Great value open parkland course well worth playing – I hope Rowallan Castle’s interesting business plan stands the test of time.
Round £45. Par 72. Course/Slope Rating (yellow) 71.6/129. Value (out of 5) – 4.5
Moly’s score – 91
Insert “parkland” into their claim that Rowallan Castle is “one of Ayrshire’s finest golf courses” and they certainly have a case. This Colin Montgomerie designed course is well worth playing, and a great alternative to the several world class links courses along the nearby Ayrshire coastline.
Opened in 2010, this course is clearly set up, from the blue ‘tips’, to cater for professional play. Moreover, the yellow yardage of 6284, which most visitors will use, still presents a meaty challenge, especially as there are some long walks between green to next tee.
Rowallan Castle, is 4 miles north of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, and has a history dating back to the 13th century. Now owned by Niall Campbell and his family, the recent history is both colourful and ‘cuts to the quick’ for businessman trying to create up market golf developments in Scotland.
Initially planned to be a hotel golf resort, its appears that there has been planning challenges over the last 20 years. What you are left with is an interesting mix; one of the two castles is used as a wedding venue, the other as up market holiday lets. A separate restaurant in a new “orangery” style building, adjoining the “turreted” golf pro-shop, serves both the golf club as well as “fine dining” visitors.
One of the oddities therefore, is that you don’t really have a golfing clubhouse and bar. Golfers use the small bar of the restaurant. Having been to several golf resorts, I’ve never come across anything like Rowallan Castle – I hope it remains profitable, because the course is a great addition to the Scottish golfing landscape.
The course itself is beautifully laid out around the estate, which sees continuing housing development. The best thing for me about the layout was the hole variety, not least because it has five par threes and five par fives; I can’t recall encountering this balance of holes before. There is never more than two par fours in sequence. The ladies card has a par of 75, with eight par fives in total.
The fairways are very open; the greens and their surrounding large and deep bunkers are indeed worthy of national competitions. The course was in very good condition when we played, but let down somewhat by some of the teeing grounds. Several comments I’ve read regularly mention the poor quality drainage, but despite very heavy rain when we played, the course remained fully playable. I suspect drainage improvements have been successful.
The club also has some innovative membership options, including a 9 hole membership, for play on the first 8 holes, plus the 19th, for only £380, against the full membership of £750. Both of these are excellent value. Yes, I did say “19th”, which is a short par three, and I assume added to provide the “9 hole course” option.
As to single green fees, its very competitively priced at £45, with discounts available through golf green fee apps, such as Golfnow. We paid only £25.
I played pretty well, on a course playing its full length, my 91 needed a few good putts. It’s well worth playing at Rowallan Castle.
Modernity and Tradition collide full on at this South Ayrshire Council course, which exposes the real challenges facing Scottish Golfeverywhere – if you become a local councilor, beware the “golf brief”
Round £dynamic – typically £37. Par 71. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 70.1/123. Value (out of 5) – 4
Scotland has a tradition of great municipal courses, some of the world’s best. However, green fees and subscriptions often don’t cover costs, taxpayers paying the deficit, making municipal golf a political hot potato.
‘Golf South Ayrshire’ operates 8 municipal courses; Troon Links (Lochgreen, Fullarton, Darley), Belleisle Park Ayr (Belleisle, Seafield), Ayr Dalmilling, North Carrick Maybole, and South Carrick Girvan. In 2021 the Council’s new golfing strategy, to address a £300,000 annual deficit in the golf budget, resulted in annual 7 day membership to play all 8 courses rising by almost 50% to just over£500. This received extensive press coverage including “South Ayrshire golfers hit out at council’s ‘enforced changes’ to sport”, (Daily Record).
In stark contrast, I recently visited Monteray in California, where a green fee at any one of the three headline ‘public’ Pebble Beach courses (Pebble Beach Links, Spyglass Hill and Spanish Bay Links) would have cost nearly $700. So, the price to play all eight Golf South Ayrshire courses as often as you want in a year, is about the same as a single green fee at a Pebble Beach course.
It’s little wonder, that golf holidaying Americans think golf is still cheap in Scotland, even when paying £300+ for a round at Royal Troon. The clubhouses of municipal Troon (Darley) Links and Open venue Royal Troon are less than a mile, but yet a world, apart.
There are two tiers of access to golf in Scotland. First, courses for the masses, like Troon Darley Links, which is incredibly affordable. Second, courses in the (say) top100 Scottish golf courses for the lucky local residents and/or those often professionally or family connected to existing members. These second category courses, have visitor green fees ranging from £140 to £300+ per round , equivalent to as much as about 25% to 50% of the lucky members’ annual subscriptions. Members of these affluent courses never relinquish membership readily and only wealthy visitors can afford green fees (Kingsbarns rate for 2023 will be £374, or more than £20 per hole).
