Our Interview With Lorne Rubenstein

Our interview with Lorne Rubenstein, noted golf writer and television personality,  focused on golf in the Scottish Highlands.  Lorne spent a summer in the northern Scottish town of Dornoch with his wife Nell, writing his book  A Season in Dornoch, which focuses on golf and life.

Golf TI: Was it the your first visit to Dornoch in 1977, that led you to go back to write A Season in Dornoch? 

Lorne Rubenstein: Dornoch lodged in my mind and certainly I hoped to return there, and for longer than the week I spent there in 1977. But other feelings also led me back to Dornoch. I enjoyed writing about professional golf but at the same time wanted to immerse myself in a remote place where golf—the simple game, the amateur game—was the point. And I had recently done instructional books with Nick Price and David Leadbetter—terrific experiences in both cases. Still, it was time to just get back to golf as basic recreation in a place where the game was central to the life of people who lived in the area. As I write, Dornoch was calling me.

GTI: Is there a different feeling playing golf and spending time in the Highlands?

LR: There’s a feeling of space, openness, even of smallness. I cherished this new sense of scale, and loved being out on the links alone or in company, surrounded by the sea and the space, the mountains and the big sky. I was immersed in nature, and I relished every minute.

GTI: How do the people connect to Royal Dornoch?  What is the importance of the game to the area?  Is it like that old quote “Golf is not the most important thing to these people, it is the only thing”?

LR: A villager told me on my first night in Dornoch that everybody plays golf there, and that one must play golf there. She said that’s all there is to it. Everybody in Dornoch is keenly aware of the game, which means it’s very much part of the culture even if not everybody plays the game—most do, but not everybody. But the beauty is that everybody loves the links. Every day people are out walking on the course, along the beach, just being there. Royal Dornoch is, of course, very important to the economic health of the village and area. It’s the main attraction, and makes walking around Dornoch a bracing experience for any golfer.

GTI: Are Dornoch and other similar courses the last of the hidden gems?  Are they a dying breed or are there enough courses in the highlands that the feeling of playing in an "isolated" paradise" can remain for a while?

LR: Golfers need only discover an adventurous, open-minded side of themselves to play so-called “hidden gems.” I played and write about Tain, Brora, Golspie and Durness in A Season in Dornoch. I believe we can find these isolated paradises for some time yet, especially if we avoid the high summer.

GTI: What is the role of the physical beauty of the area in the design?  Many call it the most natural links course, would you agree?

LR: Royal Dornoch is the most beautiful course in the world to me, and the most natural links. It sits between a high ridge on the west and the North Sea to the east. The physical beauty is central to the experience of playing there, as the background becomes foreground—one becomes wrapped up in the landscape. The holes sweep along the links; they’re part of it. Royal Dornoch is all of a piece.

GTI: Is there a danger of the smaller courses in the north been exposed for commercial pursuits?   Does this tarnish some of the significance of the area?

LR: The danger, if it’s indeed a danger, is everywhere in golf. Prices for Scottish golf have gone up dramatically in recent years. It becomes more and more difficult to find courses at reasonable rates. Locals like the money that visitors bring. I don’t know that the increased interest in the Highlands tarnishes the significance of the area, though. The Highlands are magnificent in a gentle way, if that’s possible. One could have first-class golf experience by playing one round every two days, spending time with local members, and getting to know the Highlands. This is no place for a “golf as boot camp” trip, where one plays nine courses in seven days. It’s a place for slow immersion into a more peaceful way of life.

GTI: While living there for an extended period, you had a first-hand chance to experience the hospitality of the Highlanders, can you tell us about that?

LR: I feel that I made great and lasting friends during our summer in Dornoch. Once the locals realize that you’re there because you want to live on their terms, they are most welcoming. I can’t imagine how the people could have been warmer to us.

GTI: What courses in the area are worth seeing, even if they might not compare to Royal Dornoch?  How do the likes of Brora, Skibo and Tain rank for you?

LR: Brora is a rugged, often raw course that I thoroughly enjoyed. Tain has many first-class holes, and superb views to the Dornoch Firth and back to the town. The Carnegie Club at Skibo is interesting in that Donald Steel and his associate Tom Mackenzie, while stymied by certain environmental restrictions, still managed to design a course with superb views over a vast, roaming landscape, and produced some of the most arresting green sites I’ve seen. One shouldn’t ignore Golspie, either. It’s a heathland, links and parkland course all in one.

GTI: The book is some of the best writing we have read in a long time, is it your proudest achievement as a writer?

LR: I feel proud of all the books I’ve written, but Dornoch will always hold a special place for me because I shared the experience with Nell and because I made so many friends and learned about my authentic golfing self. I’ve received many letters from readers who feel a certain peace in the book, and who are telling me that they felt transported to the Highlands. I feel good about the book for all these reasons.

GTI: Will the draw to Dornoch continue for you in the years to come, is there anywhere else in the world you would be drawn to for similar reasons?

LR: I want to return to Dornoch as often as possible, and am now a member of the club. I’ll return after the Open this July, for instance. I’m also drawn to the northwest of Ireland, to the east coast of Canada, and, indeed, to whatever remote courses I might find. The superb British golf writer Pat Ward-Thomas once observed of himself that “The urge to visit the remote places grows stronger with every passing year.” I feel that way as well.

GTI: What projects do you have on the horizon?

LR: I have some ideas for other books, but I’d best keep these to myself just now. They need fermenting. Maybe I’ll reach some conclusions during my next visit to Dornoch, while I wander the links some late summer’s night when the light is long and the club bar awaits with a wee dram or two.

GTI: Thank you.