Askernish Golf Club

Overview: Askernish Golf Club is an 18-hole natural links on the machair of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. The course occupies rolling coastal ground where the turf, dunes, grazing land and Atlantic weather form the hazards as much as any formal bunker. The layout is associated with Old Tom Morris and plays to par 72 over 6,259 yards from the white tees. Its character is wonderfully direct: fairways move through open machair, the wind changes the value of every shot, and the low-running approach is often as useful as a high one. The club's own hole names, including Runway, Barra Sight and Old Tom's Pulpit, reflect the landscape and the course's local history. It is a place for golfers who enjoy natural ground, strategic imagination and a round that feels inseparable from the island around it.

History: Old Tom Morris visited South Uist in June 1891 with Horace Hutchinson and laid out eighteen holes on Askernish Farm. The course later declined as maintenance became inconsistent, and a nine-hole, eighteen-tee layout was adopted in 1970. In the mid-2000s, Gordon Irvine, Martin Ebert, Chris Haspell and club volunteers surveyed the machair and worked to restore the original design principles. Eighteen holes were complete by May 2008 and the restored course officially opened on 22 August that year. The club continues to refine the layout, including a new position for the 13th hole in 2022.

Did You Know? Askernish's winter management allows cattle and sheep to graze the machair, while the club prohibits artificial fertilisers and herbicides. Part of the historic site was also used as an aircraft landing area, which explains the name of the sixth hole, Runway. The unusual coexistence of golf, crofting and wildlife is central to the course's identity.