Brora Golf Course: Nature's Course

I was standing on the tee at the second hole on Brora—and to my immediate right, the waters of Moray Firth were a beautiful deep blue and the sky was filled with dozens of different types of birds wheeling overhead or walking on the beach and the air was crisp and fresh as it swirled off the firth and there was just one thought in my mind:

How in the hell do I hit over the cattle standing right where my ball was likely to come down. 

And, if I lay up short of the cattle, how do I miss the sheep standing in front of them?

Has anybody ever heard an announcer say something like: “it looks like Tiger is going with a seven-iron so that he can lay up short of the holsteins.” And the other announcer say: “yeah, a seven, but he can’t take it left because that’s where the sheep are and sheep are red-staked on this course?”

I had been golfing for almost sixty years in the states and never once had I had to take cattle (or even one single cow) into my…