By Sam Johnson
Our guy D.A. is at the British Senior Open this week at Muirfield. And if any golf course could follow the excitement of Carnoustie, it maybe Muirfield, which is considered one of the great links golf courses in the world. So, if you get a chance, pull up a chair in front of the TV and root for D.A. Here's a little background on Muirfield that you might enjoy.
Muirfield is a 6,601 yards, Par 70 links golf course located in Gullane, Scotland. If you want to give it a go, it will cost you about £180. Bookings must be made in writing to the Club Secretary. Contact should be made at least 12 months in advance for peak season bookings. And, by the way, visitors' days are Tuesday and Thursday only.
Muirfield is the home of The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers whose records date back to 1744 when the Club wrote the original 13 Rules of Golf for the first competition played for the Silver Club.
At the time the Club played on the 5 holes at Leith Links but then moved, in 1836, to Musselburgh's 9-hole Old Course and then again to its current home, Muirfield, in 1891. Muirfield is the only course to have hosted the Open (15 times, the most recent in 2002), the Amateur, the Mid Amateur, the Ryder Cup, the Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup. In accordance with the rules of the Club, the management and administration of the Club is in the hands of the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (Management) Limited, a company limited by guarantee.
Donald Steel, the well-known golf course architect and President of the English Golf Union described Muirfield in the following words.
"Ask a dozen golfers to classify courses and you will get as many different answers but over Muirfield there is absolute unanimity. Some confer on it the accolade of perfection although such eminence is as difficult to define as the perfect round of golf. Personal taste can be the deciding factor but one thing over which few will argue is that Muirfield embraces more of the qualities that a perfectionist seeks in his ideal course."
Architecturally it is a gem. A clockwise outward half encases an anticlockwise inward nine, an arrangement that ensures that players have to make incessant adjustment for wind direction. Jack Nicklaus liked what he saw so much that he named what he considers his home course after it. In terms of producing the best champions it has an impeccable record. Apart from the classic challenge it presents, the delights of its surroundings are attractively congenial and, if for the more humble golfer, the emphasis is on the culinary wonders of its clubhouse, Muirfield is second to none.
