You’ll need your best putting game on the excellent greens
Round £55. Par 71. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 69.3/124. Value (out of 5) – 3
The town of Haddington, lies just off the A1, about 17 miles east of Edinburgh, and is very easily accessed. At the heart of East Lothian, Haddington is likely to be a popular venue to stay if on a golfing holiday to play the many world class golf courses on the self proclaimed “Golf Coast”, home to Muirfield and Gullane to name but two.
Moly playing the challenging par three 16th hole – take 2 more clubs than the distance, to get up the hill, plus there is little danger over the back of the green.
So if you’re planning to visit the area, should Haddington be on the play list?
First thing to say is that for a course, or rather club, founded in 1865 and claiming to be the “19th oldest course in the world”, no mention of the course architect can be found.
We found the greens very slick at Haddington, here the large green at the par three 10th.
The course is set in the nice mature parkland of Amisfield Park, much of it still walled, with some spectacular trees; it is a place with a wide and rich history, ranging from a Medieval Cistercian nunnery, through to playing a part in the Jacobean rebellion, the Napoleonic war and both world wars. The former grand Amisfield House is long gone, but its sandstone was, interestingly, used to build Longniddry Golf Course clubhouse. The park’s boundary to the north is the River Tyne, but the river doesn’t play a part on the course.
The short par three 4th, showing the mature parkland setting of Haddington.
The town of Haddington is relatively small with a population of 10,000, but in the “high middle ages” (AD 1000 – 1250) it was the fourth most significant Scottish city. So its glory days are long gone – that seems fitting in that the golf course is also a minor player in the Lothians. It’s Okay, but priced too high in my opinion.
Fran tees off at the 6th at Haddington – a par 4 of 375 yards (yellow)
The condition of the course was very mixed. The greens and fairways were very good, but the tees were terrible, other than the red ladies tees. The greens were also very large, and coupled with the fast speed, led for a real challenge to avoid 3 putting. The fairways, were wide and forgiving, but there are some excellently placed fairway bunkers, that need to be navigated.
The nice fairways at Haddington, here shown at the 9th, a par four of 329 yards (yellow)
In extremely high winds, I struggled to a gross 107, for 21 stableford points (from a playing HCP of 16). This included a birdie 3 at the long par four second hole, measuring 421 yards from the yellow – the wind was strongly behind of course! In total I lost 5 balls, never nice!
The approach to the par four 15th at Haddington, again showing the mature setting.
Haddington, is in summary over-priced in my opinion, and not worth prioritising in a Lothian golfing trip. The clubhouse building is also rather run down.
Course Type:Parkland
Par 72 (2 par 5s, 13 par 4s, 3 par 3s)
Distance: 6038
Moly’s Gross score: 107
Wind played havoc with Moly’s game, finishing with a 107, including a 10 at the last.
This well laid out course might just be “The Average Scottish Course” – that’s good!
Round £30. Par 70. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 69.2 /119. Value (out of 5) – 3.5
I’ve now played about 25% of all Scottish golf courses, with about 20% now blogged – that represents a statistically significant sample for the mathematical minded.
The Wellrig Burn comes into play on a number of holes, here shown at the 16th, a tough par 4, played uphill – it is Stroke Index 5.
Therefore, when I played Duns I couldn’t help but consider what the ‘average’ Scottish golf course would be like. A small town setting. A club formed in the latter part of the Victorian age. A course, starting off as a nine hole layout, now having gone through a number of variations, culminating in an 18 hole course only established in the last 30 years. A course length off the yellow tee just under 6000 yards. A nice clubhouse, but with no frills. A course with tees adorned with sponsorship from the local hotels and garages. A decent price of, perhaps, around £30, being low but higher than the municipals that still, thankfully, abound in Scotland. Decent and homely catering, attracting travelling “days out”. A good, but not necessarily outstanding course condition or difficulty.
The well framed 9th hole, ‘Green Knowe’, a par 4 of 354 yards (yellow) – I scored 5
All in all, I realised Duns might be one of the (reasonably many) ‘average’ golf courses that Scotland has; that is to say a really nice place to play golf at great value. With an annual membership fee of £460 (2021) that, in particular, represents excellent accessibility. It is also good to see Family memberships available (Couple plus 2 children under 16) at only £900.
The par four 8th, “Postie’s Walk”, at 363 yards.
Duns, with a population of just under 3000 is the historic county town of Berwickshire, in The Scottish Borders. Only 10 miles north of the Border, It is slightly off the beaten track, in that it doesn’t lie on any of the main trunk routes between Scotland and England. To that extent, Duns is a ‘day out’. It would be an ideal visit for lovers of motor sport, as it is home to the famous racing driver Jim Clarke who has a museum in the town dedicated to his life.
The second hole, the first of the tighter driving holes at Duns. It’s strategic, requiring good judgement on the second lay-up to leave a pitching iron to the dog leg right entered green. Good golf hole.
