game was to play in Scotland on a links course in the wind...(More...)

 
 
 

 

Hole #12 - Brora
(Our Ideal Zen Course and Goodbye to the Reader)

Everything for which the Highland courses are famous is evident here: rolling fairways, wild surroundings, and the sensation of floating in space and time.

Brora Golf Club - 18 holes - Golf Road, Brora, Sutherland KW9 6QS. Further details in our book 'A Birdie For Buddha.'

Established in 1891, Brora is the work of two of Scotland’s most famous course designers – Old Tom Morris and later James Braid – Brora is famous for its wandering sheep and cattle. Today’s Golfer magazine calls Brora the Best Value Course in Britain, and Peter Thompson, Australia’s 5-time Open Champion calls it “the most natural links in the world”.

It has been called 'heaven with a nod to the head'. A lush course whose greens and fairways are kept in shape by men, and the rough by wandering sheep and cattle (a thin, low-voltage single wire around the greens keeps the animals off). The terrain is the most rippling we have seen, making each shot a combination of skill AND luck. Sadly, of course, the rolls don’t always guide your ball where you aimed - there are all those quirky undulations between you and the green. But you will think “Zen Approach” and survive them all.

You can read the entire chapter in our book "A Birdie for Buddha"
  

 
Vista of the 1st Hole at Brora
JP-W Playing Through Cattle

Braid designed this course with the wooden-shafted clubs and golf balls of his era in mind. He obviously intended players to ENJOY each round, using the head more than the muscles. This then is the beautiful secret of Brora - it is a course to ENJOY, not to CONQUER. To realize the pure enjoyment the designer intended, it is necessary to stop and reflect before each shot. This, knowingly or not, is the true Zen Approach to Golf. You don't want to finish your round - you want to think, reflect, swing, and enjoy forever. This is the object of the game of Golf, and Brora entices you to let it happen! Nature, not Man, rules this course, and you slip easily into that Nature at Brora.

 
     

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