Scotland Golf Bible

A guide to green fee value for money

Category: under £20 (Page 4 of 11)

October 29, 2020 /

This incredibly fun 9 hole course is like playing in Gordon’s Dream

Round £10. Par 31. Value (out of 5) – 5

Covesea, pronounced “Cowsea” by the locals, is a wonderful surprise. Built by Gordon Clarke in 2010 pretty much on his own and still maintained by him, Covesea costs £10 for 9 holes or £15 for the day. It used to have a cafe called the Tee Shack, which unfortunately burnt down in 2014. Overall, it feels like playing in someone’s dream.

The 5th green with the wonderful view back towards the Covesea Skerries Lighthouse

The course sits on the Moray coastline between the towns of Lossiemouth and Hopeman, set in a cove just west of the Covesea Skerries lighthouse. It is a magnificent setting for a golf course and my first thought on seeing it, was why had this piece of land never been developed as a course during the heyday of Victorian golf course building – unfortunately I wasn’t able to track down an answer, but there must be one! For those familiar with Scottish golf, Covesea has many resemblances with Cullen (1908), Anstruther (1890) and Shiskine (1896).

The dramatic and difficult tee shot at the 8th, with the sandstone structures enveloping the hole.

With it being basically a “one man band” operation, Gordon’s green keeping duties concentrate on the greens and their surrounds; this means the tees and fairways are, in places, very poor. However, if you can see past that, the condition of the greens are really good and must be the best in Scotland with a fee of “up to £10”.

The course comprises 5 par 3s and 4 par 4s, and several of these are very challenging holes.

The 2nd at Covesea, with a “Good, Bad and Ugly” feel – a very difficult pin to find.

In particular, the 5th through 8th, are dominated by the craggy rock formations and offer a lovely stretch of golf, with spectacular views from the 5th green and 6th tee.

The 8th green, clearly showing the variance between the fantastic greens and less well kept surrounds.

Overall, this is a brilliant “Value for Money”, and what a legacy for Gordon to have built. With good tees and fairways, I just wonder what the fees could be?

I played really well, other than a mess on the 2nd where I took 5 shots to get down from the left hand bunker – the resulting 7 dominating my overall score of 38, seven over par.

Facts:

Course Type: Links

Par 31 (4 par 4s, 5 par 3s)

Distance: 2000

Moly’s Gross score: 37

Moly’s Covesea Scorecard – 38, 7 over

96. Craigieknowes. 19th June 2019.

March 23, 2020 /

Playing 150 years ago might have felt like this

Round £7.   Par 27.  Value (out of 5) – 3

This course is really worth playing, but its assessed ‘value’ of 3 does not necessarily mean this course is good or even average quality; it’s not. Craigieknowes is cheap at less than £10. The greens were terrible when I played – little more than well mowed lawn. The teeing grounds don’t actually exist, they are just areas of the fairway with a tee marker. There are no bunkers – or if there were I can’t remember any.

Craigieknowes Facebook Page focuses on the real attraction – Cake!

Craigieknowes golf course, near Kippford in Dumfries and Galloway, is really worth playing, for no other reason than it is what I imagine golf would have been like in the late Victorian era, when golf courses were sprouting up all over Scotland.

Fran on the 3rd green – she played much better than me on the day.

It’s a 9 hole par 3 ‘highland’ course against the beautiful and peaceful backdrop of South West Scotland which still exists I suspect from the income generated during the Summer months in this holiday park of Scotland. The golf course seems to be secondary to the delightful tea room, which is the centrepiece of the facebook page of the course. The fact that Craigieknowes doesn’t even have its own proper website is also a measure of its status.

Unfortunately, despite some research I couldn’t find any meaningful history of the course.

The difficult 4th, take at least one club longer, for the 156 yard hole

Although being in poor condition, there are some meaty holes to overcome here. In particular the 4th, played uphill to a plateaued green, requiring more club that it looks to the eye, and the 166 yard 6th, again uphill, with OOB to the left of the green. On the 6th I lost a ball near the OOB wall, despite at least a 5 minute search – no-one was behind us!

The 6th – a challenge with OOB on the left.

On the day, we had lovely weather, and it was really good fun. Nevertheless, I couldn’t par any of the holes in my score of 43, which I’ll put down to the greens;)

If you are in the area this is fun to play, and the tea and cakes were really yummie!

