IN the week that golf’s US PGA Championship is taking place, the US PGA Tour official website has singled out the Glen at North Berwick as its Course of the Week.
The website tells its hundreds of thousands of visitors that “the Glen is often overlooked by visitors but is as welcoming an institution as you will ever come across”.
It continues: “Barely a century old, The Glen may lack the seniority of its more famous neighbor (the West Links) but any comparative youth is more than made up for by buckets full of charm, personality and the genuine Scottish golf experience it bestows on each and every visitor.”
Rita Wilson, the Glen Golf Club manager, said: “This is an amazing honour for the Glen but for its members and visitors who know the course it comes as no surprise. We have always known that the Glen is the special place to play golf. We are already on the circuit for American visitors but this publicity should ensure we have even more next year.”
David Brice of Golf International Inc, who wrote the article for the US PGA, said: “What we are trying to do is to tell US visitors to look beyond the big name courses in Scotland and if you do you will find special places like the Glen to play golf. In my opinion the Glen is somewhere you get the genuine Scottish golf experience.”
Read the article here.
Background
The Glen Golf Club is in East Lothian and is part of Scotland’s Golf Coast.
It was initially laid out as a nine hole course by the legendary Ben Sayers in 1894 and extended by the most famous of golf course architects, James Braid, into an 18-hole course in 1906.
The club celebrated its centenary in 2006 with the opening of a new clubhouse which has all of the facilities a modern golfer needs.
The course is in a spectacular location to the east of North Berwick. It sits on a cliff top position with every hole having a view of the sea and the Bass Rock. The east of the course has views of the ruins of Tantallon Castle.
The course has been undergoing improvements over the past couple of years and has new and improved bunkering and two of the holes have been extended.
The Glen has also recently introduced new forward tees to encourage junior players to take up the game. The Glen has one of the best Junior coaching set ups in Scotland.
The Glen’s most famous hole is the 13th, The Sea Hole which has been featured in many books about the world’s best golf holes.
The 13th is a 144 yard par three. It is played from an elevated tee, blind to a green which has the sea on two sides of it and trouble on the other two sides. Unusually, for a par three golf hole it has no bunkers. On a benign tee the hole can be a flick of a wedge but if the wind blows it can call for a three iron or even a wooden club to reach the green. And once you are on the green your par is not guaranteed as there are some very tricky borrows to be negotiated before you reach the hole!
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Contact: Rita Wilson
Phone: 01620 89 2726
Email: secretary@glengolfclub.co.uk
Website: http://www.glengolfclub.co.uk
