Musselburgh Old Course

Restoring An Old Links In Terminal Decline Or Desecrating A Golfing Monument?
By Tom Mackenzie, EIGCA Senior Member

For those with a flair for the melodramatic, the story would read “The green that may have seen the final putts of some of the first Open Championships is to be destroyed to make way for an expansion of a horse racing track. The old links at Musselburgh, probably the oldest course in continuous use in the world, is to be blighted by floodlights and an artificial track” It all sounds terrible when it is presented like this and this was the message sent out to many in the world of golf. Naturally, the response was one of horror, but much of the reaction came from those who had not been to Musselburgh.

These facts are true and it would be unthinkable for this to happen were the links in any way untouched. The reality is quite different as the tale of Musselburgh is one of being over-taken, left behind and then neglected. The next stage in its evolution may be a little brighter, but it will come at the cost of the loss of the green mentioned above. It is a quirk of fate that Musselburgh finds itself in this position, because it shares so many similarities with St. Andrews. Its present circumstances seem to have arisen simply because it has nine holes and not eighteen.

The Rise and Fall
The links at Musselburgh dates back many centuries, but it was from the period between 1830 and 1874 that its popularity began to establish. The now renowned Edinburgh golf clubs and, indeed, some of the oldest clubs in the world played there including the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, The Royal Burgess Golfing Society, Royal Musselburgh, The Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society. Up to 1870, there were only 8 holes when the extra hole was added to make it up to nine.

The period from 1874 to 1889 was the heyday of the links when it played host to the fledgling Open Championship no less than six times. Winners on the links included Willie Park Junior, Mungo Park, Bob Ferguson and David Brown. Many great golfers of that era learnt the game on the course, including the Park dynasty and the Dunns. Their influence on the expansion of the game worldwide is huge.

It was not long after, however, before the success of the links caused the start of its own downfall. The Honourable Company, Royal Burgess and Bruntsfield were concerned about over-crowding on the nine hole links and within three years from 1894 all had moved away to their own 18 hole courses. It was easy to see why as the four clubs alone had in excess of 700 members between them in the late 1880s (source www.scottishgolfhistory.net ) and at one point there were nearly sixty clubs playing on the links. This trend continued between the wars with Royal Musselburgh finally moving away after 150 years in 1925, but the period after the World War Two was one of the most damaging.

Up to that point, Musselburgh had been a genuine seaside links, with the sea lapping alongside the course and views out over the Firth of Forth to Fife. Such was the lack of respect which the course had at the time that approval was given for a new power station along the coast to pump pulverised fuel ash from its furnaces into lagoons reclaimed from the sea immediately alongside the course. Over the years, these have built up into mountains and the course is now completely isolated from the sea. This was the crime that really ended any hopes of Musselburgh being preserved in anything like its original Open Championship form. It happened with scarcely a murmur from the world of golf.

By the end of the 1970s, under the stewardship of the local authority, the course had been allowed to deteriorate alarmingly with virtually every bunker filled in or grown over and even the basics like mowing of greens largely neglected. Things started to improve in the 1980s with the founding of Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club, when a group of locals re-established a Club to play on the links and, by a mixture of lobbying the council and the efforts of their own volunteers, conditions started to improve and the course regained some popularity. Enthusiasts also started the World Hickory Championships to allow the links to be played in something like its original form.

Horse-racing has taken place on the links since the early 1800s and so the golf and the racing have evolved together. It has not always been a happy co-existence, particularly because the horse-racing has generally been more financially viable than the golf and a series of improvements to the racing has resulted in significant damage to the historic links. In many respects, this is hardly surprising, given the near fatal blow of the land reclamation devastating the setting of the course. In 1986 and 1996, development prompted changes to the links design, as the race course battled to hold onto and strengthen its place in British racing. The current set of proposals is every bit as important for the future of racing there.

What May or May Not Happen Now
In 2002, Donald Steel and Company was approached by Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club to advise on the golfing impact of proposals from the racecourse and Donald Steel and I worked on the project together, before Mackenzie & Ebert took it over. The plan was and still is to extend the track, softening the sharp curves and to establish a sand based all-weather surface to improve the quality of the racing and extend the number of meetings. This work would involve the loss of the 1st green, which is in roughly the same position as the final green in the days of the Open, widening the width of the track from 34m to 49m in places and also to move the far straight about 100m north, creating substantially more golfing room within the track.

From our point of view, the obvious concerns are the loss of the green, the widened crossings of the racetrack and the introduction of floodlights. It soon became apparent, however, that the race course is prepared to fund an ambitious restoration of the links. This would improve the overall experience of playing the course both in today’s game and for those interested in learning about its rich history, even allowing play of the course with hickory clubs. The race course is also being accommodating to the golfing concerns so long as its requirements for upgrading could be met. Over a series of meetings a package was agreed that involved:

• relocation of floodlights away from golf, with all but those along the distant north straight being made retractable between meetings
• rebuilding greens that were obviously new additions in a style more becoming of the origins of the links
• creation of new tees to improve the holes or to reduce carries across the racecourse
• construction of new bunkers, restoration of historic bunkers and removal of inappropriate ones
• installation of a new irrigation system
• re-alignment of the 9th hole, which was a modern addition
• establishment of a set of tees for use with hickory clubs
• introduction of interpretation boards to allow casual visitors to learn about the importance of the links in the development of the game
• the addition of a new practice ground and six hole junior’s course

As with all such negotiations, there are always negatives and no-one involved will say that the loss of the 1st green is good. However, the course is in desperate need of renovation and, unless there is a seismic change of policy at council level (they own and manage the course and indirectly the race course) there is no reason to believe that the required investment will occur in any other way.

The planning process so far has been full of controversy and rancour and the Scottish Executive has recently completed a public inquiry on the overall planning application. The result is unknown at the time of writing. Emotions have run high with contrasting opinions on what is best for the future of the links. One thing is for sure and it is that those on both sides are genuinely passionate about the place, which must bode well for the future.

On a personal level, I hope that the overall management of the links can be changed to form a Links Trust modelled along the lines of St. Andrews. This would allow the course to be run for the good of the golfers with money raised being put back in and with the possibility of external funding to assist in future projects. Interested bodies would be represented and the future of the course would be more assured, with the hope that the 21st century is kinder to it than the 20th century was. Musselburgh deserves nothing less.

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Robin McGregor of Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club

This article originally appeared in Golf Course Architecture April 2007. Click here for further information.