ISLE OF ISLAY, SCOTLAND | Now that courses are opening on both sides of the Atlantic, I allow myself to fantasize again about golf in the British Isles. My mind also has wandered to one of my most recent trips, a trek last spring to this rugged, 240-square-mile isle in the Inner Hebrides off the southwest coast of Scotland. I walked windswept beaches and did a bit of birding around the rugged Mull of Oa, watching ducks, geese and sea birds soar and dive in the skies around me. I caught beefy brown trout in the freshwater lochs and tasted whiskies that possess lovely hints of peat thanks to that old-fashioned fuel still being used in fires to dry the damp barley from which the spirits are made. But what I enjoyed most was playing golf at the recently revamped Machrie links.
Routed in dunes off Laggan Bay, it is the only course on Islay, which is pronounced “eye-la” and boasts some 3,000 inhabitants. It also happens to be one of my favorites in all of Scotland, thanks to its seaside setting and pleasing mix of holes that compelled me to use every club in my bag and hit lots of bump-and-runs.
I also love its history, and the story of the man who originally built it.
Opened in the spring of 1891, the Machrie links was designed by Willie Campbell, a native of Musselburgh who was introduced to golf as a caddie and went on to become one of his country’s best competitive players. He nearly won the Open Championship in 1886, finishing second, and the following year made another run at the Claret Jug. But that ended in disaster after Campbell took several shots to escape a cavernous bunker on the 16th at Prestwick. He ended up recording a 9 on the hole, and at the end of the tournament stood in third place, three shots back of winner Willie Park Jr. Soon after, golfers started calling the hazard “Campbell’s Grave.”
As was the case with most top players of that era, Campbell was an expert club and ball maker and served as a professional at several clubs, Prestwick among them. In time he began designing courses. The Machrie was one of his first endeavors and it turned out to be a brute. The layout measured more than 6,000 yards, which was considered long in those days, and featured a number of blind shots and dozens of bunkers designed to swallow errant shots. The thick grass that grew on the dunes – called machair in Gaelic, from which the name Machrie was derived – also presented its fair share of challenges, as did the wind, which often blew hard.
Not surprisingly, the Machrie Links came to be regarded as one of the hardest golf courses in Scotland. That reputation was a big reason why, 10 years after its opening, it was the site of a match between the members of the Great Triumvirate – James Braid, J.H. (for John Henry) Taylor and Harry Vardon – who in their collective careers amassed a total of 16 Open Championships. The purse, which was said to be £100 sterling, was as impressive as the playing résumés of the three contestants. In fact, it was reported at the time to be the most ever offered to the victor of a golf match. And it appears that Taylor was the one who pocketed the prize, after the putt Braid hit to tie the match on the 18th green struck a piece of sheep dung and veered away from the hole.
Of equal dismay is that fact that Willie Campbell was not around to see the match. He died the year before, in 1900, at age 38.
Campbell was living in the United States, having moved there in 1894 as part of the first wave of so-called immigrant professionals who traveled to the New World at the turn of the 20th century. He worked as the first golf professional at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, and also was tasked with expanding the original six-hole course, first to nine holes and then to 18. While there, Campbell also competed in the inaugural U.S. Open at nearby Newport Country Club. After completing the first round of the 36-hole event tied for the lead, Campbell finished sixth in a field that featured 11 golfers. He took home $10 for his efforts.
After a couple of years at Brookline, Campbell headed to the Myopia Hunt Club, another North Shore retreat outside nearby Boston. Accompanying him was his wife, Georgina, who also had grown up in Musselburgh and had become a strong player in her own right. They formed a formidable professional team, with Georgina giving lessons to women, boys and girls at Myopia as she also helped her husband run the pro shop and make and repair clubs and balls. In the eyes of some historians, that makes her the first female golf professional in America.
Sadly, Campbell died in autumn 1900. But his wife kept the flame burning at Franklin Park, taking over as the professional there and running the entire golf operation for the next nine years.
During their employ at Myopia, Willie and Georgina Campbell helped convince the city of Boston to build a municipal course in Franklin Park, a greenspace that Frederick Law Olmstead had laid out in the Dorchester neighborhood. Campbell designed the initial nine-hole track on the property and then assumed the positions of head golf professional and keeper of the green. Per usual, Georgina worked by his side, and in four years Franklin Park, the second municipal golf course in America after Van Cortlandt Park in New York City, was recording more than 4,000 rounds annually.
Sadly, Campbell died in autumn 1900. But his wife kept the flame burning at Franklin Park, taking over as the professional there and running the entire golf operation for the next nine years.
Franklin Park prospered in the years after Campbell’s death – and after Georgina left. Bobby Jones played there often while he was studying English and classics at Harvard, and so did 1913 U.S. Open winner Francis Ouimet. In 1922, Donald Ross expanded the course to 18 holes.
The Machrie also did well for many decades. But eventually, the course began to suffer from neglect, as did the inn that had been built to accommodate visiting golfers. Then, in 2014, along came hotelier Campbell Gray, a Scotsman who not only transformed the old lodge into a stylish and beautifully appointed 47-room hotel, but also initiated an extensive renovation of the course. Leading that effort was D.J. (David John) Russell, a former European Tour player with a couple of victories on that circuit and an assistant captain to Ian Woosnam for the 2006 Ryder Cup matches. Russell also had some experience as a course architect, having designed a pair of well-regarded courses at the Archerfield Links in the East Lothian region of Scotland.
Four years after Russell began his work, the Machrie was ready to go. My visit to the track last spring was my first. But friends who had played the old links say Russell’s version is much improved, thanks largely to his eliminating many of the blind shots Campbell had fashioned as well as a number of bunkers. Russell also suggested that the rough be cut back.
There was so much about the layout, and the overall golf experience, that I liked. The five-minute walk from my room to the first tee. The smells and sounds from the sheep and cows that grazed in nearby fields. The sweeping views of Laggan Bay from most parts of the course, and the bits of the Irish shore I could make out 25 miles across the sea on clear days. A couple of the holes run along a vast beach, and I tarried on those tees before hitting my drives, savoring the scents of salt that rose off the waters and watching the odd fishing boat chug by.
Just as satisfying was the time I spent after my rounds in 18, the restaurant and bar located on the second floor of the inn.
The greens for several holes are tucked into grassy dells surrounded by dunes. I made sure to enjoy each of the approaches I hit into those, trying to gauge both wind and distance and sort out just how high or low I wanted to hit my irons – and to not get too distracted by the views.
Gray also saw fit to build a practice facility on the north end of the grounds, complete with a learning center and five indoor hitting bays, as well as a six-hole layout known as the Wee Course and a putting course modeled after the Himalayas in St. Andrews.
Just as satisfying was the time I spent after my rounds in 18, the restaurant and bar located on the second floor of the inn. The eatery is an airy space with mesmerizing views of the links and sea – and with a team of mixologists who work wonders with the local whiskies and gin and chefs who prepare seafood from the surrounding waters and Aberdeen Angus beef with remarkable dexterity.
Oh, to be back on Islay.