Facts:

Course Type: Highland

Par 27 (9 par 3s)

Distance: 1391

Moly’s Gross score: 43

Moly’s 43 at the par 27 Craigieknowes GC

94. Maverston 9 hole. 25th May 2019.

March 8, 2020 /

A very basic par 3 course 

Round £10.   Par 27.  Value (out of 5) – 1.5

Maverston is owned and operated by the ANM Group, a member owned co-operative company with interests in mainly farming related businesses.  It seems clear that the business goal of the Maverston estate was to build a golf course attractive enough to enable the sale of the co-located residential housing plots surrounding the course.  The main 18 hole course itself opened in 2014, and several “executive” houses are now completed and occupied. I played and blogged about the main 18 hole course in 2016 here.

The 9 hole par 3 course is no more than a basic layout, which was in poor condition, especially the greens, when I played along with Fran. It would be a good course to learn the game on, and given that the club encourages under 16 membership for free with an adult member, I can see the value of the overall set up.

Having said that, as a stand alone course, it is not worth the £10 fee, especially given the increasing number of deals around at much better courses at a similar price. The main course here on the other hand is worth playing.

Maverston 9 hole course, a good course to learn on

 On the day, I lost a match play game with Fran winning 4 & 3, after which I parred the next 2 holes (7th and 8th) – isn’t it infuriating when that happens.

Anyone thinking of playing their first round of golf, this would be a good place – otherwise give it a miss.

Facts:

Course Type: Parkland

Par 27 (9 par 3s)

Distance (yellow): 1250

Moly’s Gross score: 40

Maverston 9 hole scorecard – not bad in wind!

91. Musselburgh Links, Old. 23 Oct 2018.

July 21, 2019 /

The oldest golf course in the world. A Must Play 9 holes.

Round  £15.30.   Par 34.  Value (out of 5) – 5

Called either Musselburgh “Links” or Musselburgh “Old”, this course is the only one of the three ‘Musselburgh’ courses actually in Musselburgh, the East Lothian town 5 miles east of Edinburgh. If you are in any way interested in the history of golf, you have to play here because, quite simply, it is the oldest golf course in the world, recognised as such by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Moly and Fran at Musselburgh Links, The oldest golf course in the world.

People mainly associate the origins of the game with St Andrews, but there is a much richer history in Musselburgh Links. The record books for the course talk of Mary, Queen of Scots, King James VI and Oliver Cromwell; albeit if you check their dates of birth they certainly never played a 3 ball.

Move forward a couple of hundred years, the record book speaks of an early Open Championship venue, between 1874 and 1889, won by the likes of Mungo Park, Willie Fernie and Willie Park Jr.

The tough 6th green at Musselburgh Links

The Old Course at Musselburgh also must have another record. It has been the home of more golf clubs and societies than any other course; not any old clubs either and includes The Royal Musselburgh, The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, Royal Burgess Golfing Society and the Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society, all either formed or were based at Musselburgh. Plus a further 60 clubs or societies of note.

The club sits on Common Good land, and the land’s use was extended in 1816 by building a race track around it, which is still in use today.

The long par 3 8th hole at Musselburgh.

Which left me wondering whether a links course could be sited inside a racecourse? The answer is undoubtedly yes – this feels very much a links, with firm turf, deep revetted bunkering, whispy rough and wind! It was actually gusting over 40 mph when I played and unsurprisingly Fran and I were the only players! In the wind, my score of 45 against the par of 34 was about the best I’d played for a while.

The course is basically a clockwise loop of holes, with a out and back layout. It starts with a great par 3, then three par 4s of increasing length with the 4th hole, the stroke index 1, called Mrs Foreman’s, after the name of the pub behind the green. Then you turn for home, with the 8th on the way back being a long par 3, the most noteworthy.

This course is very well maintained and greens, fairways and bunkers being in really good condition.

The wind shows at the 9th at Musselburgh, with the racetrack grandstand in the background

Its also worth noting the world’s first golfing competition for women took place on New Year’s Day in 1811, competed for by the town’s fishwives. I wonder if the date was set by The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers?

At just £15, this is unrivalled value to grab a piece of genuine golfing history.

Some Facts

Course Type: Links

Par 34 (1 par 5, 5 par 4s, 3 par 3s)

Distance:  2954 yards

Moly’s Gross Score  45

45 in a 45 mph wind was very good!
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