What is a Heathlander?
That answer is easy… one who loves heathland golf. But of course, that answer likely leads directly to another question: What is heathland golf? And this question seems by contrast to be very much more difficult to answer. As a co-founder of Heathlander, I set out to do so and it has led me down an interesting path of discovery.
Golf, unlike any other sport, has its field of play designed by an artist and that field of play is different every day. We call these artists architects but they are as much entertainers, painters and photographers as they are architects. Perhaps that's why more than any other sport, we as players discuss that field of play. We discuss what we love about courses and criticize what we don't. How they look. How they feel. How they play. How they walk. We discuss styles of courses the way a wine drinker discusses regions or varietals. We have a taste for a certain styles more than others, and that's probably what makes a discussion of heathland golf so interesting.
Sunningdale, Swinley, The Berkshire, Walton Heath and Woking. Five great golf courses, all of which I grew up playing, all a little West or South West of London and all commonly agreed to be Heathland courses. In fact, when one poses the question “what is a heathland course?” one usually gets a response that includes one or more of these clubs or at least mention of the counties they reside in. These names are usually accompanied by someone talking about traits of actual heathland such as good-draining acidic soil and of course the presence of pink heather, “ling”, Latin name Calluna Vulgaris, the very sound of which somehow seems to convey its diabolical effect on golfers, even those who speak no Latin. So what’s the problem?
Well, it seems that there is a very loud and committed community who feel that this small area around London, England is the only place where heathland golf exists and that there are fewer than 150 ‘true’ heathland golf courses in the world. In fact, if one were to stray into the chat group of say Golf Club Atlas, a renowned publication both written and read by very knowledgeable golfers, one might be debated heavily for suggesting anything else. Yet heathlands do exist all over the world. In Scotland, France, Denmark, Germany and Spain heathland certainly exists, as it does in Australia – though any mention of heath in this context gets quickly drowned out by a sand belt vs heathland debate (curiously Kingston Heath is the former). And land with many defining characteristics of heathlands also exist in the United States. So surely heathland golf can too? Can it not? Should it not, since it is such a fun and beloved form of the game? Do Americans not have a taste for something a little less common? Or do they?
It has often amused me how freely people use the term 'links' to define a golf course. An honestly defined links must be on the water since links land literally links the land to the sea. And while I have played many a great links along the ocean, I have also curiously played “links style” golf, whatever that is, in places as land locked as Las Vegas. It seems what people mean by “links style” is having few trees, firm fast conditions, long vistas and rolling terrain. But of course, many of those elements are also true for heathland courses. So I find it amusing that the “heathland” term is policed (or dismissed) with so much more vigor than the term “links”. Or perhaps it is simply the case that the battle for the term “links” is already lost and so the purists have moved onto a new front. In surfing the internet I recently discovered a course called “Heathland” in North Carolina designed by Tom Doak, a man whose work I admire immensely both as an architect and a scholar of golf course architecture… and what is amazing is that Heathland is described by its owners as being “distinctly molded in the image of the British Isles links courses, with holes reminiscent of familiar links like St. Andrews, and lesser known gems like Lahinch and Cruden Bay”. As a fan of Heathland golf, I suspect Mr. Doak is unaware of this and I hope he’d be amused. So while I suspect that Myrtle Beach’s “Heathland” may not be one, might there be heathland courses in Michigan or Oregon where heather certainly grows? And might there even be famous, extraordinary and beloved heathland courses hiding in plain sight in the US that are being dismissed without cause? In reading a blog about UK heathland golf travel one site went so far as to say that while they believe the best heathland golf is in aggregate in England, that the world’s #1 course which happens to be in New Jersey is of course also a heathland course. I wonder what the folks arguing in the chat rooms of Golf Atlas might make of that, dare I say it, fantastical claim. I personally think it has merit. Is there in fact room for another form of the game that might challenge the links for being its finest form? For satisfying the tastes of the most discerning golfers.
For me, heathland golf, just like links golf, is magical. It is the merging of amazing land with an amazing game. And I want for heathland golf what links golf has already had. I want it to be tasted, experienced and beloved by all golfers, not just those with access to the spectacular private clubs in Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex. So what does that experience hold? It’s not quite the extreme weather of the Open rota links courses, but English heathland golfers are certainly not deterred by a spot of rain or a chill in the air or a brisk wind. Heathlanders walk, they don’t ride in ‘buggies’ (the English term for golf carts). They mostly carry their own bags or push a trolley. They play as many two-balls as four-balls if not more. They admire, but at all costs, avoid the heather and of course many have a little tipple in the clubhouse post-round.
At Heathlander, it’s our goal to shine a little light on heathland golf and perhaps expand the way it is talked about, while outfitting the Heathlanders around the world who play it, debate it and defend it. Because if you care enough to argue about it, you must truly be a purist, one who loves the game and every little detail about it.
