Monifieth Golf Links -- an historic gem, waiting to be discovered

text size

In a country blessed with so many outstanding golf layouts, it is understandable that many of Scotland's 550 courses have names unfamiliar to the majority of visiting golfers. Even the locals are unaware of every jewel in the treasure trove of golf they have sitting under their very noses. Unfortunately in a world where branding and name recognition have come to mean everything, the golf course with an unrecognized name is more often than not, assumed to be not worth playing. As the old adage goes -- a wise man never assumes anything.

Monifieth -- Scottish links golf at its raw best.

Monifieth is certainly not a household name, even in Britain, but if you take a clue from the fact that this course's next-door neighbor is Carnoustie, you'll begin to understand that it's no ordinary links layout.

Golf has been played at Monifieth since at least 1639 when Parish records show two of the local citizens being officially admonished for playing golf before noon on a Sunday, when they should have been in church. By 1649 church law had decreed that golf was not to be played at all on the Sabbath. Thankfully, things have changed a lot since those distant times and today; even visitors can play golf on Sundays.

The first signs of a real course at Monifieth came in 1845 when Allan Robertson of St. Andrews, the greatest player of his day and the world's first professional golfer, designed a formal, 9-hole layout. He received the grand fee of 30 shillings (about $2.75) for his trouble. The course was extended to a full 18-holes in 1880.

Monifieth is no exclusive private club, restricted to only to the privileged few. Like it's neighbor, Carnoustie, located 4 miles along the coast and St. Andrews, just a 30-minute drive away, this is a public links. No less than 5 separate golf clubs call Monifieth home and a warm Scottish welcome awaits any visitor, every day of the week.

Monifieth Links is one of Scotland's most under-rated, but what a gem.

There are actually two courses here, but the pride and joy of Monifieth is the Medal Course -- a past host to the Scottish Amateur Championships and a regular qualifying course for the British Open when it is held at Carnoustie, this may be one of Scotland's most under-rated, championship layouts. It's a course with an amazing honesty to it -- there are no fancy airs and graces, no pretensions, just bare, unadulterated links golf - an uncompromising, traditional layout where what you see is precisely what you get.

Like so many of the early seaside courses in these parts, Monifieth is bordered on one side by a railway track. It runs alongside each of the first six holes providing an ominous out of bounds that demands absolute accuracy. Wide-open spaces only encourage the wind that whistles incessantly off the Firth of Tay, coming across the water from St. Andrews. By the time it reaches Monifieth, it has perfected its annoying ways and somehow manages to blow harder and less predictably than it had in the home of golf, making even greater demands on every player.

Unusual for a links course is the abundance of trees that complicate matters further and help give Monifieth its own, unique flavor. They manage to work in unison with the gusting winds to further confuse and frustrate and make fairways even tighter than they already are. The rough is all that any Scottish linksland course can provide and generously peppered with shrewd bunkering, something to be avoided at all costs.

Measuring a healthy 6,650 yards from the tips, the Medal Course at Monifieth has been brought up to a very acceptable modern day length over the years, yet the basic design remains much as it was originally, some 150 years ago.

There's no question this is one of the most underrated courses in all Scotland and for the true lover of links golf, one not to be missed. For a few suggestions on how to include Monifieth and other Scottish gems into your golf trip, click here.

©2007 Golf International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Golf International -- Providers of quality golf travel arrangements since 1988.