I played the three 9-hole courses of Aberfeldy, Mains of Taymouth and Strathtay on the same wet Highland Perthshire day. This is important context, because whereas Mains of Taymouth and Strathtay were well presented, Aberfeldy was in awful condition.
All three courses sit along a 12 mile stretch of the River Tay, between Kenmore and Grantully, and experience the same climate. It’s evident Aberfeldy GC is struggling to maintain the course with its small membership, with volunteering a critical resource.
Finding the course in such a bad state, especially from the 2nd hole onwards, leaves me somewhat uncomfortable in writing a review, as I’m sure there will be reasons why the course was effectively unplayable. Nonetheless, I’m committed to writing what I found on the day; all it would have taken by the club was a “course closed” sign on the first tee.
Golf in Aberfeldy, much like in Scotland overall, is a story of expansion and contraction; the websites Missing Links and Breadalbane Heritage collectively tell Aberfeldy’s story, but there are gaps likely created by the old matter of ‘club’ versus ‘course’. There is also a book, intriguingly “Never an Old Tin Hut”, by local historian Jack Rees, published to mark Aberfeldy’s centenary in 1995.
In summary, Breadalbane GC and course, was founded in 1895 at its current location and would later be renamed Aberfeldy GC. But there are records of 2 other courses as early as 1891, in nearby Weem and in a place called Welar, the latter course can still be made out on Google Maps just north-east of Camernay. The current very flat course was characterised by sharing its ground with cows for many years.
The course expanded to 18 holes in 1995 including 6 holes north of the river, but was returned to 9 holes in 2016, due to the drop off in demand.
The pictures tell their own story about the course condition. With much better courses nearby, one can’t see the long term survival of Aberfeldy GC. The local interest in golf can also be gauged in the lack of business sponsorship, even although Aberfeldy is base to one of the great whiskey distillers, Dewars. Plus, Breadalbane Academy, Highland Perthshire’s main school, is only 500 yards away, yet sadly has no mention of golf within its sporting curriculum.
This was a sad day for me, but I’m sure many people have fond memories of Summer golf in Aberfeldy. I thought the course condition when I played might be reminiscent of the course in the late 1890 – ever an optimist.
Round List Price £15.Actual Paid £10 (Winter rate).
Quirky opening fairway at club with “progressive” ambitions.
Value for Money (out of 5) – 4
As a friendly Starter briefed me, I was pre-occupied by two groups of golfers only 40 yards in front of the first tee – one group on the 16th tee the other on the 2nd green. As a wayward driver, I was trying to remember if I had paid my annual golf insurance. His summarised message had been, “take great care!”.
Uphall’s first and second holes share a fairway with a green at either end, which I reasoned may have been okay at the turn of the 19th century, when balls didn’t travel so far and times were less litigious. I kept musing on this somewhat dangerous layout, my feelings later reinforced when I met a long standing member who told me “someone’s going to get seriously hurt one day”.
The golf course (in the village of the same name) sits either side of the A899 with holes 1 to 3, and 15 to 18 on the north side, and holes 4 through 14 on the south. It is near Junction 3 of the M8, and therefore very accessible from any direction.
This Central Scotland location, coupled with the interesting course layout makes for a good society venue, albeit at the time of writing the club are yet to rebuild the clubhouse which was sadly burnt down during the Covid Pandemic.
Much of the course lies amongst mature parkland, once part of the Houstoun House Estate. The estate ‘castle’, dating back to 1598, is now a MacDonald Hotel, and sits behind the 4th, 5th and 6th holes.
At just 5366 yards from the yellow tees, with a slope rating of 113, I should have been challenging 80, whereas I didn’t break 100 in the wet and windy autumnal conditions. My score wasn’t helped by losing 3 balls in the leaves. It was very picturesque though with the trees in good colour.
With four par threes and only one par five, the courses variety was aided by a good variety of par fours, from the drivable downhill second hole of 293 yards, to the stroke index 1, 14th at over 400 yards.
The course was in decent condition, with good turf, and is likely a delight on a dry Summer day. I paid only £18 through golfnow.com, a sizable discount on the £30 list price. Overall, I give this 4 out of 5 for value, and worth checking out. Just take great care on the first tee shot.
