Category: 5 star (Page 3 of 4)

105. Shiskine. 15th Sep 2020

July 6, 2021 / Moly McMillan

One explanation makes sense – this is perhaps God’s home course.

Round £26 (12 holes). Par 42. Value (out of 5) – 5

Shiskine is probably the greatest 12 hole golf course in the world, but that hardly does the course justice.

The Isle of Arran sits off the North Ayrshire coast, accessible all year round by regular ferry crossings from the Port of Ardrossan or, during Summer, from the Kintyre peninsular.

**Moly putting for birdie at the 4th “The Shelf” hole at Shiskine, in benign conditions.**

Several areas of Scotland self proclaim the title of best destination for golf, with the East Neuk of Fife and the North Berwick coastline being the headline events. But when it comes to the best value destination for golf (worldwide?) Arran sits comfortably at the top of any list – in my humble opinion. This island of 432km² has a population of 5,000, with a majority of the people working in the hospitality sector. Arran has 7 golf courses, which all sit on the periphery of the island and are easily accessed; none of them has a weekly green fee greater than £30. With many hotels, B&Bs and campsites, Arran is a must visit golfing destination.

Shiskine, set on the west of the island, is the jewel in Arran’s crown.

**The par 3 ‘Craws Nest’, 3rd, with views over the beautiful Shiskine layout.**

It is said you should never meet your heroes as it can be so disappointing. It was with a similar sentiment I embarked for Arran with nightmares about losing all my balls into the sea from Shiskine’s formidable first tee. Such was my desperation to play that immediately after pitching our caravan and with pristinely tranquil conditions, I psychologically ran to the course to grab a twilight round at only £21. Without a pre-shot routine, and with a vice like will to keep my head over the ball, I drove a low running drive over 200 yards up the fairway – hallelujah! Entering a trance like state, I then proceeded to play the 12 holes in 47, or 5 over par – not quite the best round of my life, but I cannot remember smiling so much to myself during a round of golf.

**The terrifying par 4 “Road Hole” first at Shiskine, with OOB left all the way to the hole**.

Perhaps by ‘divine’ intervention, a feasibility study in the late 1800s rejected building a deep water pier on the current golf course site to serve the local port of Blackwaterfoot. Sometime thereafter, Willie Fernie of Troon (who also designed Turnberry’s Ailsa course), laid out the original 9 hole course, which opened in 1896, although only the current 5th and 9th holes survive from then.

**The difficult stroke index1 second hole at Shiskine, a tough par 4 with a burn in front of the green capturing many of the blind second shots into the green. Take enough club.** **Atop Drumadoon Hill in the background was where 6 holes returned to waste during the first world war**

The course was extended to 18 holes just before the first world war using land above the current ‘shelf’ area of the 3rd green, but fell into disrepair during that war. Several attempts during the decades after failed to reestablish an 18 hole course.

Willie Park (Sunningdale and the North Course at Olympic Park, Chicago) then designed the current 12 holes between 1925-28. 18 holes play is reserved for member only competitions with the 1st, 2nd, 9th, 11th, 12th replayed with a further hole using a unique “15th” tee into the 4th green.

The course is not long, at just under 3000 yards from the white tees for the 12 holes, and 4,878 for the 18 hole layout; its slope rating is only 99 and disappointingly has no red ‘ladies’ tee boxes. It has 7 par 3s, 1 par 5 and 4 par 4s. Despite its short length, this is really fun golf, with very many blind tee or approach shots. I would strongly recommend reading the course guide, there is, for example, a bale out area to the right of the blind 3rd green, so aiming right of the flag is imperative. It’s rather hard to adequately describe the course other than saying it’s magical. It’s not perfect though, with the 12th a rather underwhelming short finishing hole. Nevertheless, it actually made me feel like I was playing my part in a Michael Murphy (Golf in the Kingdom) style mystical adventure with Shivas Irons as a playing partner. Perhaps I exaggerate. I can conclude by saying that I doubt you’d find anything like this course other than in Scotland and it’s a must play destination.

**The 4th at Shiskine, a collage of dreams.**

I’ve often pondered what golf handicap God might have? I’ve concluded that it would make sense if he or she were to have the exact average Scottish men’s or women’s handicap. God’s preferred course would be majestic, but not too difficult. For example, it wouldn’t have par 4s or par 3s that are really disguised par 5s or 4s respectively. It wouldn’t have any carries off the tee that effectively disenfranchise most higher handicap players. It would be set amid a beautiful landscape. It would offer a mix of guile and strategy. Some of the shots would be frightening. The greens, tees, fairways and all round conditions would be perfect. The weather or elements would play a significant part of the experience. Play would have to be fast – so he/she decided 12 holes was the best length. In the right conditions, it would bring you close to it’s maker.

