Linn Park Golf Course - Course no 615

Linn Park is an 18 Hole parkland course, one of the 6 courses and 4 pitch and putt courses owned and operated by Glasgow City Council.  I played here on 4 September 2013, meaning I've now played all 6 of the full-sized courses, the others being Alexandra Park, Lethamhill, Littlehill, Knightswood and Ruchill.  I'll play the 4 pitch and putt courses sometime next Spring as I doubt that I'll have time to do so before they close down in a few weeks' time in advance of the coming Winter. I'd heard from locals that Linn Park is a late season course that's prone to flooding, hence my visit in September, after our mainly dry and sunny Summer.  That apart, I didn't know what to expect.

The course is short, at only 4878 Yards, Par 68, off the Yellow Tees and is pretty hilly.  Overall, the course and its greens in particular were in good condition and there's a decent course here, but in common with most courses operated by local Councils, Linn Park looked to be suffering from under-investment, from tee boxes and flagsticks to green-keeping equipment. There's a decent course map on the back of the scorecard (if your eyesight is good enough to read the small print) but more marker poles and route indicators would improve the presentation of the course.  As matters stand, most tee boxes weren't numbered and the small (3-4 feet high) plastic flagsticks looked as though they'd seen better days on a local putting green some time ago.  There was still some dew on the course when I played, meaning that grass clippings were sticking to my ball, but at least the fairways had been cut.  

The Front 9 is particularly short at only 2092 Yards, with the longest hole being the steeply downhill 270 Yard Par 4.  This hole would have been easily drivable, even for me, had it not been for grass clippings on the fairway, but I don't want to give you the impression that the course is not without its challenges.  The 1st hole is only 252 Yards, but your drive is uphill and the second shot to the green is almost blind, even more steeply uphill.  The 2nd is a 90 degree dog leg left 245 Yard Par 4, with high trees blocking any prospect of cutting the corner.  The 3rd is a 212 Yard Par 3 completely blind up a hill with no marker pole to offer any guidance.  This is the 4th, a 254 Yard Par 4 dominated by a large tree to the left of the fairway.  The green sits almost behind this tree and as I discovered, is almost inaccessible if your drive finishes on the left side of the fairway.  I parred the hole OK, but only after a decent single putt from 15 feet.

The 7th is an uphill  215 Yard Par 3 played to a small shelf of a green cut into the hill. Another single putt after a good chip with my still new 58 degree Cleveland wedge saved the par.  This is the 9th, a 252 Yard Par 4 with a blind drive over a small hill.  An easy sand iron pitch to 10 feet set up my only birdie of the round.  I was out in 3 over par, but any thoughts of a really low score were dampened by my double bogey on the 10th, the Stroke Index 1 Hole.  This is a 392 Yard Par 4, dog leg left.  Your drive needs to be threaded between stands of mature pine to set up a long second up to the green.  There's also a water hazard running across the fairway just beyond the gap, so only a long and straight drive will do.  From there, your eye will be drawn to a fairway bunker some 150 Yards in the distance, with a green perched on top of a hill some 50 Yards beyond the bunker.  That's actually the 7th green, so be warned.  Indeed, I've no idea what purpose that bunker serves, as it is well out of range for all but the very biggest hitters (and I doubt that many of them would be playing here on a regular basis). The 10th is by far the most difficult hole on the course.

The Back 9 is 2786 Yards and is a bit tougher than the Front 9.  Having said that, I drove through the steeply downhill 258 Yard Par 4 11th, but missed an easy birdie putt.  The 482 Yard 12th is the only Par 5 at Linn Park, but is easy enough if you hit a couple of decent straight shots and avoid a stream that cuts in front of the green.  This is the Stroke Index 2 Hole for reasons that escape me.  By this time I'd caught up with a couple of dodgy looking characters (both clearly beginners) sharing a bag of clubs.  I'd passed them earlier when playing from the 8th Tee, when they were also sharing a joint (OK, I confess, I know the smell) and a couple of beers on the 11th Tee (it was by then around 0930 hrs).  It's quite unusual to find such characters on Scottish courses, particularly so early in the morning and the sharing of clubs is strictlyforbidden on our courses.  However, I was curious and there were enough other golfers nearby to suggest I wasn't about to be mugged.  The characters in question were indeed more than a little relaxed, as they topped up their alcohol and cannabis levels on the next tee.  Having been brought up in Glasgow, I'd no trouble with the local dialect, interspersed as it was with some more colourful phrases.  They let me play through OK, and I soon left them far behind.  I suspect that one of them might have won a hole with a long putt or similar, as the cry of "ya spawny bastard" was clearly audible when I was on the 18th green (they being some 600 Yards away on the 15th green at the time!)  By the way, "spawny" means "undeservedly lucky" or "jammy" another adjective that could have been substituted to the same effect.  These guys were harmless enough, on the course anyway.

