Honesty Box Golf
BY ED HODGE
4 MINS READ
There are few more enjoyable experiences for golf in Scotland than using the humble Honesty Box.
Head out onto the open road, journey to a typically remote location, find a wee 9-holer, savour the views, pop your money in a box at the clubhouse door and off you go.
With such small clubs often run by volunteers and not present for traditional opening hours, this scenario is a common thread that runs through Scottish golf’s fabric. And it’s wonderful.
Bute GC - Photography by Pals on The Links
The far west coast is a prime example. In remote Argyll, one such venue requires entry down a single track road, cash dropped into a box and typically a meeting with wandering wildlife.
Kyles of Bute Golf Club has existed since 1907, offering truly panoramic views across to the Isle of Bute and over Loch Fyne to the Mull of Kintyre. For visitors, here is the best bit. It’s £15 for 9 holes. £10 in the winter.
“It might be the cheapest golf in Scotland,” laughs Brenda Millar, Lady Captain, and a member at the club for over 20 years. “The signature hole is at the 9th tee, and the views are just tremendous in both directions of the Kyles. I’m just back from a round in the sunshine this morning and it really is bliss.”
Helped by the near-by Portavadie complex, with its accommodation, restaurants and leisure facilities, visitor numbers at the club are picking up again as Covid-19 restrictions ease for the wandering golfer.
“We get all sorts of sums put in the box,” continues Brenda. “Sometimes people don’t have the right cash so put in £20 and come back the next day with another £10. You have to trust people.”
Photography - Pals on The Links
That is Honesty Box golf in a nutshell, the trust of the visiting golfer. Paying a sum into a box is the very essence and fabric of golf, it’s playing by the rules, it’s supporting local, often remote communities.
I was fortunate to grow up in Perthshire – a haven for nine-hole golf with 17 courses – and play as a junior at Muthill, a lovely little layout.
Before becoming members, regularly we would pop our green fees into the wooden box attached to the club’s exterior before enjoying a late night nine holes. There was often nobody around, with the warm glow of the evening sure to be radiating from the cheeks of the club secretary the following morning when he unlocked the box to uncover some crisp notes.
Perthshire is famous for Honesty Box golf, with Comrie and St Fillans also offering glorious adventures familiar to many.
Meantime, 23 of Scotland’s nine-hole course are actually on islands – Barra, Corrie, Lochranza, Machrie Bay and Tobermory to name just five gems worth uncovering. Honesty Box golf is again common. A sign will simply encourage visiting golfers to deposit their green fee through a latch or directly into a box. It just adds to the charm of playing amid spectacularly rugged environments.
Hamish Grey, the former chief executive of the Scottish Golf Union, once said: “The system works well because it reflects the traditions within golf of honesty and integrity.”
Of course, this is a world away from the five-star resorts and famed links that help give Scotland its world-renowned golfing name. But this is a different form of golf, an engrained form of the sport existing far beyond the glossy tourist brochures promoting championship challenges.
The country is simply blessed with a vast supply of fantastic short-form courses, steeped in history and often acting as community centres in small villages. It is a remarkable fact that almost a third of the courses in Scotland are nine-hole layouts.
It is where Honesty Box golf is most common, at nine-hole courses boasting a deep tradition – small pieces of land that were built by dispersed village communities to satisfy their pleasure for golf.
The consequence of this is they tend to be found in more peripheral areas of the country, at all points of the compass.
Be honest, you are desperate to go and experience it.