Perhaps God did design Shiskine after all. Please go and play.

Facts:

Course Type: Links

Par 42 (1 par 5, 4 par 4s, 7 par 3s)

Distance: 2770

Moly’s Gross score: 47

**Moly’s life affirming 5 over for the 12 wonderful holes at Shiskine**

86. Archerfield – Fidra Links. 12 Sep 2018.

October 20, 2018 / Moly McMillan

Superbly designed course that could be considered any of links, parkland or woodland!

Round £90…plus hotel residency! Par 72. Value (out of 5) – 3.5

I felt a little stupid when the answer came to my question “Why is it called Archerfield?”. “It was where King Edward I’s bowmen practiced in 1298!”

The 1st at Fidra Links, very typical of the first 11 holes.

Fidra Links is one of the two courses on the Archerfield Estate, a golf centred development created by the Edinburgh businessman Kevin Doyle over the last 15 years. The estate has a range of 5 star accommodation options, with the 17^th Century, 16 bedroom, flagship Archerfield House being available to rent in part or in whole. When my wife and I stayed in a nearby “Pavilion Suite”, we were politely refused entry to Archerfield House by a Concierge, as we weren’t one of the 4 Americans that had rented it for the week. Get the picture – know your place amongst the clientele of “Scottish” golf these days.

A view towards the Bass Rock from behind the 6th green at Fidra Links

Seriously though, with great accommodation, a quite superb Scandinavian inspired spa, and first rate practice facilities on offer, this is a world class golf resort on Edinburgh’s doorstep. Curiously, the clubhouse restaurant and bar is adorned with African art, giving it a colonial feel?

Nestled between Muirfield and North Berwick, and adjacent to the magnificent Renaissance, Fidra Links and Dirleton Links (the other Archerfield course) strengthen the case that this East Lothian region is Scotland’s premier golfing destination.

The approach to the 12th has plenty sand awaiting.

It’s not cheap though; membership via a debenture costs about £30,000, then around £3,000 annual fees. But, you do get your shoes cleaned and don’t need to worry about paying for range balls. You can have a “golf experience day” (price unknown), or as I did pay a £90 green fee as an accommodation occupant; I suspect many golfers play both courses either side of a single night B&B stay, which costs about £500; not bad for a short break of this quality. The clubhouse food is pretty good too, and not overpriced.

Moly plays straight at the par 3 12th at Fidra Links – straight into the front bunker that is!

Fidra “Links” is a beautifully laid out design by architect David J Russell, who has created a great mix of parkland, woodland and links! It may well be the most tree lined course adjacent to the sea in Scotland; I really don’t know how you would classify it. The first 11 holes are pine forest protected, with the last 7 holes being the “faux” links holes open to the elements. The bunkering is often fierce, the greens are large and tricky, and with constant changes of direction, it’s difficult to get an easy couple of holes together, especially if the wind is up as it was for us. The trees are fairly open at times with the pine undergrowth meaning balls are relatively easy to find, which is a big bonus with my wayward driving game.

The course condition was excellent, as one would expect, and if you were to find any lost balls they are unlikely to be scuffed Top-Fight’s. Finding good golf balls, especially by having to crawl though thorny bushes, is one of the guilty pleasures in my life! It was actually more difficult to find the next tee at Fidra, than lost balls, as apparently Mr Dolye doesn’t like signage? That was my main criticism of the course, as well as the tee options.

There are some great golf holes here. The SI 2, par 4, 7th hole, is a slight dog leg left, where only a tee shot on the right of the fairway, can avoid having to hit over 2 prominent trees about 50 yards short of the green. The short par 4 12th has magnificent bunkering awaiting a pushed second. The 14th, into the prevailing wind was well worth the SI1 tag.

The fairway bunker on 15 at Fidra is a typical and well constructed feature.

It wasn’t long from the yellow tee (5463 yards), but with 4 tee options to choose, I played off the white at 6201 yards, and felt I played really well for my 96 and 29 stableford points. Disappointingly, there were no red tees, the traditional colour used for ladies, which given the current debate about encouraging women to play, didn’t make any sense to me! The card was though very instructive (see below) as it was printed daily with the pin positions!

