ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — It is the rare golfer who does not fret over weather that could wash out a round or starve shots of distance.
But along the North Sea on a blustery edge of Scotland, heralded for centuries as golf’s birthplace, this era’s greenskeepers fear a far more damning forecast. In that nightmare, what they call a perfect storm, striking at high tide and packing an easterly wind, would hit, likely speeding coastal erosion.
“Year on year, we’re just apprehensive,” said David Brown, the general manager at the 460-year-old Montrose Golf Links.
“You’re kind of fighting the unknown, really,” he said.