The course is blessed with some outstanding scenery over the Tweed valley towards the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland. Set in open agriculture countryside, it did at times have a heathland feel, in particular the turf. The course wasn’t in brilliant condition though, albeit the greens were being treated as it was the end of the season. I can understand why it plays fast in the Summer. The fairways were quite tight, but the rough was forgiving – a reasonable compromise.
The downhill par three 15th hole. Choose your club wisely, I overshot the green to find the very narrow burn! A 5 on the scorecard at the SI 18, always annoying. Play towards the right of the green
On a breezy day of 15mph wind, I played very soundly for my 90, which equated to 31 stableford points, breaking my contentment threshold of 30 points for a first time play.
Overall, this felt like an innovative and progress club, with attractive and variable pricing using the BRS booking system, increasingly common for tee bookings for several clubs.
If you wanted to visit Scotland for golf, playing Duns would give you a great feel for what most members of Scottish golf clubs experience. No nonsense, good value golf.
Not one, but two notable challenges making it worth the drive, but mainly for the ‘fish n’ chips’ and a warm welcome.
Round £37.50. Par 72. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 70.2 /122. Value (out of 5) – 3.5
I’m glad I don’t overly research courses before I play and I learnt long ago to ignore the marketing hype golf clubs use on their websites. It’s similar to reading the tantalising comments on the latest ‘best selling’ book, before you consign it to the charity shop after 50 pages!
The 6th, one of the ‘challenge’ holes at Eyemouth – a watery grave got all 3 of our balls.
Therefore, please ignore “The club was formed in 1894” – the original 9 hole course is completely gone and has been replaced by a ‘home made’ design in 1997 on a different piece of arable (not links) land, known as Gunsgreen Hill, to the south-east of the original course. The course feels like a new ‘parkland’ layout, before saplings mature to properly frame the course.
It is worth playing Eyemouth though; it’s good value, has a couple of notable challenges (more of below) and excellent fresh locally caught ‘fish ‘n chips’, served in the clubhouse restaurant that has long reaching views of the Berwickshire coastline.
The short par three 3rd hole, with the clubhouse on the right that has commanding views. All three of us playing made par, which was unusual for us!
It’s certainly a meaty, if not fishy, course, which has hosted a number of regional and Scottish amateur competitions. Many of the longer holes playing uphill are very difficult, none more so that the 450 yard par four 15th hole, the stroke index 1; albeit, at 450 yards, it is still 200 yards shorter than one of the two ‘challenge’ holes – the par five 13th, cheesely named ” The Hawkness Monster”, at 656 yards it is reputedly Scotland’s longest hole; thankfully it is all downhill. On the day I actually parred the longest hole in Scotland, yet scored a quadruple bogie 9 on the Par 4 15th, That’s golf in a nutshell.
The ‘Hawkness Monster’ – Scotland’s longest hole. 656 yards.
The other notable, and more attractive, hole, is the 6th; curiously named ‘A Still No Ken’ [‘I still don’t know’] it is a visually stunning mid-iron hole over craggy coastline, at 167 yards from the white tee, albeit the actual carry required is only about 140 yards. It’s all in the mind. Played into a stiff North Sea breeze, this would obviously compound the difficulty. All 3 of us playing (Brian and Frank being my partners), found the sea. On reflection I would call the hole something like ‘North Sea Graveyard’.
Frank putting out on the tough par four 15th hole, his technique scrutinised by Brian.
We paid through www.golfnow.co.uk and received about 20% off the ‘rack rate’ prices. Golfnow, has been a great development for peripatetic golfers who prefer to not join a club, but as yet less than 50% of Scottish clubs allow this means of booking, and disappointingly, hardly any of the premier clubs. This is a shame and the pricing of the top100 clubs remains elusively high, compared with the annual fees paid by their members; the ‘must play’ courses leveraging their attractiveness, which I guess is understandable.
The very difficult 11th green overlooking this relatively new course at Eyemouth.
The course was in decent, but not great, condition when we played, despite it being high season; the tees and very large greens were no more than average. Some of the greens were very tricky, most notably the 11th, where you couldn’t afford to be over the back of the green. The fairways are wide, but miss them and the rough is deep – there is no semi-rough to speak of. Although in dry seaside conditions, this might feel like a links, it is arable land, and I consider it a parkland course.
If you plan to play Eyemouth, I recommend considering a buggy if you’re not as fit as you once were. More importantly, the ‘fish ‘n chips’ in the clubhouse were as good as I’ve tasted anywhere. Those, and the very friendly staff at the club, make it a decent place to visit and play.
The openness and wide fairways at Eyemouth, typified here at the 9th.
Finally, in writing about Eyemouth, I came across an extraordinary sporting story in the excellent https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/ web site, which charts the long lost history of Scottish Links. In the 1880s, during which time golf was played on a 5 hole course around the Eyemouth beach fort, the world famous cricketer, WG Grace actually played two seasons for Eyemouth cricket team. Now there’s a context for a film.