The 18th is a slightly uphill 367 Yard Par 4, named "Past Caring."  There's OOB to the right and a large cross bunker around 230 Yards out from the tee, but it's not a hugely difficult hole if you avoid going past the hole with your approach.  Do that (like me!) and you'll face a steeply downhill putt and a likely bogey (also like me).  In reality, Linn Park isn't all that difficult.  I went round in 78 gross, net 67, with 30 putts. One under net par was pretty good, but could easily have been better had I known where I was going.  The small flagsticks were also off-putting, making it was tricky to decide on distances.  I doubt I'd want to play Linn Park (or indeed any of the Glasgow Council's courses again).  There are far better tests in the Glasgow area and after my round at Linn Park, I was off to one of the best, Whitecraigs GC.

Glenburn Golf Course - Course no 614

When I told some of my Edinburgh-based golfing buddies that I would soon be playing a course called Glenburn, just south of the city, none of them had heard of it.  One thought I meant Glencorse, or even Greenburn, a couple of excellent courses that would certainly fit the geographical description and which we've all played many times.  Glenburn is in fact a 9 hole parkland course located half a mile south of the City By-Pass (the A702) between the Straiton and Lothianburn junctions.  However, the course is only briefly visible from that major road and unless you played at nearby Lothianburn GC (and more about that later) or looked east when walking over the Pentland Hills to the south of Edinburgh, you'd probably not notice the course either.

The impressive 2050 Yard Par 32 course at Glenburn was designed, built and is still owned and maintained by Tom, a local man who had previously lived in the south side of Edinburgh. Some years ago, Tom bought a house and around 9 acres of land just outside the city boundary and being a keen golfer, he decided to build a couple of golf practice holes on his land.  This done, Tom realised that it might be possible to fit in some more holes and so began a remarkable project that has led to the creation of a lovely little parkland course, literally in Tom's back garden.  There are 9 tees and 7 greens and in order to fit 9 holes into the site, Tom has created holes that in some cases cross each other, reminding me of the remarkable layout of the Tower of Lethendy course (see Blog entry 339). Indeed, one point on the Glenburn course is crossed by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th holes, so extreme care would be needed if the course was ever busy. Tom is happy for occasional visitors to play the course by prior arrangement but it's not generally open as a pay as you play course.  Douglas, one of my golfing buddies, had arranged for us to play the course on 25 August 2013, when a small group of former pupils from an Edinburgh public school were playing it. This is me and Douglas after our round.  

Regular readers of this blog will notice my new white Sun Mountain H2No golf bag.  My familiar luminous yellow bag of the same model has been retired after doing sterling service for the past 3 years and literally hundreds of rounds.  I'm not paid to do product endorsements, but if anyone is looking out for a genuinely waterproof and lightweight stand bag, look no further as in my humble opinion the H2No is simply the best.  My old Cleveland Tour Edition 60 Degree wedge has also been traded in for a new Cleveland Rotex 58 Degree wedge, a long-overdue change that's already producing short-game improvements.

Anyway, back to Glenburn, which was in fantastic condition when we played it. Tom has created a fine course, requiring straight hitting off the tee and accuracy around the small greens. Tom was the perfect host, giving us a range of helpful tips on how to play his course, the main one being to avoid being long, as water hazards and/or OOB lurk immediately behind or alongside most of the holes.  The 1st is a 165 Yard Par 3, played over the 6th and 7th fairways to a double green shared with the 3rd Hole.  Hit anything over 170 Yards and your ball will probably finish in the stream behind the green or OOB beyond the stream.  Hit it short and you're flirting with bunkers or clumps of rough.  I managed an easy par after hitting my drive to 15 feet.

