Some years ago, an American golf professional realised his dream of having a Scottish castle and his own private golf course. Unfortunately for him, his German girlfriend, who had helped finance the deal, left him for another guy. The castle and the golf course were put up for sale and are now owned by a development company that is currently developing new courses being designed by Jack Nicklaus on the Ury Estate in Scotland and in St Lucia. The Pitliver Estate is private but Douglas had played it a while ago and since it is literally just over the fence from Dunfermline GC, I thought I'd check it out after my round over the Par 3 Course at Pitfirrane on 7 July 2014.
I was understandably nervous about intruding on private property without so much as a phone call to check that I'd get access to the course. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Past the private property no admittance sign and onto the long driveway, I stopped the car to speak to a man clearly hard at work clearing overgrown shrubbery. This turned out to be Mark, one of the owners and the friendliest of hosts, as it turned out. I asked whether there was any chance I'd be able to play the course sometime but Mark almost got there first, saying "if you've got your clubs with you, just come on in. The course is almost never played so please, help yourself. Just park your car down the road a bit and I'll get you a scorecard." Mark then led me to the 1st tee and told me that the course had been designed by Donald Steel (the leading golf course architect) and had opened in 1999. He explained that weather problems in the past year had damaged the greens and that although much of the rough around the course had been cut back, the fairways were narrow and he hoped I'd not lose too many balls. I was more than welcome to seek him out if I ran out and he'd happily give me some more!
The Pitliver Course is a 9 hole parkland course measuring a short 2150 Yards, Par 31. As Mark had advised, the fairways were extremely tight and only straight hitting and a good short game would keep the score down. I'm not over-keen on dogs generally, but Mark's golden labrador seemed friendly enough, though I wasn't so sure about his pair of gun dogs. I needn't have worried, as one of the gun dogs kept me company around the first few holes until he got bored watching the spectacle of a strange golfer hacking his way around. The course starts with a slightly uphill 153 Yard Par 3 as shown here. A good 27 Degree Rescue to the side of the green, an easy par and I was off to a good start.
The last hole at Pitliver is a 174 Yard Par 3. A slightly wayward drive flirted with some seriously high rough and led to a closing bogey. I'd gone round in a poor 41 gross, net 35.5 with 16 putts. This is a seriously good course with an interesting mixture of holes. I hope the greens recover, as in prime condition, this would be a really good test of anyone's game.
I'd thought the Ury development might not happen, but Mark assured me that site work is scheduled to start after enabling works are in place so no doubt that'll be another course to add to our list in a few years' time.
No comments:
Post a Comment