North Berwick Golf Course, West Links – Watercolour in a Watercolour Moleskine

This is the first hole of North Berwick’s West Links or Course. The history of the club goes back to the 1830′s so its well established. This hole is named “Point Garry – Out which means your tee shot is aimed at the point which is just on the very right of this painting. Just over this hill is the green with the beach adjacent on its right – a true seaside links course. The first drive can be a terrifying experience – especially when there are folks with sketchbooks just over the wooden boundary fence. This course has evolved in a true natural way. It has been fitted into the landscape rather than the land being altered to suit the course. There are two outstanding holes here. The 13th, called “Pitt” needs two good shots the second across a stone wall just in front of the green. The 15th, the “Redan” is 190 yards long and is a brute of a par 3. Arnold Palmer, no less, described this as one of his all time favourites. The hole has been copied all over the world. The word “links” has come to mean the useless piece of land between good farming ground and the sea – the piece that links the two. Changed days! It costs £80.00 for a round during the week. Some piece of useless land! The most famous links are those of the Old Course of St Andrews, just north across the Firth of Forth and where this week’s Open Championship will be contested.

I used a bit of artistic license in this painting as my short video of North Berwick shows.

In order to get some contrast between the building in the distance and the sky I added some more trees and made the sky more stormy. You won’t tell – will you?