It’s worth noting the Club’s commitment to junior golfers, with its website declaring “a strong focus on the development of our Junior players”, well done.
Facts:
Round List Price £25.Actual Paid £18 using Golfnow.com
Round £65. Par 70. Course/Slope Rating (yellow) 70.1/124. Value (out of 5) – 5
Moly’s score – 96
In immaculate condition, I still found a rabbit hole at Lanark and one which didn’t afford a free drop. Lanark’s website claimed a brilliant story; “In 1920 the LSM Railway Company decided, only on the casting vote of its chairman, to build its hotel at Gleneagles rather than Lanark.”
Disappointingly, I couldn’t find corroboration for Lanark’s story; for example, the excellent 1951 club’s centenary history makes no mention of the ‘Gleneagles’ decision. Jamie Darling, of Lanark GC, was very helpful in my enquiries, but he too found evidence elusive.
The more I researched, the more convinced I am The Gleneagles resort vision existed long before 1920; in fact as early as 1910 by Perthshire born Donald Matheson, the Chief Engineer with Caledonian Railways. The Kings course opened in 1919, with the final hotel site decided around 1920. Matheson later became the GM of Caledonian Railways, then Dep GM in Scotland for LMS, and seems likely the driving force.
Lanark, unlike Gleneagles, is one of the UK’s best kept golfing secrets – a quite beautiful moorland course, nestled 600 feet up in the Clyde Valley of South Lanarkshire, only 25 miles from Glasgow’s city centre. The town is an ancient burgh and historically important, evidenced by the golf course being one of the oldest “inland” courses in the world. A full 18 holes was designed by Old Tom Morris in 1897, although some holes are traced back to 1851.
This tough course was in majestic condition when I played in good playing conditions yet still struggled to break 100 – I had one of those rounds where you play better than you score. The turf is very firm and certainly played like a links. With beautifully crafted greens and surrounds, I suspect anyone playing to handicap will have made several single putts.
The course is well laid out with constant changes in direction (except the 7th and 8th), so wind is always a strong consideration, especially as the course sits high up in exposed countryside. My only (very slight) criticism is that the approach to the second can be confusing; I hit into the 14th green, to be met by some members telling me “loads of visitors do that!”; later in my round I was advising other visitors the same!
The fairways are pretty generous, but miss these and the rough is at times very brutal. With discounts available through golfnow.com, I paid only £32, which was outstanding value.
I would really love to be able to confirm that Gleneagles is “The Lanark of the North”. It would be nice if anyone could point me to evidence of the chairman’s decision to validate the club’s great story. For the record, Henry Allan, was Caledonian Railway chairman between 1918-23, are would be the “Chairman” in Lanark’s claim.
It’s worth going out of your way to play Lanark, a wonderful moorland course, arguably one of Scotland’s very best.
Course with a brilliant stretch of holes including a Hogan favourite.
Round £145. Par 70. Course/Slope Rating (blue) 69.1/128. Value (out of 5) – 3.5
Moly’s score – 100
With it’s ‘Hogan’ room and surrounding legend one could conclude Panmure Golf Club’s role as pivotal in American Ben Hogan’s1953 Open victory at Carnoustie.
Yet, in Gene Gregston’s seminal biography, “The Man Who Played for Glory”, the lengthy chapter dedicated to Hogan’s 1953 trip, doesn’t have a word of Panmure. Even the company NCR (National Cash Registers) gets a mention for accommodating Hogan in Dundee’s Taypark House.
These contrasting perspectives intrigued me. So many Hogan myths exist, there are books and podcasts dedicated to them. Had I stumbled upon a myth? Had Hogan really ‘played’ here?
There are no photographs of Hogan playing Panmure, although several of him on the Carnoustie Championship and Burnside courses. Other than the Panmure Club’s website I couldn’t readily uncover corroborating contemporaneous evidence. The more I researched Hogan, the meticulous preparer for tournament golf, the more skeptical I became of the story. Hogan was not on holiday, surely he would not have played Panmure, if he could play at Carnoustie. Henry Cotton’s article “Reflections of the 1953 Open”, focused on Hogan and his ‘ten days of preparation’, but again no mention of where.
