As many visitors to GolfByTourMiss may know, one of my favourite golfing destinations is Askernish Golf Club.
Askernish was designed by Old Tom Morris and opened for play on Saturday, 29th September 1891, with a foursome comprising a Mr Paterson and Mr William McLean against Mr Kenneth McLeod and Mr David Jerrow.
At the time of opening, it was described as ‘probably the most natural Golf course in the United Kingdom’.
Golf was played at Askernish till around the early 1920s and from there on, it was for the most part abandoned for over 80-years, and really was not thought about. There was still an Askrenish Golf Club, but that was a 9-hole, course located more inland and away from the Atlantic Ocean.
Then in 2005, Scottish golf-course consultant Gordon Irvine visited South Uist on a fishing trip. He approached the Askernish Golf Club with the offer of course maintenance tips in return for being allowed to fish off the golf club’s land. The club members obliged, and they showed Irvine around their 9-hole course.
The members got talking to Irvine about the original course at Askernish, and when they took Irvine the site he eyes lit up. Of course, there was no recognisable golf course with the area overgrown with grass and livestock grazing, but knowing Old Tom’s work, Irvine could envisage where the holes were probably located.
In 2006, Irvine got in touch with golf designer Martin Hawtree, and between the two of them, and without the aid of Old Tom’s design plans, they walked the area many, many times, they studied satalite images, and they figured, and as good as they could, the layout of the ‘lost’ course. They went to work but not with bulldozers or the like, but with grass cutters and rakes to fill in the sandy rabbit holes.
On the 22nd August, 2008 soccer legend Kenny Dalglish hit the opening tee shot at the restored Askernish course, and this despite crofters and fameres refuting there was ever a golf course on the land in question. A few days after its opening, Scottish courts ruled that Askernish Golf Club had a right to build a course and clubhouse, but it still needed to allow the farmers and crofters (people who farm small parcels of arable land) to let their livestock graze on the course.
The restored Askernish is a par-72 course. It boasts four par 5s, 10 par 4s, and four par 3s. There is only one greesnkeeper maintaining the entire course. Pesticides or artificial fertilizers have and never are used, keeping the maintenance as natural as possible.
Now 131-years on, the description of Askernish as one of the most natural golf courses in the UK remain true today.
Askernish has become a ‘must play’ destination. If you like your golf, you will love Askernish.
I have now been singing the praise of Askernish for near on a decade, since the first visit in June 2012, and I’m finishing off typing this just two days after the 2022 Masters, and where I have been in attendance for 23-years since my first visit in 1995 to Augusta National as an accredited journalist, I’m enjoying thoughts of Askernish in writing this latest article.
However, on this occasion, I have posted videos and photographs I had my laptop of Askernish, and I hope they inspire you follow in Old Tom Morris’ footsteps to visit Askernish.
The Lord of the Isles – Taking us from Oban to the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides and our meeting with Askernish GC
The Lord of the Isles at Lochboisdale and with the Lochboisdale Hotel just a 1/2 wedge shot away
The Lochboisdale Hotel on the isle of South Uist and your ideal base, and just a 10-minute drive to Askernish Golf Club
Returned to one of my favourite all-time golf coureses – Bernie at Askernish Golf Club.
The opening green at Askernish with the South Uist mountains as the backdrop. Covered in the clouds in the peak of Hecla, at a height of 1,988 feet.
The par-3 second hole at Askernish GC (Photo -@TourMiss)
Looking back on the 5rh hole at Askernish GC – (Photo @TourMiss)
Askernish GC . Sixth green (Photograph -GolfByTourMiss)
Crail’s George Morris, and related to Old Tom, chilling out between shots at Askernish GC. How good is the background?
The bunker at the 8th hole at Askernish Golf Club & only one of four bunkers on this Old Tom Morris designed course
Ted Koala (@Ted_Koala) – The world’s most-travelled head cover finds a nice spot on Askernish GC.
The par-3 11th hole at Askernish GC – (Photo @TourMiss)
The bunker guarding the green at the par-5 12th hole. (Photo – @TourMiss)
The 14th green with the hole an uphill dog-leg left to right off the tee & where you don’t see the green to getting to the dog-leg. You can see the fairway around 3 o’clock on the @TourMiss photograph
The 17th tee marker
The par-3 17th at Askernisk Golf Club – Photograph GolfByTourMiss
The 17th green at Askernish GC and with Atlantic Ocean aglow in the background (Photo – GolfByTourMiss)
Who else but appearing on the 18th tee – Ted Koala & the most travelled head cover in all of golf. Go to his twitter page @Ted_Koala
The final hole – All the trouble is down the left side so aim to the left of the Askernish clubhouse in the distance. A good change to finish with a solid par
Trust you enjoyed the videos and the odd pics and again, don’t take my word for it. Get yourself organised and visit Askernish for yourself. You will not be disappointed.
