INTRODUCTION TO NAIRN DUNBAR GOLF COURSE

Looking from the west towards Nairn Dunbar Links – circa 1930 – Prior to the caravan park and a lot less trees & housing.

Lochloy Road can be seen heading east, centre right of the image, while Fishertown and the River Nairn can be seen in the lower half of the picture.

The first recorded mention of playing golf in Nairn dates from 1797.  A hundred or so years later, and twelve years after the forming of The ‘Nairn Golf Club’, a second course in the popular holiday town of Nairn, the ‘Nairn Dunbar’ was formed in 1899, with 9 holes on pretty much the same area of land as the current course exists on today.

It was Sir Alexander Dunbar of Boath who provided the 60 acres of land for the construction of a 9 hole golf course.  On 24th May 1899 Lady Dunbar, Sir Alexander’s mother, declared the course open and called on her son to hit the first drive of the first tee.  Tragically Sir Alexander died in a drowning accident 18 months later.  Then 25 years later, after acquiring additional land from the Town Council, the landowners Brodie of Brodie and Dunbar of Boath the club was finally able to extend the course to 18 holes. The last major restructuring, including building 3 new holes was completed in 1994.

With other various changes to the routings taking place over the last 125 years, the course we see today was finally settled on.  Whilst the other course in the western area of the town ‘The Nairn Golf Club’, was in its early days played almost exclusively by the ‘Gentleman of the period’, the ‘Dunbar’ to the east of the town was very much for the working classes of Nairn, and thus offered the opportunity for them to play the game at an affordable cost.

The original clubhouse also underwent two extensions (1962 and 1976) with the existing £1m+ building erected in 1997.

Those early years for Nairn Dunbar were at best challenging, but with fortitude and determination, the club weathered those years and quickly started to prosper and grow in popularity, increasing its membership in the following years and soon establishing itself as a fine, and well used course.  Whilst the look and layout of the course adapted to the environmental changes around it, due to new housing and commercial developments.  The course flourished from the enthusiastic efforts of the committees, members and greenkeeping staff who constantly adapted the layout in regards to the routing of the holes, while also bringing many changes in the very nature of the environment the course is sited on.  The course has spent a good number of its recent years, looking and playing very different to the original look and feel of the course back in those very early times, when, nothing separated the links from the sea, but sand and dunes.

The course today, has over a number of years now returned much closer to those original true links.  There is little doubt, that the golf course now exhibits many links aspects, in its new links grasses, its firm fairways and fast true running greens when the right conditions allow.  While there is still work to be done, to return the course ever closer to its original links character.  There is no doubt that the links golf now being enjoyed at Nairn Dunbar will usually provide a proper test to the golfers who play here, and especially so if the wind should blow.

Nairn Dunbar GC – 2025

In the last year or so, Nairn Dunbar Golf Club has undergone a number of notable changes, the appointment of a new and very experienced ‘Operations Manager’, John Forbes, along with its first ever female ‘Club Captain’, Hazel Clark and finally the invitation to myself to come onboard as the new Club Professional.  After working abroad in Europe for a number of years, it is a special opportunity for me to return to my native country of Scotland and to a traditional Scottish members club with a long and impressive history.  The passion and desire of the team now in place behind the scenes at Nairn Dunbar, certainly gives me a belief that the future of the club is now in very safe hands.  That the energy and commitment the whole operations team, including the club committee’s, and the many volunteers deliver to each and every project within the club, bring the success that the club needs to grow and flourish.

As a golf club, you naturally need a golf course product, and my goodness what a product of a course we deliver here, to members and visitors alike.  The quality of the golf course we provide all year round is second to none, especially in terms of value and the classic Scottish member experience, both on and off the course.  In my first year at the club, I was astounded by the incredible friendliness of the members and the desire of so many visitors to come and enjoy the ‘Dunbar’ experience.  It is also truly amazing, to see and hear the reactions of the competitors in our many Open and Elite Level competitions we often stage, and we hold some truly notable events.  In my first year alone, we had the Northern PGA Open (professional golf event) and the Scottish Women’s Amateur, run by the R&A, they were quality events with worthy winners.  On a more traditional level of golf our ever popular 5 Day Amateur Open held every August, is virtually booked out again for the following year within a week or two of the actual event being completed, with many individual competitors who come from all over the UK and who have done so for many years, what more can you say.

