MARINE AND LAWN x RANDOM GOLF CLUB

DAY ONE

THE LONG WAY ROUND

The drive from Marine North Berwick to Royal Troon Golf Club is two hours. We took fifteen over four days. I’ll get to that (and the golf) in a bit but first I would like to say hello. My name is Erik and I make films about golf. I love golf. The challenge, the way it drags you around the world, the people you meet through it. Several years ago I made a series about golf in Scotland, called “The Un/Official Guide” in which I played twenty-six courses in fourteen days. I walked until my feet hurt and then changed my socks and walked some more. I fell in love with this country – and I’ve come back to this Open Championship more in love than ever before.

THE GOLF

This tournament I will be penning daily dispatches about what it’s like to be in the belly of the beast, mere paces from the eighteenth green at Marine Troon. A few hours ago I saw Fleetwood escape a pot bunker from my window. Now I cannot promise play-by-play commentary of each round or betting favorites (I picked Rory at the outset and look where that’s got me). What I can share is what moves me on the golf course. Watch Shane Lowry make a birdie or a bogey and you’ll see a man on the edge of passion and composure. Justin Rose showed his mastery of the wind and walked away bogey-free, his round carrying the extra weight of 36 qualifying holes behind it.

If we’re lucky, we’ll see all of Troon’s teeth over the next three days. If we’re especially lucky, we’ll be given a battle to remember on Sunday ala last month’s US Open. I’ll be watching alongside you every moment of the way.

RANDOM GOLF

Back to the fifteen hours. We began on the West Links at North Berwick and headed north by way of a modest city park on the northside of Edinburgh. This is Leith Links, a spot of green amongst the old town that once was a golf course. A statue of Muirfield’s first captain, John Rattray, wielding a play club overlooks the park today. Then we trekked north, from St. Andrews and the wonderful heathland Ladybank GC, all the way to Inverness and up to Dornoch Station. Royal Dornoch holds a place in my heart from when I first picked up a club. It was the first Scottish course I ever heard of actually, from a neighbor in Los Angeles. He said it was the most beautiful place I would ever see. On the eleventh tee box, staring out into the sea, I saw what he saw.

Two golf courses I would recommend you might not have heard of. The first: Anstruther Golf Club. Nine holes sprawled out over the cliffs of its namesake’s town, Anstruther offers everything you could ask for and somehow still over-delivers. It also has the hardest Par 3 in the United Kingdom. My second hidden gem from our Scottish loop is Boat of Garten. James Braid in the highlands. With sloping fairways and mountain views along the River Spey, Boat of Garten is a beautiful test.

Our last few hours were spent in the quickening rain. It was early this morning, and the golf was about to begin.