Kilspindie

Kilspindie dog golf 1

Welcome – We had our first round on a dog-friendly course in another “country” – Scotland. Sadly (for her as much as us), Grace couldn’t join us for our weekend city break to Edinburgh, but that didn’t stop us from hitting the links for our first ever links round hosted by a dear friend, Lindsey in the land of dog friendly golf. Driving to Kilspindie we passed a number of other courses (as you do in Scotland) and on every one you could see several players with dogs. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted a member coming off the course with his spaniel in tow.

Unfortunately, we did happen upon any pups on the course itself during our round to provide a photo opp for this post, but I did find this Instagram post by Erik Anders Lang of resident golfing dog Zulu:

  • “You may know Zulu from our time with Malcolm Duck during the Un/Official Guide to Scotland. Malcolm, in his zest for life, is one of the greatest hosts in Scotland – an already highly hospitable country – telling stories and singing while his faithful Springer Spaniel Zulu jumped through the heather during our rounds at Kilspindie.”

Walk – The course is one of the shortest full courses we have played at just over 5k with no par 5s. And all flat coastal links. What energy was sapped by the bracing sea “breeze” (mini gale) was reinvigorated by the stunning 360 degree scenery in view at every step.

Water – The course features a fountain (turned off for COVID) at the end of the 10th. Otherwise, lots of “water, water everywhere” surrounded by the ocean.

Wildlife – Perhaps the most unusual wildlife creature spotted from a course (though not on the course itself) were the sea lions sunning themselves on the sand bars in the bay. While their namesake is feline, these intelligent and alert aquatic creatures have a personality and demeanor more like canines.

Wind Down – The hurried down the road to the Longniddry Inn for much needed a warming Spanish coffee (made properly) having had a big lunch at The Old Clubhouse in Gullane (which also welcomed plenty of canine companions).

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Dog Golfing Around the World

Facebook dog golfing in world

In my recent research, I happened upon the Lebanon Turf dog golf calendar. They publish a “Dog Days Of…” calendar every year:

· “It’s that time of year again where we at LebanonTurf, along with the Golf Course Superintendent Association of America (GCSAA), get to know a new round of golf dogs. Every year, we take submissions from golf courses all over the country who want their pal to be featured in our Dog Days of Golf Calendar. And each year, one of these lucky calendar dogs is chosen as our Dog of the Year, which comes with some pretty great perks.”

With 4 years of calendars (52 dogs featured including cover), I thought that the profiles about the dog and their course would be a great source of finally finding some dog-friendly courses in North America where dog golfing is virtually unheard of. However, after reaching out to the first 26 courses featured, it turned out that just because a dog was pictured on their course doesn’t mean they allow dogs. In nearly all cases, the dogs belonged to the course superintendent or grounds keeper (the Lebanon Turf customers) who brought their dog to work for the day just for the photo op.

Still, I did find Zelda (directly below) featured from the Schifferdecker club in Joplin, Missouri, USA. I did add her to my list of other courses I have stumbled on across the world adverting dog-friendliness from Croatia (see photo at bottom) to British Columbia, Canada. With several in hand, I thought I would start a Google Map of the Rest of the World courses for reference.

As always, contact me if you know any others and I would be glad to add them to the map/list (and also welcome a guest post if you are so inclined).

USA dog golfing

Croatia dog golfing

Facebook Update

Machrie Facebook

Doing some more recent research, I noticed how many golf clubs now have Facebook pages. And most of those pages have message facilities which promise prompt response. So I decided to sit down and send a message chipping away at a couple dozen a day of the clubs that I had emailed during my original research (but they never replied).

I did get many to respond to Facebook, but still overall only 133 out of 804 clubs contacted by Facebook message responded to the Facebook message – a pretty sad 16% response rate.

The good news is that the total number of dog-friendly courses in the UK identified (and profiled in the database) is now up to 521 (up from original 384) a hair under 20% (from the original 15%).

The leading areas remain the same and account for the biggest chunk of the additions. The added data just showed Scotland, South Coast and Greater London to be even more dog-friendly than first identified as they increased their dog-friendly rate of around 22% to >45%.

Berkhampsted

Berkhampsted 1

WelcomeBerkhampsted GC is one of the poshest (£70 per round on weekends) parkland courses we have played. Typically, parkland courses are at the lower end of the price and exclusivity spectrums. But the considerable number of dog-walkers passing through does amplify the dog-friendliness vibe.

