I played this course on 29 March 2011 after my exploits at Culcrieff. Although I was pretty tired after my recent gardening and earlier golf at Dougalston and Culcrieff, I still had a few hours to kill before picking Polly up after a meeting she'd been attending in nearby Perth. It was still a lovely early Spring day and I would finally get a crack at Muthil, after passing it some months before. Muthil is a 9 green course with 18 tees, making it an 18 hole course so I played it Benbecula-style (see my blog entry for Course No 278) playing balls off each of the twin tees, saving time and precious energy.
Muthil is short at only 4438 yards, par 65, but is great fun to play. There are 7 par 3's ranging from 106 to 201 yards and 11 Par 4's, from 220 to 378 yards, with pretty small greens and fast running fairways (and some more hills!). I thought the best holes were 3/12, playing to 244 and 260 yards downhill, as shown here. My tee shot off the 244 yard 3rd finished 20 yards short and right of the green leaving an awkward pitch skirting close to a bunker. However, my drive off the longer 12th was just short of the green, from where I birdied the hole, scoring a par with the ball I'd played off the 3rd tee.
I also liked the 8th/17th, playing to 329 and 325 yards respectively, with OOB on the right and blind second shots played to a small plateau green. I was happy enough to bogey both holes after almost going out of bounds off the 8th tee and being too far left off the 17th tee. Muthil's signature holes are definitely 9/18, a couple of par 3's playing to 201 and 195 yards respectively. This is a view from the 18th tee, with the 8th/17th green in the foreground. The club's website refers to the last green as being just large enough to park a small car. I don't know about that, but it's certainly tricky to find. I bogeyed both holes and went round in 75, net 65, level net par, with 29 putts. I really liked Muthil as a small village course and I'd recommend it.
Thanks for visiting my blog, Alan, and best of luck with your mission to play all of the courses. I 'only' played the 18 hole courses of Ireland (352 of them), so you've got twice the task! When are you coming to Ireland, and where are you planning to play?
ReplyDeleteOne question: if a course has 18 tee boxes, as at Muthil, but only 9 greens, surely that's a 9 hole golf course - as in, there are only 9 'holes' in the ground. That was my criteria. What do you think?
Good luck
Kevin
Kevin - The 3 of us doing the Scottish challenge agreed that although there might only be 9 holes in the ground on a course, the existence of 18 separate tees means that there were 18 chances to recod a score, not just 9. Equally, scorecards on some 9 green/18 tee courses show 18 separate holes with 18 separate hole names, so in such circumstances it's even clearer that there are 18 holes on these courses. We're basically trying to play every possible hole. We know of one guy who's played every 9 and 18 holer in Scotland i.e. 611, including those on private estates that are not normally accessible, but we don't think anyone has ever done every course -and we know of a few with less than 9 holes.
ReplyDeleteIn Ireland, I'd need to think long and hard to list everywhere my wife and I have played, but Carne, Enniscrone, Druid's Glen, Wicklow, The Island, Malahide, Westport, Narin & Portnoo, Cork, K Club, Dooks, Mount Juliet, Ardglass, The European, Killarney, Portmarnock, Beaufort, St Margaret's Rathsallagh, Powerscourt, Ballinrobe and Galway all spark fond memories. This year, we're only doing Arklow, Mount Wolseley and Bunclody on a quick trip next month. Drop me an e-mail for more info on timings.