The sun is just beginning to set as I walk down the slope at the back of the final green on the fabled North Berwick West Links, wearing a smile as wide as the Firth of Forth itself.
A few yards away the terrace of the old stone clubhouse, which stands guard over the 18th green, is alive with golfers raising glasses on a balmy summer’s evening in this charming Scottish seaside town. Laughter carries on the breeze. Out on the water, the white hulk of Bass Rock shimmers in the fading light, with the outline of Fife clearly visible.
The setting alone would be enough to lift the spirits of even the grumpiest golfer, but you won’t find many of those in these parts. The magic of the North Berwick West Links is in its power to restore your faith in the game, help you rediscover your childlike sense of fun and remind you of all the reasons you fell in love with golf in the first place.
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As I linger in front of the clubhouse, reflecting on a round of moments and memories of pure delight, I can’t wipe the smile from my face. A tap-in birdie at the last has helped, but that isn’t why I’m grinning. I’m smiling because I know this won’t be the last time I stand here having played the West Links. I’m already looking forward to the next time. In a world full of forgettable golf courses where holes so often blur into one other in a haze of depressing familiarity, North Berwick West Links is a glorious exception.
North Berwick West Links: Attracting the World’s Best
It may not be long enough to host an Open Championship but the world’s great players still flock here regularly. But they come because they want to, not because they have to. In recent years, the likes of Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Max Homa and many more have been spotted pushing their own clubs around the West Links usually around the time of the Scottish Open at neighbouring Renaissance Club. And they come back year after year. “I thought I’d go out with a few clubs and chip-and-putt,” Spieth said. “But I ended up taking my bag and played all 18 holes. After the first few and was like, I can’t really quit … and I know that the last five, six holes are incredible.”
Stuart Bayne, General Manager of North Berwick West Links and a man steeped in East Lothian golf after spells at Gullane and Archerfield, explains what he thinks attracts so many of the world’s best to the West Links. “When the phone rings and the top players say ‘I’m in the in the area and I’d love to play it’, we’re delighted to extend the hand of friendship and welcome them. And they love it here.
“When you see Spieth and Thomas dropping multiple balls next to the wall on 13, or around the green on 16 and just trying things like they did when they were kids, you see they’ve found that sense of fun here. It’s unique, authentic and something completely different to what they are used to. It’s that uniqueness which ensures we remain as attractive as we do. The inventiveness you need to play well here is something that you can’t replicate. You never play the same two shots. It’s just so addictive.”
THE WEST LINKS: A STUNNING LAYOUT
From the 1st tee, pressed tight against West Beach, you get the sense you’re in for something special. The beach is in play on seven holes and is out of bounds on another seven. Raised above the sand, the Firth of Forth is wonderfully visible throughout. Stone walls cut across fairways and defend putting surfaces, while greens ripple and tilt as if shaped by the waves themselves. And yet, none of it feels forced. Each hole seems to belong as much to the town and the sea as it does to the game itself. Families stroll the beach as you play alongside and over it, dogs bound across the sand. Like St Andrews, golf feels deeply woven into daily life here. And the parallels don’t end there.
North Berwick Golf Club is the 13th oldest in the world and its West Links looks and feels very much like the Home of Golf. The opening and closing holes bear more than a passing resemblance to The Old Course at St Andrews, the 1st and 18th running side-by-side, sharing a wide fairway with a narrow path cutting across its width for locals to reach the beach. The 18th in particular is a scaled down replica of St Andrews’ famous home hole, a drive-able par-4, a broad, generous fairway leading you back towards the heart of town, a Valley of Sin lurking just short of the green, while cars line the right edge of the fairway in what feels like the most precarious parking spot in golf, The Old Course aside. Please remember if you send a sliced tee shot through a windscreen the bill is yours. So aim well left!
NORTH BERWICK GOLF HAS INFLUENCED THE WORLD
Few courses have left such an indelible mark on golf course architecture as the West Links at North Berwick Golf Club. There are a number of hole designs here, so original and effective that they have been copied, deliberately and shamelessly, the world over. The most famous of those is the 15th hole, Redan. The name comes from a V-shaped fortification, designed to repel an attack, which a British officer encountered while storming a Russian stronghold during the Crimean War. Returning home, he saw echoes of that defence in North Berwick’s 15th, a long par-3 to a raised green which slopes heavily from front to back and right to left, and is protected by deep bunkers right, left and long of the putting surface. The original Redan was born. It is one of the most imitated holes in the game from the 4th at the National Golf Links of America to the 7th at Shinnecock Hills and, to some degree, the 6th at Augusta, but nothing beats standing on the original tee with the Firth of Forth in sight.
An eagle at the par-5 11th certainly helped the scorecard on my visit, while the par-4 13th, Pit, was another highlight. This short par-4 asks you to play your approach over a stone wall tight to the front of the green. It’s eccentric, maddening, and yet wonderfully satisfying when you pull it off. Holes like these are why North Berwick is not just quirky and fun but a touchstone of world golf course design. But what makes a day on the West Links so enjoyable is the way these thrilling individual holes are woven into a round that is endlessly varied. That’s helped by the figure-of-eight routing, with the opening three holes playing along the water before cutting inland for the next six.
