Royal Dornoch Winter Newsletter 2024

William Sutherland – The club has an excellent
track record in making new holes. The 7th and 8th
on the Championship Course are ample evidence
of that. I am looking forward eagerly to the
successful acquisition of the Davochfin land to
extend Struie out beyond its present boundaries. I
think that the idea of having a par 3 9th, facing in
the direction that it is, is very sound. Whether or
not with the new holes in due course that remains
a permanent feature or not. All these things are very
good. I must admit that I am rather dismayed to see
the design of the new hole on the Struie Course and
I rather wish that as a membership the two issues
had been divorced. That is to say that:
1. Should we have a new short 9th?
2. Should it look like this?
The membership hasn’t really had an opportunity
to comment on the latter question. My own view of
this hole is that it is something of a disappointment.
The number of bunkers is what I would say is grossly
out of keeping with Struie as it stands, although it
is for those that don’t have sight of what the
ultimate vision for a future Struie will be. The
number of bunkers on this hole is projected as 7
which is just about as many as the bunkers on all
the other par 3 holes on the Struie Course. To my
mind, and I must confess to not having played target
golf in Florida, but to my mind that is what target
golf in Florida looks like. I would lay particular
questions against the two bunkers which are just
over halfway towards the hole. What useful function
do they perform? The blurb from M&E says it is a
visual key to the raising of the higher ground
towards the hole. I would respectfully suggest that
could be achieved without those bunkers. There is
a third bunker a bit further on which again,
strategically, doesn’t look like a very good idea to
me. The thing is, OK we have heard it is £45,000 to
construct the new hole but there will be an oncost
in future in the maintenance in as many as 7
bunkers. I don’t know what Eoin thinks about the
7 bunkers project but I think it is rather out of
keeping, rather excessive and I do hope that as a
customer if you can return to M&E to say that we
like to plan but would like to change x, y and z, we
would like to get rid of some of these bunkers, you
will be able as a customer to do that.
Todd Warnock – I applaud the beginning of the
redevelopment of the Struie. This would signal the
start of the Struie redevelopment plan. I am just
eager to hear you talk a little bit in detail about what
is that plan? Is this hole a temporary hole as we build
the clubhouse? Is this a permanent hole? Do we have
a process in which we stand as members to spend
time talking about what the Struie could be? Given
the opportunity to buy the land, you and I talked
about this at length, but maybe you could share
where we are going.
Captain – The situation is that we don’t have the
land as yet and the reason is that we want to be
reasonably clear that we would get permission from
the local authority, from NatureScot, from SEPA to
build holes on that bit of land. At the beginning of
this year the national planning framework version
4 came in and that changed regulations and
emphasised sustainability and nature conservancy a
lot more than was previously the case. We held off
until we knew that framework was in place so that
we would not be tripped up by it when it came to
dealing with the local authority so Neil has had
conversation with the local authority and has
received an indication that they would see no
serious objection to us going ahead. That being the
case it would now be possible for us to reengage with
the owners of the land and see where we might be
in terms of purchasing but I don’t think they have
any alternative offers. There is as reasonable
argument that we want to take the membership
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