The final stop
Brawny Carnoustie rests an hour north of Leuchars, the links coming into view as the train begins its station approach. So close are the station and the first tee that we arrived at 9:30 a.m. and teed off at 9:50.

With a second course at Carnoustie (the charming Burnside, where Ben Hogan qualified for his 1953 Open victory), the fine links of Panmure and Monifieth just a cab ride away, and the Carnoustie Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa serving ably as mother ship, this single-station stop is a golf-by-rail destination on the order of North Berwick. For us, however, it was a mere weigh station, for several more must-plays awaited just up the line, including Stonehaven, a quirky cliffside links with a first tee located half a mile from the platform.

The highlight of this northern leg was clearly Royal Aberdeen, until recently the most underrated links in Britain. Last summer’s Senior British Open telecast was the agent of change. Aberdeen’s Balgownie Course always has been out of this world; now the rest of the world knows it, or least half of it, since television coverage featured only the inward nine.

Balgownie’s outward nine is stunning, elegant, wondrous, spine-tingling—choose your preferred term of exaltation. What’s more, its 10th tee is one of golf’s most sublime. The rousing second nine awaits and a quick glance in the opposite direction reveals more spectacular linksland tumbling into the distance. That’s Murcar, the Balgownie’s estimable neighbor.

Both Murcar and Royal Aberdeen are 10-minute cab rides from Aberdeen station, where the spur to Cruden Bay once took golfers to additional pearls. Today, the spur is no longer in use, so Aberdeen was, for us, the end of the line.

Gone are the days that all the great links along the entire east coast of Scotland were accessible by rail. But with a bit of planning and imagination, it is still possible to relive, in some form, the glory days of golf by rail.