The 2nd is a left dog leg 303 Yard Par 4, played to a fairway that also serves the 4th.  Tee shots from the 3rd, 5th and 7th also come into play so take care on these holes in particular. Assuming you've hit a decent drive, you'll be left with a semi-blind slightly uphill pitch to the 2nd green. All of the greens at Glenburn are small and anything even remotely strong to the 2nd will run off the other side, where a water hazard awaits, so be warned.  I hit what I thought was a perfect pitch and ended up with a double bogey. The 3rd is a 275 Yard Par 4 played back towards the 2nd Tee to the green shared with the 1st Hole.  The green is long and narrow when you play the 1st and wide and alarmingly shallow when you play the 3rd, and by now I knew that the stream and OOB awaited anything over-hit. I managed a single-putt bogey (what was I saying about my improved short game?) The 4th is a 270 Yard Par 4, with my new wedge coming to the rescue after a poor drive, helping me to a birdie.

The 5th is the longest hole on the course, at 335 Yards. The tee shot should be played towards the right side of the 1st/3rd green in the distance to set up an easy pitch to the green. I'd gone too far right, finishing in front of the 8th Tee, with a small swamp beyond that. I had 86 Yards to the flag according to my laser range finder and it was 90 Yards to the stream behind the green (with OOB immediately beyond it!) I don't do eagles very often so was delighted to see the ball drop in after a great wedge shot.  From the longest hole to the shortest, the 6th is a 125 Yard Par 3.  Tom hasn't set a Stroke Index for the course, but if and when he does, I suspect that the 6th will be Number 1.  The inverted saucer shaped green sits atop a small hillock and is fronted by a little bunker that tempts you to go long.  Do that, and you run off the back into light rough.  Anything short, right or left suffers the same fate.  I'd hit a pretty good 9 iron just right of the green, but my pitch then ran through (as did the return.  My 4th, another short pitch, finished a foot away, so a double bogey.  Tom told me later that maintaining this hole requires particular care as the green can be almost unplayable unless watered generously during dry spells.  Douglas and I were just glad Tom hadn't cut the greens to their lowest as this hole would have been even more tricky.  This is a view of the 6th, with the 7th green on the foreground and the 1st Tee to the left.

The Lothianburn GC clubhouse can be seen in the far distance to the right of this photo.  I'd been a member of that club between 1980 and 2001 and Polly and our 2 girls had also been members there. Lothianburn opened in 1893. The current layout was designed by the great James Braid and is a hilly parkland/heathland course where we'd all enjoyed our golf over the years.  I still have many friends there and have great memories of the course, the club and older friends now long gone. Sadly, the club has struggled financially in recent years and a continued membership shortage has forced the club into administration.  The outlook is bleak and barring a miracle it looks as though Lothianburn will close by the turn of the year. Some of its holes may survive to form part of expanded facilities at the adjacent New Swanston GC, but this fine old course will be gone.  I'm planning to play the course once more with some golfing buddies, including some who are still members and have few beers afterwards.  I suspect it will be an emotional day.  I might do a blog entry about Lothianburn.  The club's problems are unlikely to be solved by a late flurry of visitors, but for any local readers who have not played it, please give it a go, while you can.  The green fees have been reduced to £12.50, a ridiculously low figure for such a good course (see www.lothianburngc.co.uk for details).

The 7th at Glenburn is a 251 Yard Par 4, played towards our cars, as shown below.  There's a little swamp to the right of the fairway, so just hit your drive straight.  Anything too long beyond the green will be off the course.  I had an easy par after a good drive and a 58 Degree Wedge.

The 8th is a good 180 Yard Par 3, with the green shared with the 3rd Hole.  The 9th is Tom's favourite and I can see why.  This hole was formerly part of a swamp and must have been a major task to build.  The hole is named "The Swamp" for obvious reasons as the swamp still lies to the right of the fairway and immediately behind the green.  A small bunker cut into the front of the green adds to the difficulty and at 146 Yards, this Par 3 would probably vie with the 6th as Stroke Index 1.  I hit an easy 6 iron just right of the green and with Tom looking on, I rescued my par after a good chip to under a yard.  

