Britain’s Most Northerly Course
“This is as far north as you can go in the UK! Four hundred miles further and you’re beating off Polar Bears.”
We’d been invited to play a charity match at Whalsay Golf Club in the Shetland Isles, Britain's most northerly 18 holes. On the night before sailing, the club manager called to say due to a particularly wet & windy weather forecast, they were calling it off! We decided to go anyway!
A whisky on the way up brought back memories of my earlier visits to Shetland.
“Shetland begs to differ!”
Weather’s a perennial problem in Shetland! On the BBC forecasts, I’d cast a vaguely interested eye northward to see Shetland the polar opposite of the rest of Britain. Maybe that’s part of the appeal! Shetland begs to differ!
The Northlink Ferry from Aberdeen makes a good spotting-platform for dolphins and porpoises.
BASIC INSTINCTS
As you sail into Lerwick Harbour, the landscape appears stark, bleak and brown. Trees don’t do well here! It’s perhaps not to everyone’s taste, but to me, there’s an ethereal energy about the place that keeps bringing me back.
The few trees that are in Lerwick huddle between buildings for shelter.
“Ewan, my son and I were bound to see as many of these wonderful islands as we could…”
My son, Ewan and I were bound to encounter as many of these islands as we could and fit in a few rounds of golf. Landing in Lerwick, we immediately steered the minivan north to connect with another short ferry crossing to the island of Whalsay. The last time I did this, the boat was full of golfers. This time it was just us!
The little ferry from Laxo to Symbister on Whalsay takes 30 minutes and operates 17 times a day.
ISLAND OF PLENTY
“Rumour has it that the island of Whalsay off Shetland’s ‘mainland’ has the densest population of millionaires in the UK! ”
Crofting was not tenable on Whalsay so the men took to the sea to earn a living. It paid off!
It’s a well-contained fact that Whalsay has the densest population of millionaires in the UK! The island’s main town of Symbester consists of simple, Scandanavian-style houses scattered on the hillsides with not one Lamborghini, Ferrari or Mercedes in sight.
The harbour however hosts several sleek Pelagic (deep-sea) trawlers each worth several hundred Lamborghinis. They berth alongside a substantial fleet of white fish, lobster and crab boats. The sea is clearly the primary source of Whalsay’s wealth.
BRITAIN’S MOST NORTHERLY GOLF CLUB
“As the UK’s most northerly golf course, Whalsay is definitely one for the course-baggers!”
At the island’s northernmost tip is the most unlikely golf course, a peaty, heathery headland with, on my initial visit, barely a blade of grass to be found. Enthusiastic locals established the track back in the mid-1970s on a peat bog and with care and copious amounts of lime to encourage grass growth, Whalsay has become a fully-fledged if somewhat unique golf experience!
Whalsay’s 18 holes are now lush green grass amidst the flowering machair.
The 10th to the 16th is the course’s outstanding stretch, the 10th, a long par 5 ending at a tricky little lochan. The 16th is not too shabby either, a magnificent downhill par 4 next to the cliffs with even more stunning views.
KILLER GOLF
This shot was taken by one of my fishermen friends from Whalsay, the bull orca almost flying to pick up a few scraps from the fishing net.
“Florida is famous for alligators on the golf courses. Whalsay offers Orca! ”
Orca or Killer Whales are sometimes spotted from Whalsay’s course cruising by the rocky inlets looking to pick up an unsuspecting seal. “One year there were six of them coming right in,’ Graeme Sandison, one of the club’s founding fishermen members told me on our last round, “sweeping the beach in about 2 meters of water. A lot of folks saw it.”
Orkas are just one of many wildlife species in these parts. Otters, bottlenose dolphins, porpoises and seals are regularly seen swimming in the coastal waters and vast colonies of seabirds such as gannets, guillemots, fulmars and kittiwakes can also be seen especially in spring and summer.
More parochially, there are the famous Shetland ponies who often stand apologetically alongside the sheep, all very cute and highly photogenic!
MIDNIGHT GOLF
“We heard you were wanting to play golf at midnight. We don’t - so we’re going to get you drunk instead.”
Meanwhile, back on the golf course, which clearly we weren’t going to be able to play today, I recalled the clubhouse shenanigans on my first visit to Whalsay sometime in the 90s.
This was for the Fishermen’s Mission Invitational and it was one of the best golf events I’ve ever attended - for several reasons.
“I had a hankering to play a few holes at midnight, just to say I’d done it! ”
After the round, we got back to the clubhouse and it was packed to the gunwales. They were serving fish & chips to the juggernauts, the fish coming straight off a boat parked alongside. The cod could not be fresher!
The ‘Simmer Dimmer’ or summer twilight here in Shetland is when the sun barely dips below the horizon before promptly popping up again. I had a hankering to play a few holes at midnight, just to say I’d done it!
As I sat in the packed, chaotic, good-humoured clubhouse, I found several generously filled glasses of whisky neatly accumulating in front of me. I had to ask, ‘What’s going on here?’ One of my golfing compadres piped up in his finest Whalsay twang, “We heard you’re wanting to play golf at midnight! We don’t - so we’re going to get you drunk instead!”
Oh well! If needs must! Bottom’s up!
The final hole at Whalsay is a death-defying par 4 around the loch.
WHALE OF A TIME
We went on to have one of the most memorable nights… except I don’t remember much about it! There was a guitar and accordion involved and a clubhouse full of merry fishermen having a whale of a time!
Then the girls arrived! While the men had been golfing, the ladies had a day out in Lerwick. At around 2 AM, I was taken by surprise and swung off my feet by a woman with her arm in a sling who, at some stage in the proceedings, had fallen off the bus. What a night it was - except again, I only have vague recollections.
The last thing I do recall is trying to find my way back to my Symbister B&B around 5 AM, the road into town peppered with sozzled, solo golfers winding their weary way home, golf bags akimbo leaving a trail of clubs and balls. Somebody would pick them up in the morning for their owner to collect at the clubhouse when they felt a little better!
Douglas, my teetotal minder from the mainland, drove me into town and went into a house, not sure if it was my B&B. He came back a minute later and said, “There’s an empty bed in the room on the right! Just get into it…”
And I did! Sweet dreams!
