There are at least a half-a-dozen to ten tournaments I have attended where the winner is not presented with a trophy but also fitted with a victory jacket.

A stunning gold coloured silk jacket is fitted to the winner each year of the Volvo China Open and the new Australian Masters champion is presented with a ‘Golden Wattle’ coloured jacket.

On the PGA Tour winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Wells Fargo Championship, RBC Heritage and the Byron Nelson Championship are presented with a plaid-like jacket as an additional reminder of victory.

As well, each year the newly-crowned Omega European Masters champion in Switzerland gets to keep a bright red jacket while Japan golf presents a sprightly looking jacket to the winner of the Phoenix Open.

Of course and certainly not least, there is the most famous item of apparel in all golf – an Augusta National members green jacket that the defending champion fits each year to a new Masters winner.

However there is a relatively new championship jacket on offer and this particular victor’s jacket is more expensive than any of the nine jackets I’ve highlighted above.

It was the brain child of former Isle of Harris Club Captain, Hugh MacLean to present the winner of the annual Isle of Harris Open with what else but a Harris Tweed Jacket!

The club got in contact with the Harris Knitwear Company to design a special Harris Open tweed while the company also agreed not only sponsor just one valued at £400 but present four jackets to winners during Open Championship week.

There’s a jacket for men’s stroke and handicap winner and the same for the ladies and with Harris Knitwear taking measurements of each so that in a week or two after the Open champions will be able to show off a made-to-measure Harris Tweed Jacket.

And unlike the restrictions placed on the winner each year of the Masters, the new Isle of Harris Open winners are allowed to wear the jacket anywhere and anytime.

The Isle of Harris Open is held each year in August and is open to any amateur but with the only restriction, given the course is nine holes, being numbers are limited to 80.

In June this year good friend, George Morris and myself joined Hugh and also fellow past Club Captain, Willie Fulton is playing the Isle of Harris Golf Club course.

Willie informed us the club was founded in 1985, when a committee was formed to reinstate the Isle of Harris golf course at Scarista, Machair on the west side of the Scottish island.

A golf course had existed there from the early 20^th century but had fallen into disuse and became overgrown in 1939 and the commencement of WW2.

The big problem then facing the committee the land where the golf course stood was now common grazing however the matter was resolved in 2001 when the club attained the funds to buy the land while the local grazing committee agreed to move elsewhere.

Willie indicated also that in offering ‘life membership’ for £100 the club managed to attract 600 members from all parts of the globe.

The fledging club faced one last concern and that most important of holes, the 19^th meaning no clubhouse.

And here’s where the story takes a bizarre twist as Willie explained:  “We got word a shellfish company was selling a 40-foot shipping container for £500.

“But then after some negotiations with SeaScot they kindly donated the container to the club.”

Willie indicated also that for a modest sum the club arranged for a group of workers to transport the container to the course where it was fitted out with windows, a lounge and toilets.

The container was fitted into a slope and covered over with turf, so that from the main roadway it is completely unnoticeable.

Willie and Hugh are justifiably proud of their efforts, and those of the committee and members in what awaits visitors.

The course, boasting three par threes, five par fours and one par five namely the ninth, is laid on land overlooking the stunning Caribbean Sea like Borve Beach.

On a glorious sunny day last June Ocean playing golf in this postcard setting along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline and in the company of two passionate former club captains in Willie and Hugh was hard to top.

My mind wandered to places such as the Old Head at Kinsale and Royal Portrush in Ireland, and to other ‘ocean side’ courses such as Crail in Scotland and the New South Wales Club in Sydney and, where the scenery is so stunning your mind easily wanders from golf.

The first hole at Isle of Harris is just 288 yards but stares straight at the Atlantic.

The second, measuring six yards longer, presents the first big decision of the round and how much of the rocky shoreline do you want to bite off.  The green mirrors a soup bowl where the key is playing your shot off either slope.

The 290-yard par four third is uphill back in the direction of the clubhouse where anything left will leave you a blind shot into a sloping left to right green.

The fourth hole named Ensay is ranked the easiest on the course. It’s a par three measuring 141-yards but not so easy as for those first-timers like George and myself you hit into a blind downhill located green and where you just have to trust the marker post.

That’s not the case at the fifth where you can enjoy a sense of authority standing high atop on the tee staring the green 358-yards below.   But then as Willie and Hugh reminded us it is ranked Number 2 in playing the outward nine and No. 1 if you’re playing 18 holes.

It’s a hole then that deserves respect as anything short may catch a small burn running across the fairway.  There’s also a pot bunker left and just short of the green just to keep you honest.

Willie stood on the tee pointing the line off the sixth tee a hole named Toe Head, a 247-yard par four playing in a western direction but unlike the first, uphill but still in the direction of the ocean where there is out-of-bounds all the way down the left side and a bunker behind the green to trap anything long.

The seventh runs horizontal with the shoreline and is the first of back-to-back threes measuring 162 yards.

At the 201-yard eighth hole you turn your back to the Atlantic, and on this glorious day looked like a mill pond, and hitting off to downhill green.

On this first visit I hit an E21 Scandiun shafted 20-degree fairway wood and managed to find the green before then upstaging my playing partners with a birdie.

The ninth features the only par five at the Isle of Harris Club measuring 483-yards up hill and also to a raised green but then after a good blow with the driver, an equally good second shot with the same club I’d used off the previous tee, along with then a wedge into the green I found myself staring at a second straight birdie.

Now I am facing a rather sticky predicament as golfers of any persuasion will know and that is your should never upstage your hosts.

But here I was on a glorious summer’s day staring at a birdie, birdie finish.

Suffice to say, I’m still dining out on that finish and a glorious end to a wonderful nine holes in the company of a good friend and two very proud Isle of Harris former club captains.

There are so many golf courses around the globe described as hidden gems.

However the Isle of Harris Golf Club with its wonderful golden and turquoise backdrop shines brightly for those keen enough to make their way to this remote location.

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