I finished with a gross 35, net 29.5, well under the course par, with a meagre 11 putts. We'd both really enjoyed Tom's course.  It was a real privilege to play it, Tom, so thanks again for letting us on.  Tom intends to continue to develop Glenburn, perhaps as a course where mainly hickory clubs will be used, with limited access to small groups of golfers by prior arrangement. Douglas and I wish him and his lovely little course well for the future.  We hope to play it again sometime.  If that happens, I hope we'll remember something about the hidden subtleties of Tom's remarkable design before tackling the course.  Whether I'd eagle the 5th again is very debatable!

   

Melville Golf Centre - Practice Course - Course no 613

This is a 4 hole Par 3 practice course attached to the driving range and 9 Hole course at the Melville Golf Centre just south of Edinburgh on the main A7 road.  I'd played the 9 Hole course in February 2010 (see Course 249).  Polly had bought some new clubs so we both went to the Melville driving range on 21 August 2013 so that she could practice with them.

The practice course has 4 Par 3 holes of around 70 yards each, located behind the driving range.  The greens were very poor, with very little grass and being so small, it was difficult to keep the ball on any green and even more difficult to putt.  This is the 2nd hole, played downhill towards the driving range. I managed to score par, par, bogey, bogey thanks to the awful greens.  It's really surprising that the greens on this little course were so awful, since to the left of this picture there's a lovely looking practice putting green. I've no idea why the greens should be so bad.

I've played this little course for the purposes of our golf course challenge but I'll definitely not bother to play it again.

Another Private Course - Course no 612

There are a considerable number of private sporting estates with high-end shooting and fishing on offer to discerning clients.  One of these, in the Scottish Highlands, also has a short golf course.  We'd managed to secure the permission of the landowner to play this little course, so Craig, Stu and I duly turned up on 6 August 2013.  We had good directions to turn off a minor road after an old General Wade bridge (look him up on Wikipedia) and follow the rough 4 mile track (4 x 4's advised). This estate is at the end of a private road and we agreed not to mention the name of the estate or its exact location, but trust me, only really dedicated course baggers would want to play here.  The course had clearly seen better days some time ago and from what we gathered, isn't played much now, if at all.  This is me by the 1st tee, with the 6th green and Craig's car in the background.

There were no scorecards for this course and although it originally had 9 holes, 3 of which lay on the other side of a river (with some stepping stones to avoid a soaking), those holes appeared to have been abandoned.  Indeed, the course was in pretty rough condition, reminding us of Papa Westray and a few others.  Flagsticks numbered 1-6 were wedged into overgrown holes, sometimes with stones and the very helpful and friendly Head Gamekeeper tried unsuccessfully to trace where the greens (and flagsticks) might have been.  So, everyone agreed that the course now had only 6 holes.

I'd packed my laser range finder, and a rather incongruous piece of equipment it appeared, given our remote location 4 miles up a remote Highland glen, but this is the course we played, and the scores I managed -

Hole       Yardage   Par   Score         Putts

1                  155        3          4               1

2                  502        5          5               1

3                    59        3          3               2

4                  116        3          4               2

5                  334        4          5               1

6                  332        4          5               2

Totals        1653      22        26              9

With the greens so overgrown, we gave ourselves putts within a yard - a necessity, since the flagsticks were in some cases solidly wedged in place by stones, presumably to prevent the sheep from eating the flags, were any of the pins to be dislodged.  These are some views of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th holes to illustrate the roughness of the course.  We did find the 5th, eventually, up the hill from the valley floor where the course is located.

We've played in all sorts of odd places on our tour of Scottish golf courses.  This was another at the rough end of the spectrum, so a great big thanks again to the landowner for allowing us access and to the estate employees we met on the day for their help.

Paul Lawrie Golf Centre - Course no 611

The Paul Lawrie Golf Centre used to be known as the Aspire Golf Centre and is on the South side of the River Dee from the Deeside GC, where we'd played earlier in the week.  The Paul Lawrie Foundation does great work to encourage kids to take up the sport and I played the excellent 9 Hole Par 3 course here on 3 August 2013 at the end of our week-long excursion to Aberdeenshire.  It had a been a long week.  This was my 12th course in 8 days and on top of recent caddying, my body needed a rest.  Not bringing a trolley on the trip had been a mistake. Thankfully, this is a very short course at only 1217 Yards, Par 27 off the Yellow Tees.  The course is basically parkland but water comes into play on 7 of the 9 holes, so be wayward at your peril and pack some spare balls, you'll maybe need them.  