Course Type:Parkland
Par 72 (4 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 4 par 3s)
Distance: 6182
Moly’s Gross score: 102
Eyemouth – 102 reflects the challenge of this tough layout
This course’s struggle epitomises Scotland’s golfing challenge
Round £30. Par 70. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 68.9/121. Value (out of 5) – 2.5
One of the sadder days of my golfing life, was reading about the closure of Camperdown golf course in my home town of Dundee in 2020, a course that I’d once written about as “probably the best value golf in the world“. Thankfully, it has recently been announced that a 9 hole course will be re-opened along with a driving range.
The 5th at Castle Park, one of the better holes on the front nine on this course.Mind the Crows!
One of the legacies of being the ‘Home of Golf’, is that on a per head basis Scotland has the most golf courses of any country. Moreover, when analysed on the GDP per head basis, it’s clear Scotland doesn’t have an economy big enough to sustain so many courses. The long term decline in courses seems set to continue.
The opening hole at Castle Park in Gifford. Typical of the open fairways.
However, this is not a ubiquitous story. Whilst attending a conference of Scottish Golf in 2018, one of the things that became apparent to me, was the divide existing between “have” and “have not” clubs, exposed during a debate about increasing the Scottish Golf ‘members sub’ paid as part of each individual golf club fee. There were several speakers from wealthier clubs (those likely occupying the top 100 Scottish courses) who resented any increase in the levy, as they were “doing very well, thanks very much”.
The 10th at Castle Park. Don’t go to the 18th after this, like I did!
The evidence as I see it, is that the top courses make significant visitor fee income, with many courses costing well over £120 per round, whilst their annual membership fees remain significantly under £1000 per year. For example, for 2022 Carnoustie will charge £270 per visitor round during Summer, but local members only paying the equivalent of not much more than 2 visitor green fees for their annual membership. Living close to a top course is like winning a mini golfing lottery.
Considering the courses outside the (say) top 200 courses, of which Castle Park, in Gifford, is a good example. Opened in 1994, during a period of golfing optimism, by 2015 Castle Park was up for sale and highly anticipated that it would revert to farmland; it was not commercially viable. It was saved from closure by a local Gifford businessman, Craig McLachlan, with a partnership consortium resolved to keep the ‘community resource’ open. This threat to courses and passion to keep them open, is understandable, but the big picture economics will remain a challenge.
Take enough club to carry the valley at the par three 12th at Castle Park.
So has it been worth it, in Castle Park’s case – from a golfing perspective? The short answer for me sadly is no. I would anticipate the continued struggle. Why?
Castle Park sits in a lovely part of the East Lothian countryside, adjacent to the Lammermuir Hills and the affluent village of Gifford, which also has a wonderful Harry Colt designed 9 hole course (Gifford golf course). Many of the Gifford GC Members are also members at any number of the world class courses along the nearby East Lothian ‘Golf Coast’. Gifford is only 20 mins from Gullane Golf Club. So to say the golfing competition is fierce, is an understatement.
Perhaps as a ‘PR defense mechanism’, the course’s website declares itself “The Gleneagles of the South — Peter Allis”. Let’s examine the evidence:
> The scorecard was a haphazard affair on a printed piece of normal paper.
> On arriving at the club and showing our www.golfnow.com booking, we were told “They shouldn’t have allowed your booking” – as if it was our fault! Why do some people go into service?
> Two of the management team were driving around on a buggy – when we walked very close by them we were completely ignored, almost as if we ‘didn’t exist’.
> The tee markings were wooden pegs – no nomenclature.
> There was no guidance to find the next tee boxes, even although it was not always clear. We were well down the “11th” before we realised we were actually playing the 18th, that being the only tee box visible from the 10th green.
> There were dead crows hanging from trees everywhere, apparently to stop the crows eating worms (according to a green keeper).
I honestly find it hard to believe that Peter Allis would have made his Gleneagles comparison. I wonder whether he ever played at Castle Park?
The course itself is a tale of two halves. The front nine is an easy walking affair, but the back nine is very undulating and a really tough walk. It is fairly open parkland, but very long penal rough when you do miss the generous fairways. The greens were well watered and very true, but some had several patch repairs. The bunkers were shallow with insufficient sand.
Moly putting out on the 18th at Castle Park – Decent Value but nothing like “Gleneagles”!
Overall, it was a fairly tough challenge but with some decent holes; the slope index of 121 from the yellows, might have been from a 110 front 9, and a 130 back nine. The memorable holes were mainly on the back, with the par three 12th, played over a valley and the long par three 16th being the highlights for me.
The tale of two halves also represented my score, with 17 stableford points going out, and only 9 points coming back.
The best part is the price which is a very affordable£30, the price alone telling the story of the quality. It’s 2.5 star value, but lets not kid ourselves, this is no more “The Gleneagles of the South”, than Peter Allis, God rest his soul, is part of the woke generation. It’s also too tough a walk to be used as a Society day out – in my humble opinion. That’s why it sadly will struggle – no amount of ‘questionable’ PR will address that.