The truth is, the vast majority of the Scottish golfing public playing “The People’s Game” will never play an Open venue.
Admittedly, the concept of “Scottish Resident” rates have emerged at the very expensive courses, but these are still sometimes up to £200. Scottish Golf have also introduced lotteries for members of all Scottish clubs to play at the great courses, typically at about £300-£400 per 4-ball, but these are limited and only available in the winter season.
Add into the mix the growing use of Golf discounted green fee apps, such as Golfnow, and you have an interesting time for golf pricing. Interestingly, the top clubs never appear on Golfnow, in fact you can probably gauge the wealth of a club by how many tee time are available on these apps.
Strategically, looking at the bigger economic picture in Scotland, which still has well over 600 courses, it has more courses per person, per GDP, than any other country with more than 200 courses. In effect, the economy is not big enough to sustain the cheaper “courses for the masses”. This is one of the reasons behind the number of course closures since 2000.
I played Darley, one of the 3 Troon Links courses, on an unseasonably warm March day. I paid only £16.99 (via Golfnow), against the typical £37 for the summer rate, albeit the Troon Links website does advocate ‘dynamic pricing’, responding, in part, to users using the competing commercial green fee apps.
The course was basically ‘beaten up’, by the volume of winter play. I met a number of people who are based in Glasgow, whose courses are waterlogged in winter, and who make the short trip down the coast.
The greens had held up, but the tees, fairways and bunkers were unkempt. There were very few rakes in the bunkers (the pandemic was ending and no longer an excuse). On advising one of the three people who were chatting in the green fee kiosk of the rakes situation, I got the comment “we thought all the locals would have all had a rake by now!”
Maybe the Ayrshire golfers complaining to the Daily Record, had contextualised their criticism on fees, with the ‘condition of the courses’. And there lies another conundrum – it takes effort and money to produce a course in great playing condition, and increasing fees restricts the volume of demand, making it good for the members. I’m not saying all this is easy to balance.
The Troon Links clubhouse has been a major investment for the Darley, Lochgreen and Fullarton courses.
As to the Darley course itself, between the pretty benign opening two holes and the closing two holes, the holes 3 through 16, represent a decent links layout, on firm turf, several good bunkers, with gorse lined fairways, and some tricky greens. Its a good test of golf, albeit the signage to navigate between holes would be a good investment. The four par 3s are the highlight for me, with the 9th standing up well to many more expensive club par threes; its the really stand out hole at Darley.
I had a mixed round, with birdies at the 4th and 10th, but then 2 triples and 1 quadruple bogie at the 14th. So my gross 91, equated to 32 points off 15. Not bad for me.
It must be said that South Ayrshire Council probably leads the way in the provision of Municipal golf in Scotland. I would advocate more investment on the courses please, even if the price needs to rise a little. A good value course, which could have been really great value with a little more attention.
Incidentally, I decided not to play the main Pebble Beach courses, instead I had a good walk around ‘The Links at Spanish Bay’, and nearly had to pay excess baggage for the about 150 golf balls (All grade A) I found in less than an hour!
I wonder how many visitors drive to Killermont to uncover this true links test?
Round £110. Par 71. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 71.5/130. Value (out of 5) – 3
I probably know more than most about Scotland’s golf courses, plus I also lived in Glasgow; one of my son’s attended school in Killermont. Despite this, I find a geography lesson is needed for ‘Glasgow’ Gailes as I almost ended up back in Glasgow to play at the Gailes Links. That would have been a big mistake!
Glasgow Golf Club was established in 1787 by the wealthy men of Glasgow making it the first club in the West of Scotland, and the ‘9th oldest club in the world’. It retains an exclusive air and its main headquarter club, based in Killermont in Glasgow, is not open for visitors, other than as a members’ guest. In 1892, the club built the Gailes Links course, initially designed by Willie Fernie, just south of the town of Irvine on the North Ayrshire coast. It is the most northerly of the great set of Ayrshire links courses, starting from Turnberry about 30 miles south. Since its inauguration the Gailes Links has been called ‘Glasgow’ Gailes, in part to distinguish itself from Western Gailes which it adjoins. Hence the confusion about its location. The Glasgow Golf Club might hold the record for the biggest distance between two club courses.
The layout as it exists today, required a redesign by Willie Park Junior in 1912. Furthermore, and controversially, the course has undergone a complete transformation in the last few years, having uprooted tens of thousands of trees. I got mixed feedback from some members about the ‘carnage’ of the trees, which I understand is the reason that the Gailes Links course has been removed from the Open Qualifying rota.
