Leith Links is celebrated as one of the birthplaces of golf, but apart from an annual competition by the Leith Rules Golf Society, the game is no longer played there. Edinburgh’s last surviving short-hole course now stands on Bruntsfield Links, where volunteers are helping keep this sporting tradition alive.

‘When I Go I’ll Just Disappear’

‘When I go I’ll just disappear,’ says Jimmy Robertson, bashing a plug of turf back into the ground. For 30 years he has been repairing divots and cutting fresh holes on the greens, using the plug removed from each new hole to fill the old one.

‘I’ve been doing it since I retired from the bank,’ he says. Today, after heavy rain, he is cutting new holes. ‘With all the dry weather, this is the first time I’ve done them since May.’ The plug is dark and damp at the top but bone dry beneath. ‘That’s what we’ve been dealing with,’ he says. The rain has freshened the course, though it remains firm and bouncy, making the downhill holes particularly demanding.

Edinburgh’s Last Short-Hole Course

This is the last surviving short-hole course in Edinburgh. ‘There used to be one at Inverleith and at the Inch’, along with putting greens on Bruntsfield Links and in Princes Street Gardens. All have disappeared.

Jimmy is keen to emphasise the history of Bruntsfield Links, in contrast to the Meadows. Golf has been played here since the fifteenth century. When the ‘long game’ moved elsewhere in 1890, this course was laid out, and Jimmy’s club, the Bruntsfield Short Hole Golf Club, is now the only organisation that plays it. Without the club, he believes the course might also have disappeared. ‘The council are itching to do away with it,’ he says. Yet he is quick to praise the council’s green keeping team, which ‘does a great job’.

Manna From Heaven

Sponsorship from JA The Bruntsfield has funded the renovation of the Green Hut beside the first tee. The hut has stood since 1929, serving as a cabbies’ shelter. The support has been ‘like manna from heaven’ for the club, Jimmy says..The clubhouse floor has been renewed, and the sponsorship has brought welcome publicity.

A Democratic Sport

As we talk, dozens of people make their way around the course, from beginners to experienced golfers. Places like this keep golf democratic. All you need is a wedge and a putter, yet the course still provides a genuine challenge.

Jimmy is careful not to interrupt play. ‘Go on, finish your hole,’ he tells one golfer waiting politely nearby. The shot runs too long: ‘too much porridge this morning!’ Jimmy quips. He is pleased the course attracts as many players now as when he first began volunteering, although fewer unaccompanied children use it today. Back then, many youngsters, almost all boys, would spend summer afternoons here before heading home for tea. Parents, Robertson believes, are now ‘more careful about their kids’, and the boys’ tournaments disappeared through lack of interest.

My own story intersects here. I grew up little more than an 8-iron’s distance away, and Super 8 footage shows me as a toddler ignoring my newborn sister in favour of my golf swing. I later played in those junior tournaments.

Bashing In Another Plug

Apart from repairing divots, ‘though not as bad as the old days,’ Jimmy says, one frustration is the theft of the metal flags. ‘We’ve stopped replacing the ones on holes 21, 25 and 31; we just put blank ones there,’ he explains. Those holes lie closest to the path, where the flags can be lifted unnoticed. Disposable barbecues are another problem, scorching the turf and leaving damage that takes months to recover. Most people treat the course with respect, although, as I watch, one man drags a set of shelves across a green.

I leave Jimmy to his work and finish my round, my first for a while: rusty at first, but soon back in the groove. My tee shot at the 32nd, one of the course’s finest greens, finishes satisfyingly close to the hole. A nod of approval from a passer-by; then I miss the short putt. On the next, my ball wakes a dozing sunbather before scuttling through the firm green.

By the time I finish, I am reminded what a remarkable course this is: free to use, well maintained, and preserving a tradition that has almost disappeared.

As I leave, Jimmy is still there, bashing another plug into the firm turf as the sun begins to dip.

Charlie Ellis