A Birdie For Buddha- Tain

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A Zen Approach To
Playing Golf In
Scotland

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 #9 - Tain (Blind Shots, Fairway Positioning Shots)

Located between Brora and Royal Dornoch to the North, and Nairn to the South, Tain is a part inland and part links course. It is the longest course in Ross-shire, but save your driver for another day because Tain demands great accuracy to avoid the many meanders of the Aldie Burn and the ever-present whins. Designed by Old Tom Morris in 1890 it features fast greens and its signature blind hole, the 11th, that requires a blind second or third shot over two 30 foot hills onto a small green at the ocean’s edge.

Tain Golf Club, Chapel Road, Tain, Ross-shire 1V19 1PA. Further details in our book 'A Birdie For Buddha.'

This brings us to another benefit of A Zen Approach to Golf. As you feel the sea breeze in your face, and your feet in the grass, take those deep, slow breaths and soon you will believe that no matter what you might be able to do with your second shot, you will double your enjoyment if you forget about a par 4 and take two shots on purpose: one to split the yellow gorse lining both sides of the fairway, a second to position yourself at the base of the “Alps” hiding the green. Having done this, you can completely enjoy the adrenalin rush of the next shot, a totally blind one that you know will go either onto the green or into the sea.

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

Ocean-side Green of Tain’s 11th Hole

Scorecard of 11th (“The Alps”)

Blind shots like this one are nerve-whacking in normal times, but they are exquisitely delicious when you are practicing the Zen Approach because you know that hitting the shot effortlessly is all that counts - never the particular result. You are once again the master of your fate - with the knowledge that no matter what happens you are where you want to be! From now on 'blind shots' are 'your baby'. It was completely irrelevant that neither of your authors made even a bogie on the 'Alps'.

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