Walk – Talk about a “ruff” landscape. The terrain is flat mostly (a bit of a climb to the final hole) and there are no bunkers. But more than making up for these concessions is a battery of shrubbery moats (see picture below) and bracken laden ramparts (never flanking, but always crossing the “fairway” at the most inconvenient locations). I think they hired the set designer for The Game of Thrones to plot layout this course.  This epic landscape, of course, delighted Grace who enjoyed a big uptick in the number of stray balls to sniff out.

Water – The late summer date meant that the few water hazards around were completely dried up. But the halfway house after the 8th (also near the clubhouse) has a fountain (off for COVID), and is open, serving drinks (and a few other packaged refreshments) and able to fill water bowls or bottles.

Wildlife – Curiously devoid of critters aside from a few loitering crows.

Wind Down – We had booked the top recommendation for area on Doggie Pubs – The Boat. It is a lovely canal-side establishment (but you can’t book an outdoor table, it’s first come first served). But we weren’t feeling well so we wound down with a simple cuppa at home this outing.

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Army

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I don’t know what you’ve been told / But on dog golf we’ve been sold.
I don’t know what’s been said / But at Army Golf dogs love to tread.

Welcome – We didn’t see any of the dogs on the course, but none of the fellow golfers out that day seemed nonplussed by Grace’s presence. One of the biggest fears many have about dogs on the course is dreaded distraction (especially from an ill-timed bark). But Army is one of the noisiest courses we have played so I don’t think many people these are as concerned with noise. The 15th hole sits right next to the Farnborough Airport (see photo below) with a private jet surreally close giving it a bit of a crazy golf vibe. But in addition to regular jets flying past, there were a battery of helicopters hovering around and even a few drill sergeants barking their own commands nearby.

Walk – A very level battlefield which make the fairly long course (6550 yards) a manageable stroll.

Water – Halfway house at the 9th actually operating (we bought a Bakewell cake a cuppa while Grace enjoyed some water from the dog bowl left out). And the 16th finishes right by the clubhouse if you can’t quite squeeze in 18 holes with the dwindling daylight on a twilight round (those that offer is temporarily suspended at the moment). A water gully winds its way through the course flanking or crossing all but 4 holes. It was running and Grace was keen to get in it every time we arrived at it.

Wildlife – The usual commonplace woodland critters – squirrels, rabbits, crows, pigeons – plus a most unexpected memorial to another four-legged friend – equine veterans of the Boer War.

Wind Down – We ventured down the road to the nearby The Swan (found in Doggie Pubs). The evening was pleasant, but less so the outdoor seating which was all paved and nothing but less comfortable picnic tables. So we opted to sit at one of the many tables near the bar. One positive to the coronavirus precautions are that the tables in pubs are now set further apart from each other which provides more floor space for us to set Grace’s bed. The Swan included free dog biscuits in a jar on the bar and the server happily provided a bowl of fresh water for Grace. The food focuses on fancy burgers and recently added some Greek dishes as a special (I tried the pork which was different and tasty but not particularly distinctive, just pork belly and potatoes nicely spiced and cooked together in parchment). The highlight was the onion rings that had good sized onion and not too bready batter.

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Dulwich and Sydenham

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Welcome – Today’s dog golfing venture we had planned for a long time since it is in the neighbourhood where our son lives – Dulwich and Sydenham. All of the members we happened upon greeted us warmly (in a socially distant manner) and one in particular noted that he was always pleased to see dogs out with their owners on the course. But there is nothing more welcoming than a fellow golfing dog and we happened upon a most charming one named Alfie (see photo below) who was ever so sweet to Grace and thoroughly enjoy his day out with his human.

Walk – I never thought of southeast London as the mountainous region of the metropolis, but I guess nearby areas such as Tulse Hill, Herne Hill, Streatham Hill, Dog Kennel Hill (!), Brixton Hill, Pollards Hill and Forest Hill should have provided a clue. Several holes did require some quite orthogonal traverses.

Wildlife – This course has more Canadian Geese than a Mountie’s Molson beer fest at a moose ranch (see photo below). Geese are to D&S what ponies are to the New Forest. At times it seemed that either we were being stalked by a flock of them, or else each hole had its own resident flock.

