Popular Scottish golf course votes to ban sheep and cows

It is renowned by visitors as the course you share with the sheep and the cows. 

But if members at Brora Golf Club in the Scottish Highlands get their way, the glorious links will soon no longer double up as grazing land for the livestock.

Brora is characterised by the electric fences that guard the greens, but there’s nothing stopping the cows and sheep roaming the fairways, rough and tee boxes.

In fact, the sheep even double up as greenkeepers, grazing on the grass to trim back the rough that flanks the undulating fairways.

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However, for those who play Brora on a regular basis and are not seduced by the novelty of playing alongside the livestock, patience is wearing thin due to the impact on course conditions.

Members believe the animals are causing more harm than good and they have unanimously vote to ban livestock from the course.

“We are very much aware that there are people who see the sheep and cows as an integral part of the Brora experience,” past club president Andy Stewart told GOLF.com.

“But as locals, we are also probably more attuned to the impact those animals have than are people who play the course just once a year

“The animals do not do as good a job as some people think. Probably the reason no clubs are rushing to put sheep on their own courses.”

Stewart, like many at Brora, argues that the excess of livestock is proving too problematic, with manure populating the fairways and damaged bunkers and fairways.

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However, a deal would still need court approval and because Brora shares its land with Highland crofters, a legal dispute could still ensue in Scottish land court.

“This is one of the world’s great links and it has always been our wish to get our course back,” Stewart says. “We want to play to greens that don’t have electric fences, and without special rules like what do you do if your ball winds up in cow sh**.

“They don’t do that at the Masters or the Open Championship.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.