Take your time, and hit everything straight and you'll be fine. For example, this is the 140 yard 3rd.  A pond to the left of the hole also cuts in front of the left side of the green.  With the pin tucked away to the left side of the green, the safest option was to aim at the right of the green. My 8 iron came up just short, but a good chip and short single putt save the par.  I bogeyed the 4th, a 148 Yard hole with more water, on the right this time, after missing the green again.  Next, the longest hole on the course at 183 Yards, with more water.  I hit a 20 degree Rescue deadly straight to within 20 feet to set up another par - a fine strike.  My swing was holding up nicely, and only a few holes to go.   

This is the 7th and at 98 yards, the shortest hole on the course.  The green is very shallow and slopes from left to right towards a small C-shaped pond that extends behind the green.  Going straight for the pin would be highly ambitious, as the green is only 15 feet or so deep and the slope down to the water looked pretty slick.  The wise choice was a conservative play to the left side of the green and a couple of putts from there and I was pretty chuffed to do just that.

The 8th is 139 Yards with yet more water up the right of the hole.  I'd missed the green to the right, but there's a collar of rough there, so my ball stopped short of going into the water. Another good chip and I'd saved another par.

This is the last, a 159 Yard hole, played into a freshening wind.  It seemed sensible at the time to go down the grip of my 3 Wood and play a low punch, under the wind.  My Titleist Velocity  ball was still having a charmed life, having negotiated its way around the whole of the Trump Course the day before and avoided the many water hazards so far on this tricky little course.  as the second photo below shows, I went long and left, avoiding the water yet again. An easy chip from there with my Cleveland wedge and a single putt from 3 feet and I'd gone round in 28 gross, 1 over par, with 13 putts.  This is a really good Par 3 course, in great condition and a real test of accuracy and your short game in general.  I strongly recommend you give it a try.

Trump International Golf Links Scotland - Course no 610

The new Trump International Golf Links Course was clearly the centre piece of our Aberdeenshire trip. Polly and I played it on 2 August 2013, having read and seen most of the varying media coverage about Mr Trump's Scottish development. Could it really be the greatest golf course anywhere in the World? - we'd play it and try to form our own views. We'd booked to play the Trump as a 2-ball, but we'd been paired up to play with a couple of outstandingly entertaining and genial American guys, one of whom was husband to Stacy Lewis's coach. Adam and Chris had already played at Carnoustie and other Scottish links courses in recent days and were over to watch Stacy play in (and subsequently win!) the Ladies Open Championship being played over the Old Course in St Andrews.

Parts of the course, including all of the greens, were being micro-tined and sanded so Polly and I were able to book our tee time for £125 each, a welcome £70 discount on the normal price. The course was still in great shape, even if the fairways and greens were slower than might be expected of a true links course.  The new Trump Course is certainly visually outstanding and presents an exceeding difficult challenge, even from the White Tees, from where the course plays to 6329 Yards, Par 72.  This is certainly the best course in Aberdeenshire, well above the likes of Murcar and Royal Aberdeen, and amongst the very best that Scotland has to offer but the greatest course on the entire planet?  I'm not 100% qualified to make such a judgement, but I'd dearly love to meet whoever is qualified to make such a mind-bogglingly sweeping statement. Whoever they are, have they really traveled the length and breadth of the planet and assessed every course?  If so, how long did that take and how many courses were assessed under which criteria?  

This new course is built on the coastline amongst naturally occurring sand dunes ("The Great Dunes of Scotland" apparently), and has clearly been designed and built to become a genuine links course of the highest quality.  It certainly looks the part superficially but the whole place was just a bit over-manicured for my taste.  I'm not an expert on grass types but the grass used for the fairways appeared to be too broad-leafed and densely matted than the typical fescues that are to be found on our links courses, producing fast-running fairways in the recently dry conditions. Indeed, our new American friends commented that there was surprisingly little run on the fairways and that the vivid green, dense and lush fairway grass looked more like parkland types they'd find back home, rather than the tightly cropped and fast-running golden brown turf that they'd played on the day before at Carnoustie. Maybe the ongoing course maintenance work had helped to produce such playing conditions, but when we'd finished playing one of the golf operations team advised us that over-seeding of the fairways with finer grasses was still planned and that in time the pace of the fairways would be greatly increased as the course matured fully. Maybe so, but in the meantime, the course is "work in progress" and some way short of what I'd expect a true links course to look and play like at this time of year after the recent dry and hot weather of recent weeks. This is clearly one of the very best courses that I've played in Scotland, but it's not yet fully mature, so who knows what it may become.  

