Oliver Comins

Herring Way (15th Hole, 321 yards)

Where the golf course curls along the sea’s granite edge and wholesome turf seeps around outcrops of dark rock, a modest drive is required to carry beyond a deep gully reaching into the heart of a succinct and slender fairway.  A poorly struck ball can leap between knobs of stone before, occasionally, being tossed just a short chip or long putt away from the wavering flag.  More normally, you will see its final despairing hop into the ravine, sacrificed to the tide or disappearing into camouflage among like-sized pebbles on the beach below. At one time or another, in a kind of ritual, most golfers reaching this high place will also pull out an older ball and tee up the wrong way, facing the lumbering swell.