73 Golf has a reputation of being a game stuck in the past, and largely played by older people. Although there is some truth to this stereotype (stereotypes tend to be based on at least partial truth, which is how they emerge), there has been a pretty significant change in the last few years, with the post-Covid golf boom seeing the emergence of a new generation of golfers. In early 2022, the New York-based LinksDAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) raised $11 million in a little more than 24 hours by selling NFTs (non-fungible tokens). With the proceeds, the leaders of LinksDAO set out to buy a golf course, which their members, the people who bought the NFTs, would be able to join. After a search, they settled on Spey Bay, a links dating from 1907, originally designed by Ben Sayers, an hour east of Inverness (and an hour and a half north and west of Aberdeen) in the Scottish Highlands. Spey Bay has a lot of history. Ramsey Macdonald, the first Labour prime minister of the UK, who was born in nearby Lossiemouth, was a member for many years. But the course had fallen on hard times. Maintained by one part-time greenkeeper, it had become choked with gorse. Gorse, when in bloom, is unarguably attractive, but it is a savage plant; a ball in a gorse bush is unequivocally lost; and it spreads rapidly. As part of the landscape texture of a golf course, particularly a links, it can be tolerated; once it dominates, the course is rapidly on the way to being overrun. In this era of large fairway width being the done thing, Spey Bay was the height of anti-fashion, with Spey Bay dates back to 1907 when it was originally designed by Ben Sayers Photo: CDP
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