Gullane Golf Club (No. 3 Course)

Overview: Gullane No. 3 is a short, strategic links on the lower slopes of Gullane Hill, with the course rising and falling between the village, Aberlady Bay and the wider Firth of Forth landscape. The scorecard measures 5,134 yards at par 67, but the modest length says little about the quality of the test. Compact greens, cross bunkers, sloping fairways and exposed wind make position and distance control more important than brute power. The raised seventh tee gives a broad panorama toward Luffness New and the bay, while the downhill fifteenth can change dramatically with the wind. No. 3 is enjoyable because it asks thoughtful questions without making every hole a physical endurance test.

History: Golf has been played over Gullane's linksland since the eighteenth century, and the club's organized history includes the East Lothian Golf Club revival in 1859 and Gullane Golf Club's foundation in 1882. Willie Park junior laid out Gullane No. 2 in 1898. A third course was under construction and ready for play by 1910, completing the three-course complex before the First World War. Gullane's official course page says No. 3 has no single named designer: the committee of the day oversaw the design and greenkeeper William Logan with his team built it. That makes the course a genuine club project, distinct from the formal architectural attribution attached to No. 2.

Did You Know? Gullane No. 3's seventeenth is the last surviving hole from the very first Gullane layout. The hole still asks for a carefully positioned uphill drive, followed by an approach over a swale to a raised green. It is a small piece of the area's early golf history embedded in a modern three-course complex, and a reminder that the links have changed gradually rather than being created all at once.