However, a golf course is only ever as good as its greenkeeping team, and while we have only a small team compared to some, and a sometimes limited budget, what they deliver to members and visitors alike on a weekly basis, is of an exceptional quality.  So much of the praise from a variety of the golfers who play our course is attributable to the tireless efforts of the greenkeeping staff.

So, as I mentioned earlier, I feel very privileged to have had the chance to create a ‘Professional Shop’ and team to support the club, its members and the many visitors who come and play here.  I hope that they in turn enjoy what we provide in terms of products, coaching, advice, repairs and support.

Alastair Neilson

PGA Professional

Nairn Dunbar Golf Club 2025

Greenkeeping.

Course History and Development

Greens 

A few years ago now, we decided to change our greens grasses to a more fescue blend of grass compared to the poa annua grass that basically covered the greens. 

We started on this road by trying to totally change the sub surface of the greens.  We did this, by hollow coring over a number of years followed by a lot of verti draining and we also increased our top dressing production to upwards of 175 tons a year to help reduce the thatch layer and improve the surface for the fescue seed to germinate.  Now we no longer have the need to hollow core and we are able to either pot seed or use a disc seeder to get seed into our surfaces.  We still try to achieve 100 tons + a year of top dressing to keep on top of any thatch and also for firmness and smoothness along with our pencil spiking and sarrel rolling program throughout the season. 

 Rough 

A few years ago we also started thinning out our rough grasses around the course as they had become too thick and juicy for the long term plans we had for the course. We invested in a cut and collect machine and large tractor rake which helped us to remove the unwanted grasses.  We were also able to spray the rough to help with the removal of certain types of grasses and now bar a couple of sections, we have achieved the thin wispy rough we desire around our course 

 Tees 

In the last year, I have started an over seeding program on our tees to try and help us deliver a better all round grass coverage on our tees, especially on our par 3 tees which get a hammering each year.  Long term plans are to look into larger (extended) par 3 tees and installing all year round artificial mats on par 3s to help us with wear and tear when the weather conditions prove problematic in maintaining the surface quality.  The long term plan also includes the re-levelling of other tees and extending some of the tee areas as well. 

 Fairways 

We are currently trailing some new shapes of fairways and over seeding our weaker parts of fairways.  It is proving to be a bit of challenge with how much golf is played at Nairn Dunbar for the recovery areas to get a chance to grow back and establish.  Also, we are trying to incorporate our top dressing plans into our approaches, along with trying to improve the type of grasses we get, to try and match the finer grasses we have on our greens. 

Bunkers 

we have started a naturalizing of fairway bunkers on our course now, the plans going forward are that whenever we do fairway bunkers we try to naturalize them as we go. We also have revetted greenside bunkers which every 5/6 years need to be dug out and rebuilt as the faces crumble away with the sand that gets splashed onto them from bunker shots.  Again, when doing bunker work, we are always looking at new shapes of bunkers and re-positioning of bunkers on fairways, as technology has moved on in golf equipment, increasing the distances the ball now travels.  We have to try keep bunkers in areas where they are in play as a potential hazard, to make golfers think about where the shot they are hitting may end up. 

We are extremely lucky at Nairn Dunbar that we have our own sand dunes onsite we can dig into for our own sand for bunkers and top dressing which is a huge saving on money for the club. 

As We Progress Into 2025

We are now 6/7 years fungicide spray free, which shows we are working hard and successfully on our sustainability golf plan for disease on our greens  

Our Summer 2025 Cutting Heights

Greens 4.5mm 

Approaches & Tees 8mm 

Fairways 12mm 

Rough 50mm (2 inch) 

Head Greenkeeper

Nairn Dunbar GC

Graham Burnett