Moray Golf Club plays host to World Hickory Golf Championships with players from USA, Japan, Australia and across Europe don tweed and plus fours on visit to the ‘Home of Golf’
Not even the chilly Alps can compare to Lossiemouth on a windy day, as golfers from across the globe discovered on their visit to Moray Golf Club.
However, the stiff breeze coming in from the Moray Firth failed to temper the joy of playing on one of Scotland’s finest links courses for more than 60 ‘hickory’ golfers taking part in one of the sport’s most unique competitions.
It was like a step back in time to watch players wearing tweed jackets and plus fours, swinging a wooden ‘brassie’, ‘mashie’ or ‘niblick’ at the Home of Golf.
Moray was one of four courses testing competitors from USA, Japan, Australia and across Europe at the World Hickory Open Championships, a celebration of the origins of the sport.
“With modern clubs, a bad shot could end up being a good shot,” said Swiss visitor Nick Hofer. “A hickory bad shot is always a bad shot, and will stay as a bad shot.”
While the golfers enjoyed milder conditions at the Nairn Dunbar, Brora and Fortrose & Rosemarkie courses also taking part in the worlds, last Wednesday’s Moray gales were a force to be reckoned with.
As if the challenge of getting round the Lossie links’ testing Old Course wasn’t enough with only a handful of wooden clubs to strike your ball around, the weather was truly horrendous.
“We are from Switzerland and we know what cold weather is but this is hardcore,” said Cornelia Schnell. “We have the Alps and the snow, you have the sea and the wind and rain.
“But we love it here and I would like to come back - perhaps when it is a little warmer.”
Her husband Nick Hofer added: “The course can be your friend but with bad shots it is no longer a friendship.
“Scotland is the home of golf and it is fantastic. In Switzerland we don’t have these courses, we have parkland courses but this is real golf - links golf with the wind and rain coming in from the sea. You have to play proper golf.”
No-one knows more about the joys of hickory golf that Mike Stevens, an American whose home in Tampa Bay, Florida enjoys temperatures in stark contract to Scotland’s northern reaches.
Playing off a handicap of +3, the veteran player visits Scotland every year and is a member of an American society of hickory golf which revels in the rich history of their sport.
“It’s kind of a worldwide organisation now,” he said. “It started from the collectors, and some of them started playing and formed a playing group in the States.
“For me it started a little over 20 years ago when I started playing with hickories, and I enjoyed it so much that I continued.
“It is pretty much how the game started but it is fun to play on a lot of these old historic courses - like Moray - that were created in the hickory era.”
Mike played in the inaugural World Hickory Open Championship in 2005, and decided to revert to the first first set of clubs he used in the competition.
“I have five clubs in my bag. When I played in the first world hickory we were only allowed five, because most of the players didn’t have clubs and all the rentals only had five clubs.
“I decided this year that I was going to play with the exact clubs that I used 20 years ago. It maybe wasn’t the smartest choice, but it was a lot of fun.”
His driver was a Gene Sarazen Wilson Brassie, named after USA’s seven-time major winner of the 1920s and 1930s.
“I have two MacGregor clubs, a mid iron and a mashie,” he added. “I have an 1895 niblick, and I have a Wright & Ditson putter to make up the set.”
“This set is collectible, they are all original but the set I use at home is a reproduction of a MacGregor set from the 1920s.”
Fellow Florida player Bryan Bruce, from the city of Sarasota, loved the heritage of Moray Golf Club, which was designed by St Andrews legend ‘Old’ Tom Morris over 130 years ago.
“It’s wonderful to look at the courses that have been designed for 100, even 150 years,” he said. “For them to stand the test of time, even with the modern clubs, that is amazing.
“Moray was a real challenge in this weather. This was a beautiful golf course, in great shape. Greens were smooth.
“When you come into the clubhouse and you see all the stuff on the walls, it’s a lot of golfing history.”
Taking part in the tournament for the second time was Heinz Peter Thuel, from the German city of Cologne.
“With the 18th hole into the wind, you need definitely three shots on a par four as the green was out of range for two,” he said. “You have wind from every direction so it was a big challenge for us, particularly using the hickory clubs.
“All my life I played with modern clubs but the last four years I started with the hickory and the challenge really is the clubs - and the distance you can’t expect to hit.
“On the course here the greens here are very nicely kept, so the quality and the conditions are very, very nice for the time of year. It is always worth coming here to play and I will definitely return to this area.”
Just like whisky, golf is a major tourism attraction for Scotland and Moray Golf Club secretary Stevie Grant was delighted that Lossiemouth was able to host such an event.
“This can put us on the golfing map,” he said. “We’ve heard some of these players raving about the course and that’s great to hear.
“Many of them aren’t just here for the four days of the competition, there’s some who will be over here for a fortnight. They’ve been going over to courses like Cullen, Hopeman, Strathlene and Buckpool so it’s a case of putting Moray on the map and not just our courses.
“Even in my time here at Moray Golf Club, we’ve had the EuroPro Tour here, home internationals, the Scottish Open qualifiers for Castle Stuart, and we had the Scottish Boys last year and the Scottish strokeplay - the list goes on.
“This is in the top three per cent of courses in Scotland, and people enjoy playing here.”