Polly and I had played the absolutely excellent parkland course at Kemnay GC in rural Aberdeenshire some years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Since then, the club has built the 6 Hole Par 3 Beechbank Course on land immediately adjacent to the main course. The Beechbank Course also includes a covered driving range and is an impressively laid out addition providing excellent practice facilities generally and ideal training facilities for beginners and younger (and older!) club members. This is a view of the 1st green. There are no bunkers and the greens are small, undulating and tricky to putt, so accuracy off the tees and on the greens is key. The 6 holes range from 74 to 150 Yards, so you only need a few clubs and half an hour to get round. I just wish more clubs had the opportunity to develop facilities like this, where complete beginners and youngsters in particular could try the sport and develop their skills without feeling intimidated or that they are getting in the way of adult members. Unfortunately, many clubs only have their 18 or 9 holes and don't have anything that meets that need, stifling the potential to get new players involved in the sport.
Here are a couple of other views of the course. I can't speak highly enough about the Beechbank Course. Absolutely superb, right down to the high quality tee markers, and a model for other clubs with the imagination, land and finance to follow. I hope to play the main Kemnay course again sometime, as it's stuck in my mind as a really interesting and well-designed parkland course, which looked to be great condition when I played the Beechbank Course on 25 August 2014. If and when I play the big course again, I'll look across to Beechbank, remembering how I took an unremarkable 21 strokes and 9 putts to play its 6 holes, a stroll of only 768 Yards, Par 18. Maybe I need more practice!
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