Water – In wetter times, the many water hazards – a ratio pretty of much a little pond or stream for every hole – might have provided some handy on course refreshment for Grace, but in the late summer when we played last week, they were all dried out. There is a halfway hut at the 8th hole and though the café is not operating, the toilets are available and have running water. Also, the 7 and 15 pass by the clubhouse if you wanted to make a quick detour in a pinch, but may be difficult in all but the most empty days. The course also has water fountains at the 3rd and 15th, but those are turned off due to COVID protocols.

Wind Down – We chose our wind down spot a little bit further than we had to (in the city there are plenty of pubs all around) albeit just over a mile away by foot – The Archie Parker. Full disclosure, The Archie Parker is a café where our son (one of Grace’s favourite humans), Chase, works and he has been a key part of setting it up and building it with his partner, Zoe. It turns out that “Archie Parker” is himself a dog (Zoe’s). Now since passed away, but the dog-friendly ethos remains. While it commands top reviews for the area, we were especially drawn to visit by the warm weather since they opened Forest Hill’s only café garden out back where we joined Chase, Zoe and our daughter (and her dog Joey) for lovely drinks (next door is their sister venue the Forest Hill Gin Club so G&Ts were the tipple of choice).

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Aberdovey

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Dog Golf UK’s first guest post and a particularly notable one at that. A new friend of dog golfing, Adam Ruck (photo t bottom), who we met at Shrivenham Park by serendipity, Adam is one of the seminal chroniclers of dog golfing with a high profile piece he wrote for the Telegraph titled “Courses that Welcome Dogs”. We’ve shared a number of notes and he has very generously volunteered to provide a particularly delightful post of our first Welsh course covered:

When I learnt from this excellent site that Wales is among the least dog-friendly golfing corners of what for the moment, however inappropriately, we still call the United Kingdom, I felt an extra surge of pride in the lovely course – and excellent club – that have grown from a string of holes my great grandfather implanted at Aberdovey in the mid-1880s, using a set of nine flower pots acquired from Mrs Timber Jones. 

Aberdovey is a colourful little resort that sits with its toes in the sand on the sunny side of the Dovey estuary, half way up the coast of Cardigan Bay. A friendly green wall of hills shelters the village from cold winds. It was this mild climate and the poor health of a family member that brought my great great grandparents from their home near Machynlleth, all of 9 miles upstream, to winter quarters on the coast. Great grandfather brought his young family to reside with them for the 3 month duration of his winter leave from an army posting at Formby, where he had taken up golf.

He brought his clubs with him and, when the mood took him to spend less time with his family, carried them through the village to the open ground beyond the station, a strip of marshy ground between the railway line and a chain of mountainous dunes thrown up by the west wind and the Irish Sea.

Now drained, this gorgeous links boasts the finest greens in the Principality and bunker sand so soft you could fill an egg timer with it. As a playground it has given as much pleasure to our dogs as to me, and considerably less anguish. Admittedly, the round is beset with temptation in the form of the ever-present smell and sound of the sea, so close and yet out of bounds; not to mention the tantalising stream of dogs that cross our path on their way to the beach, pulling bearers of cricket bats, kites and surfboards in their wake.

My dogs are not alone in sensing and on occasion succumbing to the call of the sea. Only last month, on a warm Sunday evening when the course was empty but for an agonisingly slow four-ball in front of us, a friend and I stripped off beside the 12th green, ran down to the beach and into the waves. We soon caught up with the four-ball again, my friend in bare feet and I missing one sock, a seagull having made off with it. Aberdovey is a holiday course and looks kindly on such irregularities of turn-out; at least, in August it does.

Among the local friends and visiting relations with whom Arthur Ruck shared his sport on the common was his brother Richard, who became a much better golfer and took over as the prime mover of Aberdovey golf, designing the first 18 hole course and founding both the club and the Welsh Golfing Union. Another who caught the golf virus was Arthur’s close friend and brother in law Frank Darwin (son of Charles), who passed it on, along with a lifetime attachment to Aberdovey, to his son Bernard. This Darwin grew into a golfer of high quality and a writer of equal distinction, in fact the GOAT among golf writers and a rare sports journalist who took part in many of the events he was reporting on (several Amateur Championships and the 1922 Walker Cup in New York).

