Factfile
Royal Dornoch, Championship Course
Golf Road, Dornoch, Sutherland IV25 3LW
Tel: 01862-810219
Fax: 01862-810792
Email: Bookings
Web: Royal Dornoch
Green fees:
Championship course: Single round weekday £72 (April-October), £48 (November-March), weekend £82 and £54; Combination Day Ticket weekdays (one round Championship course and one on Struie) £85 and £52, weekends £95 and £56. Handicap limit for the Championship Course is 24 for men and 35 for ladies. Children under 16 - handicap 18 or under - are half above rates. Handicap certificates must be produced before playing the Championship Course.
Struie course: Single round £29 and £16; day ticket £47 and £26.
Accommodation: visit the Royal Dornoch website to find details of a whole host of places to stay conmplete with links to each.
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Royal Dornoch, in Scotland's rugged Highlands region, is undoubtedly one of the world's most remote golf courses. Internationally renowned as one of the world's great links courses, Royal Dornoch sits in a lonely corner of Sutherland on a latitude shared with Hudson Bay in Canada and northern Russia. That said, the first three golf links in Scotland of which there is written record are St Andrews (1552), Leith (1593) and Dornoch (1616). IIt was in 1877 that the Dornoch Golf Club was founded as the successor of the Sutherland Golfing Society whose members played at Dornoch and Golspie. The course was then only nine holes long. The great Tom Morris came up from St Andrews and laid out nine proper golf holes. Three years later another nine holes were added and the fame of the Dornoch course started to spread, even across the Atlantic to America. The club was granted the Royal Charter by King Edward VII at the turn of the 20th Century and Royal Dornoch Golf Club was born. Despite the remoteness that has always been a factor in keeping this magnificent links out of the mainstream of championship golf, streams of visitors make their way north to take on the wonderful challenge of this great golf outpost. If Royal Dornoch lay in the central belt of Scotland it would surely have been on the Open Championship rota long ago but it is it's very inaccessibility that lies at the heart of the romantic aura that has attached itself to Dornoch since before the First World War when wealthy amateurs like Joyce and Roger Wethered, with time to spare to take themselves north on the long train journey, often made the course their summer retreat. Today improvements to the A9, the Kessock road bridge to the Black Isle at Inverness and the road bridge over the Dornoch Firth, have reduced journey times from the south and made access to Inverness Airport very much easier. Royal Dornoch is now accessible to a much wider audience of golfers than ever before. Its cult following remains as it always did although now more obvious among visitors from across the Atlantic. The American interest has been fuelled by the praises sung of the course by such luminaries as five-times Open champion, Tom Watson, who is an honorary member and the great American golf writer, Herb Warren Wind. This is classic links amid spectacular terrain with views of the sea from every hole. The holes are strung out along Embo Bay in the mouth of the Dornoch Firth on a narrow strip of softly contoured duneland where there is just enough room for parallel fairways on two distinct levels. The challenge is as magnificent as the setting. Royal Dornoch's second links course, the Struie, has been much improved by the construction of five new holes and the lengthening of several existing holes making it a relaxed alternative to its mighty neighbour. The annual Carnegie Shield, a famous open amateur event, will be played this year from August 7 to 13 and the usual rush for entry forms began on February 1. Royal Dornoch is a very relaxed club too. Informality is the order of the day. The people of the Highlands of Scotland are renowned for their hospitality and the clubhouse staff do all they can to make sure that golfers and, if accompanied, their families are comfortable and are well fed and watered. Reservation requests may be submitted direct from the club's website though there is no interactive booking facility. The club says it believes the personal attention of staff ensures it can tailor its services to each individual. One of the nicest touches about the golfing experience at Dornoch is that all those who take on the Championship Course receive an 18-page illustrated souvenir brochure about the club. Visitors also enjoy excellent catering in the clubhouse and in the Royal Golf Hotel next door, though there is a range of accommodation available locally, with details and links available from the club's website. | 
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