If you can afford it, its worth staying and playing at Archerfield. If you do, I recommend you also splash out on the Golfer’s recovery massage – I didn’t know I had so many knots in my back!

Facts:

Course Type: Parkland/woodland/links

Par 72 (4 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 4 par 3s)

Distance (white): 6201 Yards

Moly’s Gross score: 96

The daily printed scorecard at Archerfield’s Fidra Links – Moly shot 96.

81. St Andrews Old Course. 30 Jul 2018

August 15, 2018 / Moly McMillan

The Home of Golf – thanks especially to The Champion Golfer of 1995, Mr John Daly! WOW!

Round £180. Par 72. Value (out of 5) – 5

A few weeks before playing at The Old Course, I received a surprise call from Richard Rooney of D C Thomson, the Scottish Media conglomerate; “Congratulations, Moly, you’ve won our St Andrews Memory competition run by The Courier newspaper. The prize includes joining the D C Thomson 4 ball in the Rolex sponsored “Patrons Day” on the Monday following the Senior Open”. WOW!

The Auld Toon of St Andrews provides the backdrop to Moly playing at the 16th from just in front of the “Principals Nose” bunker.

I’d actually forgotten I had entered a competition some weeks earlier, but no matter, there I was standing on the Championship 1st tee at 8am on Monday 30th July 2018, only about 40 yards from where Miguel Angel Jimenez was crowned the Senior Open Champion a little over 12 hours previous. WOW!

The Courier report of the Competition which won Moly his Old Course round. Thanks John!

Assisted by local caddie, John, from Kingsbarns, and along with Keve Hodgson, fellow winner, and our 2 D C Thomson hosts, conveniently both called Richard, we played The Old Course in beautiful links conditions (a fair westerly breeze), using the Sunday pin positions. WOW!

I shot a stroke-play 87, including 8 pars, with the same ball. WOW!

Including par 4s at the 1st and 18th, from the championship tees, the 18th where I played a 150 yard 6 iron into the breeze to only 15 feet, with Caddy John announcing as my ball launched “its all over it!” and received a round of applause from the 30 or so spectators milling around. Putter in hand, the walk to the green was “golfing heaven”. WOW!

A typically huge and undulating double green – the 2nd and 16th (Keve putting up the green)

If you are reading this blog, you probably don’t need me to tell you much, if anything, about The Old Course, as it’s embedded in the very essence of golf. So many great players have made so many comments, I’ll just quote my favourite:

“This is the origin of the game. This is golf in its purest form and it’s still played that way on a course seemingly untouched by time. Every time I play here, it reminds me this is still a game.” – Arnold Palmer.

6th tee – a typically bind tee shot, where a Caddy becomes invaluable

I’ll therefore use this blog to discuss the concept of value, the prime measure I make of Scottish golf courses, which takes on an added mystery when applied to the Old Course at St Andrews. It’s by no means the most difficult course in the world, or anywhere near the most expensive; albeit at £180 its not cheap. However, it’s arguably the most accessible great sporting location in the world – anyone is free to walk its hallowed turf on Sundays when the course is closed to play. By all accounts, turn up on Christmas day and play for free (without the flags though!).

Lining up a putt for bogie at 17, with the iconic backdrop. Oh for the day to go on and on….

In deciding how to assess its value, I came up with this conundrum. Ask any golfer the world over this question: “Regardless of price, you can play golf once only in your lifetime at either The Old Course or Course X (name any course) – which would you choose to play?”. Other than perhaps Augusta, The Old Course would likely come out top every time. Therefore, for me, this defines the top price one should pay for a round of golf anywhere. Any course costing more than £180 can’t be worth it, by definition, if you would actually rather play the Old Course anyway instead, regardless of price.

Of course, its only my opinion!

The beautiful par 4 7th hole, short at only 359 yards (white), but a true SI 4 hole.

So, play it once in your lifetime. Hire a caddy if you can afford to. Walk the hallowed turf and pray that you hit some nice shots. Hope for a nice day, but also hope that the wind gets up sufficiently to understand its defence. Hope for some “Sunday pins” to wrestle with a pro’s dilemma. Hope you (maybe) find one or two of the almost mythical bunkers that dot the course. Hope…..for so many things!