Bernard Darwin’s Aberdovey stories are many and colourful. Golfing antiquarians and the collectors who bring their hickories to Aberdovey for an annual match against the club all know the ‘mere schoolmaster’ who achieved the heroic feat of slicing his tee shot onto the railway at eight of the first nine holes (the layout of the course was a little different then). Then there’s Mrs Evans and her ‘biltong’ lunches …. and the caddie with Ovid in his pocket …. and the greenside bunker with its castellated rampart. My favourite is the nameless member who dug a trench across the fairway to commemorate his longest drive. I do hope he was an ancestor of mine.

But it is the story of Mrs Timber Jones that has brought immortality to my great grandfather. When I telephoned the secretary of nearby Royal St David’s to book a tee time recently, he asked if I would be bringing any flower pots with me.

At 6100 yards, Aberdovey is not a long course, and that is part of its charm. A proud moment in the club’s history is celebrated in an essay Darwin wrote for The Times in January 1933, entitled The Great Revulsion. After the great James Braid had been brought in to lengthen the course and sharpen its teeth in preparation for some important championship, the members rose up and voted to change it back again. A similar mistake was made a few years ago, when an ambitious incoming manager commissioned a new set of even-further-back tees. Monthly competitions were held, using the so-called ‘Darwin Tees’, but nobody entered. The tees are overgrown now, and not missed, unlike the cows that kept us company until the club reached deep into its pocket to pay off the local farmers. I miss them, anyway.

The layout might be described as an old-fashioned ‘out and back’, but it is not quite that simple: the course performs an 90 degree turn to the right through the opening holes as it swings around the point where estuary meets open sea, before following the beach north for a mile towards Towyn; and turns left on the way home. And there are zigs and zags where short holes cross the course. In his ‘A Round of Golf Courses’, Patric Dickinson likens it to ‘a badly tied bow tie, with the knot at the 3rd and 16th holes, like Scylla and Charybdis waiting to shipwreck golfers.’

The 3rd is the once-infamous Cader, a blind short hole with a sandhill to clear, named after southern Snowdonia’s presiding mountain. Seventy years ago, Dickinson could still call this hole a ‘hideous Caliban of a creature’ but since then Cader has seen its teeth blunted. The wind and the hacking of furious golfers have taken their toll on the mountainous dune. The cavernous waste bunker that devoured weak tee shots has become a grassy bank, and the green is now a generous crater.

The 16th, by contrast, hides nothing and has lost none of its charm. The railway’s curve, shaped like a perfect draw, intrudes on the direct line from tee to green. It makes a fascinating short par 4, tempting the tiger with the idea of an eagle, or better; while the voice of experience advises an iron shot to the fairway and a precise approach to the most complex of Aberdovey’s greens, ingeniously designed to repel.

Darwin selected the 16th as Aberdovey’s contribution to his cigarette-card ‘perfect round’ of favourite holes from around the country. Others might pick the short 12th with its raised green commanding an end to end view of Cardigan Bay, from Bardsey to St David’s. Now that Aberdovey has abandoned its high tees at 13 and 14 – more’s the pity – this is the only place on the course where the golfer can pause to look down on the sea, as described. If you find a stray white sock up there, it’s mine.

Enough of the course. Play it, enjoy, and marvel at the value of its modest green fee. Why not make a 27-hole day of it? Holes 1 to 5 and 15 to 18 make a terrific 9-hole loop; stronger, some would argue, than the full 18. Dogs are welcome except on competition days, and Aberdovey requests that they be kept on the lead. That might be advisable anyway, if yours is a water-loving dog or one that loves digging in the dunes and racing crazy circles on the beach (don’t they all?). Otherwise you may spend more time searching for a lost dog than trampling the rough for your ball.

19th hole. At the golf club, Gareth pulls an excellent pint of Gaslyn ale, brewed in Portmadoc by Purple Moose; dog bowl and water tap on the hard standing below. The kitchen does a nice line in toasties as well as more sophisticated fuel, and there are evocative old photos to admire, alongside cabinets full of silverware and my great grandfather’s clubs. Pole position in the village is the balcony of The Britannia’s Look-Out Bar. Look out for the brass of Birmingham, showing off its 4x4s and jetskis.

Dormy Houses. The golfer’s hotel and a time-honoured family favourite is The Trefeddian (www.trefwales.com), which looks down on the third and 16th greens and beyond them the shining ocean. Dogs are welcome here and at Yr Hen Stablau (www.selfcateringcottagewales.co.uk) a 3-bedroom cottage in the grounds at Pantlludw, the house near Machynlleth where Bernard Darwin spent summer holidays with his grandmother, practising his swing under the yew tree on rainy days.

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