We played here in bright sunshine with just enough wind to make it a real challenge for all of us.  The scoring was pretty poor all round, which I'd put down in part to the surprisingly slow fairways and greens (as affected by the course maintenance work I've mentioned) and some poor play generally.  Truth be told, the course beat us all quite convincingly, even if Polly and I took a couple of £'s off our new friends in a 4-ball better ball Stableford match. Find a bunker, go offline into the rough, miss a shot or misread a putt and this course will seriously embarrass far better players than me.  Adam, Chris and I opted for the White tees, but we could have chosen  any of 6 options, from the Red up to the Black.  And if you ever play here, have a look at the 18th Hole from the Black Tee, as shown here. " Awesome!" as Adam said succinctly. A mere 651 Yards into the wind from a severely elevated tee, with the North Sea to your left and Scotland to your right. The fairway starts around 40 yards beyond where my best drive would land on a calm day.  We played the 18th off the White Tee, a mere 586 Yards into a fresh southerly 2-club wind, so the hole was playing more like 610 Yards.

When I play new courses it's usually relatively easy to identify the signature hole or pick a personal favourite.  Not so here.  I suspect that the 18th might be the "official" signature hole that summarises perfectly what this course is all about.  However, there's not a weak hole on the entire course and as we made our way over, around or through rows of massive dunes almost every new hole prompted "That's just awesome" or similar comments from one or other of us.  Few of the other holes are visible from the one you're playing, so most stand on their own, adding to the theatre of this wonderful place.  We certainly stood on the 3rd tee for a while, as shown below, admiring the sea view and wondering just how we could play this 147 Yard Par 3.  The wind was coming at us from the right side, but the plateau green looked pretty small and what you don't see is that a river runs behind the green as a barrier between the green and the beach.  I'd hit a 27 Degree Rescue through the green onto a narrow shelf just short of the river, but a good pitch from there gave me an easy tap in for my first (or more accurately, my only!) par.

Surely that was the signature hole, until we climbed up to the 4th Tee.  Off the Black Tee, this is a 563 Yard monster of a Par 5, slightly uphill, with a river all the way up the right side of the narrow fairway, and 11 bunkers to avoid in the last 110 Yards, as shown below.  The Stroke Index 1 Hole. We were playing from the 460 Yard White Tee, but after coming to grief in one of the bunkers, my first 8 (there would be 3 more!) was on the card.

  

The 6th was another great Par 3, as shown here, with Polly at her Red Tee.  This played to 165 Yards off the White Tee and looked hugely difficult, but there's far more room than you might expect behind the dune on the left of the hole.  My trouble was hitting it far enough to clear the dune in the first place.  Double bogey, but at least I hadn't lost a ball. Meanwhile, Chris I'm afraid was still ensuring that Titleist had another bumper sales year.  I got to the turn in 51 strokes.  Disappointing, but none of us was scoring well and Scotland V USA Stableford match was even, with all to play for on the Back 9.

This is the 10th, another great hole.  This is a 495 Yard uphill par 5, stretching to 573 off the Black Tee.  With the wind directly behind us, we were heading roughly North.  I'd hit a good drive up the middle, but this is a view from the lateral water hazard to the right of the fairway, where Chris had lost another ball. Your second shot has to avoid 5 fairway bunkers and unless you're a big hitter, your third shot will be blind, with the green tucked to the left behind a large sand dune.  I was on the 3 but left my first putt quite short (the green had been tined and heavily sanded) and I had to settle for a bogey after 3-putting.

This is the 13th, a West-East running 178 Yard Par 3, played slightly uphill.  The wind by then was whipping across this hole from the South, adding to our difficulties.  I hit a good drive just short of the green, but Polly hit a great drive to within 15 feet for an easy par.  We were easing ahead of our USA opponents!

