TALKING GOLF AND THE ENDURING LURE OF DORNOCH AND THE LINKS

CANADIAN writer Lorne Rubenstein has championed Royal Dornoch for decades.

And he has again been flying the flag for the golf club, and the town, in a podcast which delves into the history and design behind classic courses on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lorne is the guest on programme 156 of the popular TalkinGolf History podcast hosted by Connor Lewis, who founded the Society of Golf Historians eight years ago.

While their chat revolves around the 25th anniversary edition of Lorne’s “A Season in Dornoch,” it naturally meanders in different directions over the course of the hour.

The Canadian first made the trip to Dornoch in 1977, in advance of playing the Amateur Championship at Ganton. An intended one-day stopover turned into a 10-day stay.

Twenty-three years later, Lorne returned with wife Nell intent on spending the summer in town, having secured a publishing deal on the back of a vague one-page proposal.

The award-winning writer, whose role as a standard bearer for Royal Dornoch was recognised with the award of Life Membership five years ago, tells Connor he has long believed golf offers a “window into a culture.”

With invaluable input from Nell, a professor of English who whiled away hours researching in the Carnegie Library by the flat above the Dornoch Bookshop which was home for the couple that summer, the author memorably captured the essence of Dornoch and the wider Highlands.

“Dornoch is my spiritual home of golf and it is just so connected to the town,” says Lorne, whose latest 12-day trip saw him travelling light with just seven clubs and having to borrow drivers to replace a casualty of the trans-Atlantic flight.

Over the years he has forged many friendships, although the passage of time has, inevitably, taken its toll.

Lorne recalls how his friend, US sportswriter Don Greenberg, who passed away recently, was one of many who were so charmed with the town, the people and the links that they secured not just golf club memberships but homes in the area.

Host Connor experienced the Championship Course and the town for the first time over the summer, with wind and rain failing to put a dampener on the experience.

While the conversation centres on the enduring qualities of the Championship Course; the natural contours and plateau greens; the unique challenge posed by the cunningly shaped 14th hole, “Foxy,”; and the traditional links running game, The Highland Larder’s lobster rolls, hot chocolate at Cocoa Mountain and, naturally, the delights of the bookstore also warrant a mention.

To enjoy Lorne’s chat with Connor on Apple Podcasts, visit TalkinGolf History podcast with Lorne Rubenstein