Scotland Golf Bible

A guide to green fee value for money

Category: The Scottish Borders (Page 1 of 2)

155. Hirsel. 12 July 22.

December 14, 2022 /

Missed opportunity as the “First and Last” in Scotland.

Round £32. Par 70. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 68.8/124. Value (out of 5) – 3

Moly’s Score – 98

How many fuel stations or pubs on borders proclaim “First and Last”? Like many people, I suspect, I had no idea exactly where Hirsel Golf Club was. Conversely, ask Scots where Coldstream is and most would know the border town famed for the Coldstream Guards, the regiment formed in 1650 making it the oldest continuous serving unit of the British Army.

The picturesque 10th hole at only 93 yards.

Hirsel Golf club, sits on the Hirsel Estate in Coldstream, the home of the son of the former Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home. A 9 hole course was designed and built by members in 1948, after the original course in Coldstream, called Lennel Golf Club, founded 1879, fell into some disrepair, a story covered in the website Forgotten Links.

The interweaving layout is evident, with the first green on show here from the 2nd tee.

Hirsel GC remained a 9 hole course until extended to 18 in 1996. The resulting layout is a rather jumbled affair, with a number of tee/green cross overs, which must make Open events a potentially hazardous affair. There is also a significant range of hole design quality, which comes I suspect from the extension. I find the club’s website banner headline “Arguably one of Scotland’s best kept secrets” true in the sense that it’s “unknown”, but the inference of it being a “Hidden Gem” is not what I found.

The very disappointing bunkers on show, despite the rakes fully in use, here at the difficult 5th hole, a 369 yard par four.

Despite the main Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns being over, I found a course in poor condition, with some bunkers appearing to imitate 19th century photos featuring Old Tom Morris himself. Nevertheless, with perhaps half dozen really good holes, I can see why it is a popular society day out, especially with the substantial club house overlooking the final green.

The tough par three 7th, with “Leet Water” in play for one of the few times.

It does indeed have some tricky holes, notably the tough uphill par 3 third, played with a blind tee shot at well over 200 yards; it will play as a par four for most. The fairways are generous but miss them and card wrecking is the order of the day, as there are OOB on more than half the holes. As a testimony, I amassed 15 over par on only 3 holes, including a 10 on the 363 yard par four 17th.

The stroke index 2, ninth hole, a long par four, the longest hole on the front nine, with both par fives coming after the turn.

Despite several holes being routed around “Leet Water”, a tributary of the Tweed, the river doesn’t come into play much. The best aspect of the course was the variety in hole lengths, the use of dog legs (on 5 holes) and the use of quite small greens often sloping front to back. Collectively the slope rating of 124 felt spot on for me.

The par 5 18th hole, played downhill it gives a good birdie chance to finish.

At only £32 for a round, with discounts on offer though Golfnow (we paid only £22) it’s okay value, but with a bit of work, especially to the bunkers, it would be really worth playing at that price point.

As to the course name, here’s a suggestion. “Coldstream Golf Club – The First and Last in Scotland”. That would remove the secrecy.

Facts:

Course Type: Parkland

Par 70  (2 par 5s, 12 par 4s, 4 par 3s)

Distance (yellow): 5820 yards

Moly’s Gross score: 98

Moly’s 29 points despite his 98 including 15 over collectively on holes 5, 13 and 17. Golf!

124. Duns. 21 Sep 2021.

March 8, 2022 /

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.

Course Type: Parkland

Par 70 (3 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 5 par 3s)

Distance: 5944

Moly’s Gross score: 90

A solid round of 90 on this decent Duns course

122. Eyemouth. 23rd June 2021.

March 1, 2022 /

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

100. Roxburghe. 1st Feb 2020.

April 28, 2020 /

Well worth a detour to play this very well designed course

Round £60. Par 72. Value (out of 5) – 4.5

Hotel Schloss Roxburghe, operated by the Berlin based 18.12 Group, is not far from Kelso in the Scottish Borders. It was formerly owned as a hotel by the Duke of Roxburghe, one of the wealthiest UK landowners. The golf course, on the hotel grounds, is called Schloss Roxburghe Golf and it was opened in 1997; at over 7100 yards from the championship blue tees, it was clearly designed by Dave Thomas (1934 – 2013) with the intention of hosting professional tournaments.

Moly driving at the signature “Viaduct” 14th hole at ‘The Roxburghe’

With top quality hotel facilities, this is a great short golfing break destination, but with limited high quality golf in the area, 1 or 2 nights is more than enough for just golf.

Playing in a strong wind on a chilly 1st February, the course was, not surprisingly, very quiet! Even from the yellow tees, it was well over 6500 yards, and I struggled to a 103 despite having been only 2 over after 5 holes! This poor display was not helped by me trying to carry my own clubs.

The aesthetic par 4 2nd tee, either a straight forward slight dog leg left, or the direct “tiger line” across the tree line. A typically good Dave Thomas hole.

Although not scoring well, it was very enjoyable due to the great design; Thomas’ philosophy states “I believe all golfers must be presented with a visual challenge and the opportunity to determine a strategy for playing the course depending upon individual ability.” There were indeed many holes very pleasing on the eye.

The magnificent 11th, with superbly placed bunkers for the stronger player.

Furthermore, with front and back nines each with two par 3s and two par 5s, this classic layout had great variety from hole to hole. Throw in the superb bunkering, nice use of water hazards, sculped with mature trees, all in all this was great golfing value. Indeed, with offers available on golfnow.com this represents some of the best golfing value around.

The 13th at The Roxburghe, the longest of the 4 par 3s, take 2 more clubs than you think to clear the water with a long green to receive it.

The course was in very good condition, especially for an early February day. The greens were fully playable with no winter greens in sight, a great testimony to the build quality and the greenkeeping.

The approach to the par 4 17th hole, with very reasonably priced houses overlooking the course.

The are many great holes at The Roxburgh. Although the 14th “viaduct” hole gains all the plaudits that’s only really for the view. The 10th, stoke index 1, is a magnificent dog leg right par 4, and the run of holes from 10th through 14th, encapsulate the variety and strength of Thomas’ design.

I would strongly recommend a short break at Schloss Roxburgh, but I would suggest to play it twice, it was just one of those courses that you need to play more than once to fully appreciate I guess. It was a nice way to bring up my 100th blog on my journey.

Facts:

Course Type: Parkland

Par 72 (4 par 5, 10 par 4s, 4 par 3s)

Distance: 6546

Moly’s Gross score: 103

Moly’s scorecard, 103, which was a struggle in high winds.
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