Top 100 Golf Courses in Scotland
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THE sEMInal HolE<br />
THE 12TH AT<br />
ROYAL DORNOCH<br />
By Tom Mackenzie, of the R&A’s preferred firm Mackenzie & Ebert.<br />
The sign of a great course is when your<br />
favourite holes change with the years.<br />
Initial favourites can sometimes be<br />
highly <strong>in</strong>fluenced by the grandeur of the<br />
sett<strong>in</strong>g and the visual appeal of the hole<br />
itself. sometimes, respect and then<br />
admiration for the subtlety of holes builds<br />
gradually and surpris<strong>in</strong>gly.<br />
The 535-yard 12th at Royal dornoch,<br />
known as sutherland, is exactly such a<br />
hole.<br />
It may be the ugly sister compared to<br />
many of the other holes on the course, but<br />
it is a brilliant strategic par 5 where it is so<br />
simple to drop a shot when, on paper, par<br />
or better should be easy.<br />
As with all great strategic holes, it is<br />
made by a brilliant green. It is close to 50<br />
yards long and is huge for a hole of this<br />
length but it does not feel like it because it<br />
is angled sharply to the left, as the hole<br />
plays, with the angle re<strong>in</strong>forced with a<br />
sharp hump on the front left corner.<br />
The left quarter of the green slopes of<br />
down towards a closely-mown hollow<br />
leav<strong>in</strong>g really twitchy recoveries.<br />
similarly, the right of the green is<br />
guarded with a pot bunker and a series of<br />
ridges and shoulders that make recoveries<br />
or approach shots from the right equally<br />
nervy.<br />
If you th<strong>in</strong>k too much about it, this all<br />
eats away <strong>in</strong> your head from the tee<br />
onwards and it becomes a mental battle<br />
between you and green. If you go for the<br />
green <strong>in</strong> two, which is perfectly possible <strong>in</strong><br />
summer, then miss<strong>in</strong>g the green either<br />
side makes birdies hard to come by.<br />
If you lay up, then you have to decide<br />
where; too far to the left or too far back<br />
then the angle of the green seems<br />
exaggerated.<br />
The challenge is to flirt with the<br />
approach bunker on the right and leave<br />
yourself about 50 yards short and right,<br />
play<strong>in</strong>g down the length of the green.<br />
Great stuf.<br />
n Tom Mackenzie is one of the UK’s most<br />
respected architects and is vicepresident<br />
of the European Institute of<br />
<strong>Golf</strong> Course Architects.