Winter Solstice at Durness Golf Club

The story

On the winter solstice, when the day is one of the shortest anywhere in Britain, we played nine holes at Durness, the most north westerly golf course on the British mainland. This is that round. The last of the light, the cold off the sea, and the North Atlantic at the edge of the fairway.

The approach

This is the second half of the same day as Chasing Light, filmed straight off the hill with the light already going. There was no separate shoot planned for the golf and no time held back for it, so the round had to fit whatever was left of the solstice before dark took the course from us. We played it out properly rather than staging shots for the camera, three up with three to play, halved with fives at the par three seventh played downhill over grazing sheep, and closed out on the ninth. That last hole runs across sea, cliff and rock to a raised green, and by the time we reached it there was barely enough light to see it, which is the real reason the film runs under two minutes rather than longer.