One of the members said the resulting treeless course is much easier, as it has become a wide open links course. On at least two occasions I played from where trees would have been, likely saving me 4 shots. The courses main defense is now through clever and some severe bunkering – other than the westerly prevailing wind of course! This bunkering became sharply evident to me when, after a sound opening 5 holes, being called through by a 4 ball grouping, who then witnessed my 6, including 4 bunker shots, at a short par 3!
My six at the 6th, provides a lesson how to score well at Gailes. Study the course guide and stay away from the bunkers, some of which are out of sight. I actually played well for my gross 88, albeit the course was playing short due to the very dry March weather. Along with no wind and sunny weather it felt more like the Algarve for the time of year.
The course is long at over 6300 yards from the yellow tees, and comprises a zig-zagged ‘north/south out and back’ layout, with about 4 transverse holes. The resulting layout provides a great many subtle changes of direction, which must be very challenging when the wind gets up.
Without the trees, being wayward off the tees is not penalised, especially as there is only one ‘blind’ tee shot (par four 7th), and only one ‘blind’ approach, at the 14th, one of only two par 5s on the course. Along with only three par 3s, this makes the main challenge to score well, being your long iron/hybrid game being up to the challenge of the several par 4s over 400 yards. The resulting par is 71, although the yellow course rating is 71.5, with white being one more.
On the day I played, several of the bunkers were GUR, although not the ones I found at the 6th (my only bunkers of the day). I felt the winter rate I paid of £60 a little steep, with a few winter tees still in play, and despite the dry weather there was surprising indications of muddy locations – I wondered if that was a legacy of the tree removal, and impact on the drainage?
The local pro “Arthur” was really friendly and very welcoming, and therefore worth a mention.
If you get lucky with a winter rate in dry conditions, its fairish value, but the main fee of £110 for a mid week summer round, is not great value and getting out of range of affordability for most.
A course to play to help appreciate “Golf; from a new angle”
Round £95. Par 72. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 71.9/125. Value (out of 5) – 3.5
The Ayrshire coast is home to some of the finest golf Scotland has to offer. Barrassie used to be a village in its own right, but is now considered part of the town of Troon. Ironically, it was the ‘long’ distance from Troon golf course, that caused the locals of Barrassie to establish a course in 1894, designed by the Prestwick professional, John Allan.
It was in the early 1930s that a new 18 holes course was designed by Matthew M Monie, who was an author who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Theodore Moone’. As for the course in play today, it comprises nine holes from Moone’s 1930s design and nine new holes built in 1997. Nine of Moone’s original holes are retained as a 9 hole course called ‘Hillhouse’.
Search for Moone on the internet and you will be presented with opportunities to buy his book, “Golf from a New Angle”, based around fictional letters about the fundamentals of golf. Look a little deeper and his scientific approach to golf, may have been way ahead of his time – I suspect Bryson DeChambeau may be a fan.
Although no sea is in sight, this is unquestionably a classic links course of a high standard. Playing at almost 6500 yards from the yellow tees, and with several dog leg holes and semi-blind approaches, this is also a course with plenty of guile. It was handy that I played in a group that included a long term member, who was on hand to offer advice when needed.
Nevertheless, I suspect you need to play Barrassie a great many times to appreciate which sides of the greens to play into, as there are often ‘hidden’ gullies and slopes which make getting up and down impossible for all, but the most gifted players, if you are “short sided”. The club has a delightful video on it’s website here – once viewed, it is clear why Barrassie has hosted many top amateur competitions and is also an Open Final Qualifying venue.
The course was in magnificent condition for a mid March day, with the fairways and greens playing as if it were already June. The bunker conditioning was the only thing I would criticise, but even that was likely down to the legacy of the pandemic which was just easing off.
We all played about the same with respect to our handicaps and my partner, Brian, and I, halved a closely fought 4BBB game against Douglas and Stephen, having come back from 3 down (well played Brian!). It is always nice for a ‘friendly matchplay’ (although an oxymoron for some) to be in the balance until the very last putt is holed.
One thing about Barrassie worth mentioning; the winter golf rate of £45 is brilliant value, especially when compared with the £95 summer fee, an amount reflecting the significant recent price growth I’ve witnessed across Scotland. I think this has been driven by both the increased demand for golf due to the pandemic and also the ongoing tussle between clubs’ loyalty to their membership versus serving the needs of the peripatetic golfer, for whom membership is not desired. The latter conflict is a matter of fierce debate within the Scottish Golf Union organisation.
I once heard the great football manager Bill Shankly describing a Stallworth player as “honest” meaning they always gave their all and could be completely relied upon. That’s how I felt when playing Barrassie – it is an “honest” links golf course, if such a thing is possible.