Four very happy golfers – for the record the DC Thompson Richards won the match play game 2 up,

I only found one bunker, Hill, on the par 3 11th …..thank goodness:) I made a miraculous bogie, which was somehow symmetrical, as it was John Daly’s miraculous bunker shot from “Road” bunker, that won me the round of golf! WOW!

Facts:

Course Type: Links

Par 72 (yellow: 2 par 5s, 14 par 4s, 2 par 3s)

Distance: 6387 yards

Moly’s Gross score: 87

Moly’s Hope; a well played round of 87 at The Old Course, St Andrews.

40. The Renaissance Club. 27th May 2016

May 31, 2016 / Moly McMillan

A new world class links course to rival its older neighbours

Round by Invitation. Par 71. Quality (out of 5) – 4.5

The Renaissance is a work of beauty - the 10th taken on a nicer day than when I played.

The Renaissance is a work of beauty – the 9th taken on a nicer day than when I played.

The Renaissance Club is one of a small but growing number of exclusive private member golf clubs in Scotland. It combines a world class golf course and facilities with an American style family friendly country club set up, with fine dining, although the latter type of country club is also now very common in South Africa and Australia.

The course sits just east of Muirfield, its famous neighbour, on the North Berwick coastline.

The tree enclosed 4th green – typical of some of the great links courses in Northern Scotland

The architect of The Renaissance, Tom Doak, is renowned for his use of natural contours and not “bulldozing” the land and he has laid the course around several copses of existing trees; therefore this is a course that looks much more like parts of the great links of Carnoustie, Dornoch or Nairn Dunbar, than the treeless Muirfield.

The large 8th Green at The Renaisannce

The result is a quite magnificent layout that in my opinion will stand the test of time. With widely different tee options, this can be played at 6121 yards off yellow, 6766 yards off white, and a monster 7293 yards off the professional championship blue tees. It also has 2 very cleverly mixed white/yellow layouts of around 6500 yards, each recommended for different westerly or easterly winds (see the scorecard below for details). All layouts have a par of 71.

The tee view from the stroke index par 4 8th.

The course was in excellent condition as expected and although spread out over a much greater area than, by comparison, Muirfield, the green to tee walks were still short some almost in the St Andrews way, I suspect by design.

The highlight of the course for me was the magnificent greens which had combinations of large and subtle borrows, almost all with very tricky surrounds. Combined with well positioned and deep bunkers, I suspect only the greatest of short game players would win a Scottish Open here. The Renaissance would be a fine competition venue, with many locations for grandstands which would afford viewing of more than one hole.

The majestic 10th tee view – I lost a ball into the left cliffs on the one occasion I failed to heed my playing partner’s advice!

I was hosted by the local professional Ross Dixon, whose wise on-course advice enabled me to play to within one shot of my new lower handicap of 19, which has reduced by 4 shots following a number of lessons by Ross himself, the best measure of golf teaching.

The downhill par 3 11th, with a view over the links land

The Renaissance layout provides changes of direction on almost every hole, and therefore the difficulty changes likewise. There are many great holes, but the run of 5 holes from the 7th through 11th were for me the architectural and aesthetic highlight; a long par 5 7th, the stroke index 1 8th hole, followed by 2 excellent par 3s (the infinity greened 9th, and the downhill 11th), which sandwich the cliff hugging shortish par 4 10th. All these holes can be viewed using the excellent interactive club website application here.

Ross Dixon, after striking another ball far down the middle at the par 4 14th.

It was a real privilege to play The Renaissance and I hope that the venue can be used for competitions so that the wider public can see at close hand what a wonderful course it is. Although it was a private club, it was very far from stuffy, in fact I couldn’t help noticing what a wonderfully relaxing and very family oriented atmosphere existed around the club. There is a lot that the older established clubs around Scotland could learn from The Renaissance.

Some Facts

Course Type: Links

Par 71 (4 par 5s, 9 par 4s, 5 par 3s)

Distance (yellow) 6121 yards

Moly’s Gross Score 91

Stableford (7/8th allowance) 33

Moly’s scorecard at The Renaissance Club – Gross 91

Category: 5 star (Page 3 of 4)

105. Shiskine. 15th Sep 2020

86. Archerfield – Fidra Links. 12 Sep 2018.

81. St Andrews Old Course. 30 Jul 2018

40. The Renaissance Club. 27th May 2016

Par 71 (4 par 5s, 9 par 4s, 5 par 3s)

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