This is the 14th, as seen from the Gold Tee.  This looked so inviting that Adam Chris and I played from here, making this Par 4 a daunting 410 Yarder (Polly's tee was 155 Yards nearer!) I'd hit a great drive and had only a 7 iron to the green, which I miss-hit, so another bogey.

This is the 16th, a 157 Yard Par 3, playing uphill to nearer 180 Yards taking the headwind into account.  I found one of the 7 bunkers protecting this green, but I was right up against the rivetted face and a good 6 feet below the green.  Double bogey from there was actually not bad!

We couldn't resist climbing up to the Black Tee on the 18th and if you ever get the chance to play here, you'll probably be drawn to so the same!  The 360 Degree view from there is just stunning, almost on a par to the 7th tee on Gullane No 1, still my favourite view of golf in Scotland.

Polly and I managed to scrape a narrow win against Adam and Chris - go Scotland!  Polly also beat me in our match, taking the running score to 6-2.    My own score here was a lamentable 105, net 94 with 34 putts, wildly adrift from what I'd been hoping for. And the 18th? A tremendous hole but way too long for me to reach in 3 blows.  I took an 8, a greenside sh--- with a wedge being the final ignomony.  I'd have been happy with a 7! We'd all loved the course - a truly great experience. I'd love to play the course again in a few years once it has fully matured. In the meantime, I'm really glad that I've played it. You'll need to make your own mind up about where this course stands in comparison with the World's greatest courses, but it's certainly well worth playing, even at £195 a head.

Aboyne Golf Centre - Pussycat and KittyCat Courses - Courses 608 and 609

I played these 2 short 9 Hole parkland courses concurrently on 1 August 2013 after my round over the Centre's Tiger Course.  The Pussycat Course is an 1800 Yard Par 31 and the Kittycat is a 1320 Yard Par 28.  Generally, both of these courses are set out over the same footprint as the longer Tiger Course and are intended to cater for casual play and in particular, occasional higher handicap golfers and beginners.  Accordingly, these courses are less demanding but cannot be played when the Tiger Course is open for play.  However, if the courses are otherwise empty, it's possible to play the Pussycat and Kittycat at the same time, if you know the layouts that is and don't find it too confusing.

The 1st holes on both the Pussycat and Kittycat are basically shorter versions of the 1st Hole on the Tiger.  However, the 125 Yard Par 3 2nd on Kittycat is played from the 9th tee on Tiger to the 8th Green on Tiger, as shown here.  This requires an accurate tee shot as you're playing side on to a very narrow inverted saucer green with deep bunkers on either side.  I hit a really good 8 iron to the green and had an easy enough par, but this is a really tricky hole, with no obvious bale out for beginners. From there, both courses follow the 2nd Hole on Tiger uphill, then take some different routing before turning downhill towards the Tiger 5th and 6th Holes.  I managed a Birdie 2 on the 5th on Pussycat - then again, it was only a 110 Yard hole, so no great challenge.

Perhaps the best hole on either of these shorter courses is the 8th on Pussycat, which goes from the 6th Tiger Course Tee to the 8th Tiger Course Green, as shown here.  This requires absolute accuracy to find and hold a very shallow inverted saucer green and it 155 Yards, this is a seriously difficult hole. Bearing in mind I was playing these courses in what had fast become torrential rain, I was really delighted to hold the green with my 23 Degree Rescue and make a great par. From there, the last Pussycat hole is the same as the 9th on Tiger, but the 9th on Kittycat is played from close to the 8th Green on Tiger to the 9th Green on Tiger. If all of this sounds confusing, I should perhaps stress that the Pussycat and Kittycat Courses were really not designed to be played concurrently.  I just did it that way because no-one else was daft enough to be playing golf that morning.  I'd fiddled my way around 3 new courses in a little over 2 hours and had got seriously wet in the process and I was glad to have my 4 x 4 to cover flooded roads on the way back to our holiday cottage and a well deserved beer (even if it was just barely lunchtime!)

Overall, I was impressed by the 3 courses at Aboyne Loch.  The Tiger is difficult and physically demanding, so a net 32.5 was really good and as the conditions worsened my scores of 34 gross with 17 putts on each of the Pussycat and Kittycat courses were pretty good too.  The Lodge on the Loch does golf breaks and looked to be an excellent out of town base for a golf break.  I'd certainly recommend you give any or all of these little courses a try.