Researching Gregston’s writing finally uncovered a ghost written article for Ben Hogan, in one of America’s oldest institutions, The Saturday Evening Post. In ‘The Greatest Year of My Life’, published on 17th Oct 1953, in Hogan’s own words there it was…. ‘Barry’. But it was only by a quirk of fate.
Panmure Golf Club originated in 1845, as one of several clubs using Monifieth Links; the Panmure Ladies Club, of which my wife is a member, still play at Monifieth. Due to golf’s growth the Panmure Club built the Barry course, which is midway between Monifieth and Carnoustie. Initially 9 holes laid out by Old Tom Morris, then 78 years old, it was called Barry Links or Panmure Barry, names still used by locals. James Braid remodeled the course in 1922.
Panmure is one of Scotland’s ‘posh’ and, until 2018, ‘men only’, clubs. One may not realise nearby Broughty Ferry, home to many of the initial Panmure members in their grand houses, was once ‘one of the richest suburbs in Europe’, due to the then industrial might of Dundee. The area’s economic reach still highlighted by Panmure’s impressive clubhouse, a replica of Calcutta Golf Club, a vestige of the British Empire.
The golf course is exceptionally maintained to professional playing standards. It is a classic out and back clockwise course, with any OOB being on the right. It plays into the prevailing wind on the outward 9 (except for the 7th which doubles back), so I would suggest trying to ensure you stay in play going out, as there will be opportunities to catch up coming home.
The course rates very high nationally, but for me it starts and ends rather tamely. What it does have is an outstanding middle section of holes, starting from the par three 5th, before one of Scotland’s greatest holes, the par four sixth.
The 6th, ‘Hogan’, is spoken of as Hogan’s ‘favourite Carnoustie hole’, and it’s understandable why. It is a slight dogleg left, with the approach played directly into the prevailing wind, meaning the tee shot is about the worst wind direction for anyone other than the very best ball strikers. Although only 360 yards from the blue tees (Panmure’s equivalent of ‘yellow’), with a blind tee shot into a larger than seen landing area, it becomes nigh impossible in any high wind, as the approach plays to a plateau green through an ever narrowing channel. It has mesmerising natural framing. Like many great holes it’s risk-reward, as the fairway narrows at full driving length. Play it as an easy par 5, to avoid double bogie or worse. The 6th is also the part of the course with natural grassy hummocks, characteristic of this coastline.
How many great holes does it take to make up a great course? That’s a question worth thinking about, especially when one is pondering value? As a Dundonian, I played Panmure several times in the 1970s and 80s, when the price was relatively much cheaper. As with many ‘well heeled’ Scottish clubs nowadays, visitor prices have focused on the more wealthy visitor fees on offer, aided in Panmure’s case by the closeness of Carnoustie. At £145 for a summer season round, I think it’s overpriced, hence my score of 3.5.
Returning to the Hogan story, here’s what my investigation concluded. He started off practicing on Carnoustie, as was his plan, but found that its practice area was located next to the Barry Buddon military firing range. For Hogan, this was too noisy! So he then practiced for “an hour to an hour and a half each day at Barry” (Hogan’s words), using the 17th fairway and green (which he had cut shorter), as his practice area. As he was adapting to the smaller UK ball he was focused on his ball striking and yardages. He then went on to Carnoustie each day for his practice rounds and, late into the evenings, meticulously measuring the course, for key distances, as a modern caddy would do for his professional. He played 3 balls on each tee (to left, centre and right of the fairway). He missed one fairway in 4 rounds.
Given that he was practicing at Panmure for about a week, for about an hour a day, I think it’s highly unlikely he ever played a round at Panmure. Why would he, when he needed to learn Carnoustie’s monstrous 7,200 yard course.
As to the story of the 6th hole being Hogan’s favourite? Well, intriguingly, Carnoustie Championship course’s 6th hole is also called ‘Hogan’, with its famed ‘Hogan’s Alley’ describing a portion of land created between a loop of the Barry Burn. Might he have been confused? Nonetheless, both 6th holes are candidates for inclusion into a list of great Scottish holes.
Panmure is a great course, full of history, with a brilliant stretch of holes; however, other than for the soldier’s firing on the range, the ‘Hogan’ room at Panmure Golf Club would need another name.
Interestingly, there are still no red tees at Panmure.