Advice for playing Muirfield

Playing Muirfield for the first time this week - any tips gratefully accepted. Walked most of the course last year at the Open, but quite different inside the ropes I imagine.

Don't bring a woman with you.

tick

err...will they let me in with my moobs?  

The fairway bunkers will kill your score. It's not possible to get out of them further than a few yards.
Better to play short of them and leave yourself with a longer second shot than to be reaching for the sand wedge for your second shot.

The par 3s seem to be uphill - take an extra club.

A lot of the greens have run off areas at the edge, so aim at the middle of the greens. Most of them are not big by links standards, so you'll never have long putts if you are in the middle of the green.

Wahey - Tw@t it. Driver everywhere. You don't go on tour to lay up!

Sorry - not helpful at all, I know.

Hit the ball, find it, hit it again. Rinse and repeat. Best advice. Ever

I played it March 2013 so very different conditions but I do remember that you didn't have to be that far off the fairway to find the ball gobbling Bundai. I also thought that you get less of the "hit it up the middle and watch it bounce off into the rough/fairway bunker" that you get on other links.  Think thats why a lot of the Pro's like it as a venue.

Good tip from George re the greens, if you go for a sucker pin and miss, the penalty can be very unforgiving. Middle of the green and 2 putting won't wreck your score. I shudder to think how good the greens will be at this time of year. I found them better in March that almost anywhere else at any time of year.

It'll be interesting to see what you think of it, I thought it was great, struggle to think of what you might call a signature hole but I particularly  liked the 2nd, the 6th, 9th & 17th. and there were NO weak holes.

Are you doing the whole dining thing as well?

barragan, don't even think about trying to speak to members if the following anecdote is anything to go by ...

One American visitor tried to engage in conversation with 'a member' and at the first convenient pause in said engagement, he summoned a waiter and ordered him to go and speak to said visitor as he found the intrusion to be intolerable. 

gaelgowfer wrote:barragan, don't even think about trying to speak to members if the following anecdote is anything to go by ...

One American visitor tried to engage in conversation with 'a member' and at the first convenient pause in said engagement, he summoned a waiter and ordered him to go and speak to said visitor as he found the intrusion to be intolerable. 

Was the visitor a woman??  

American was probably enough

thanks for the tips.

played yesterday evening - perfect conditions, gentle breeze, 21 deg, blue skies.

the course - near faultless in my opinion.

my golf however was far from faultless... gobbling bundai wasn't so much an issue for me, the gobbling bunkers however...

the bunkers would be my sole gripe - i was in quite a few, and the majority of cases i was either in a near unplayable at the back corner or along the back edge meaning a hack out towards said bundai - not very nice. i'd far rather have been sat in the middle of the bunkers facing the exiting challenge of a tough escape over the cliff like faces than hacking it backwards over the low lips - seemed a bit silly - maybe i was just unlucky. ended up dropping 2-3 shots (rather than 1) as a result on several occasions even when choosing the 'sensible' route.

so, highlights -
driver split the 3rd, wedge 15 feet short
up and down on the 4th over an enormous dune - holed a good 10 footer after a nice lob
great drive down the 6th - lovely soft 8 iron in, but ran right through the back
great drive down the left hand side of the 8th - simple par
good drive down 10, 7 iron to 20 feet - par
used the contours nicely to weave between the front right bunkers on 11 and made the putt
lovely punched 6iron to 3 feet on 13, popped it in for a bird
good drive down 14, poor approach, but pleased with my little pitch over a greenside bunker
nice tee shot on 16, two putts for a nice par
great drive down 17, poor second but pulled off probably my shot of the day (either that or the tee shot on 13) with a 40 yard micklesonesque flop over the front right bunker and the dune landed soft 10 feet short and rolled up to a couple of feet.
great drive up the last - little 9iron to front left pin - 20 footer lipped out with about 4 foot turn - made the 3 footer coming back to finish 3,4,4.

managed to get round with the same ball - never really in the thick stuff - pleased with that.

hopefully i'll get another crack at it sometime in the near future - thoroughly recommended.

I'm in the office
Looking out at the rain
The forecast for my area is not good this weekend
Last weekend was a wash out
You're really not endearing yourself to me   


sounds great though - hope I get to play it someday soon.

Glad you enjoyed it Barra and that you got good conditions to play in. Despite the hang ups that some people have over the off course politics and alleged unfriendly membership it doesn't detract from the fact that as a golf course it just reeks of class. Having said that, when our group played North Berwick the following day we all agreed that overall NB was a better/more fun overall experience.

The West Links at North Berwick is the best links course for amateurs that I know. It's interesting, fun, rewards good shots and punishes bad ones without being too hard. The only thing it doesn't have from the 'complete links experience' is a railway!