You return to the ocean on the 10th tee and the next five holes play alongside the beach before the stunning final four holes, once again, cut back inland. It’s a layout which defies the convention and tradition for the classic links: out for nine on one side and back for nine on the other, but this variety is at the heart of what makes the West Links so endlessly interesting – you’re never playing too far from the Firth of Forth.
The 16th is another one of those holes that will stay with me forever: a par-4 which demands a tee-shot over a burn cutting across the fairway at around 230 yards. That sets the stage for one of the most thrilling approach shots in golf. The putting surface is unlike any other — split clean in two by a four-foot gully that resembles a wave breaking across the green. Where the flag sits dictates everything. Find the wrong half of the green and you face a putt as adventurous as it is treacherous; only the most precise approach will hold. It’s a green which has fascinated even the greats. Tom Watson, staying at the hotel overlooking it, was transfixed by the incredible contours of the 16th. Curiosity got the better of him one evening: he slipped out with a club and a handful of balls, eager to see if he could solve the puzzle for himself. Like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas in more recent years, he experimented with the green by the glow of twilight — until, politely but firmly, he was reminded the course was closed!
TIMELY RECOGNITION FOR WEST LINKS
Few courses have risen in stature or popularity in recent times like the West Links at North Berwick Golf Club. At one time, it might have been classed as a cult favourite, but no longer. These days it is a universally celebrated destination, drawing visitors from every corner of the world. That rise has also been reflected in top 100 lists.
Martyn Huish, the revered and long-standing head professional at North Berwick Golf Club, quite literally grew up on the West Links. His father, David, best known for being the halfway leader of The Open Championship in 1975, was the head pro here for 40 years before him, until his retirement in 2009. Martyn’s grandfather was head professional at nearby Gullane before that. In golf terms, no one knows this stretch of the East Lothian coastline better. “Gone are the days where the world top 100 courses are the 100 toughest golf courses on the planet. Now it’s much more nuanced. The West Links offers history, creativity, eccentricity, fun and combines it with some of the most incredible and influential golf architecture in the world. There is nowhere else I’d rather play than here.”
The fact that the West Links is not a course that leaves amateur golfers feeling bruised and beaten up, is also a huge part of its appeal, according to Martyn. “A lot of golfers come to Scotland to play The Open rota courses: Carnoustie, Turnberry, Royal Troon, Muirfield. But, putting it politely, they’re often too much for most golfers. They love the experience, but they get beaten up by the bunkers, the rough and before they know it they’ve lost six golf balls and come off thinking ‘I’m going to tell people I enjoyed it, but did I really?’ Now if they go to Prestwick, the Old Course or if they come here to the West Links, they’re unlikely to lose a ball, they might have been in a bunker or two but they’re playing by and over the sea, over walls and having real fun. They not only get to experience a course the likes of which they haven’t seen before but they come off smiling. And that is just priceless.”
Next to the 18th green of the West Links and close to the clubhouse at the North Berwick Golf Club you will find a sign for visitors, which reads, “Your green fee ticket at North Berwick Golf Club West Links entitles you to temporary membership of the club, where you will be made welcome by the members.” It’s more than just a charming gesture — it encapsulates the spirit of this place. There is no snobbery or pomposity here. The welcome is genuine, and warmth is woven into every interaction. It begins with Stuart and his team. Gavin, the ever-smiling concierge at the clubhouse door, who makes one visitor after another feel instantly at home; Martyn and his assistants in the Pro Shop who go out of their way to help; the starters next to the 1st tee who strike the perfect balance of formality and warmth. At North Berwick Golf Club, you aren’t just a guest or a visitor— for a few hours, you are part of the club. “We desperately want people to feel that way,” Martyn adds. “It’s really important to everyone at the club that golfers who come here feel they’re not just a number, or a green fee we’re trying to benefit from but that we make them feel like they are part of this place, a member while they are here. We want them to remember the day they came to play the West Links for the rest of their lives and then we want them to come back.
“The quality and originality of the West Links speaks for itself. You may not be able to play football on Wembley, you can’t go for a knock-up on Centre Court at Wimbledon, and it isn’t very easy to have a game of cricket at Lords’: but by coming here, or to St Andrews, Prestwick, Troon, or Turnberry, you can walk in the footsteps of the greats and experience the challenge those great players were faced with. What an incredible opportunity that is.”
NORTH BERWICK GOLF: FINAL THOUGHTS
Some will call the North Berwick West Links quirky, even quaint. Others will tell you they would rather play here than anywhere else in the world. What all of them will say, is that this is not a course you tick off a list and move on from, it is a place which calls you back. From the moment you finish playing it.
Play it once and you’re enchanted; play it again and it only deepens your admiration. Nowhere else have I been reminded so powerfully why I fell in love with this maddening, wonderful game. The West Links is proof that golf, at its best, is not about punishment or perfection, but about joy, creativity, and connection, to the land, to the sea, to the people who welcome you as one of their own. So if ever frustration creeps into your game, if you ever find yourself questioning why you bother, the answer lies here on the East Lothian coast. Come to North Berwick. Play the West Links. Let it remind you, as it reminded me, that golf is best when it makes you smile. I can’t wait to go back.
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