Great value and wide open links course is a means to experience, or more accurately feel like, history
Round £45. Par 70. Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 68.3/124. Value (out of 5) – 4
Wigtownshire County golf course, set beside Luce Bay on the west coast of Dumfries and Galloway, will, I suspect, sharply divide opinion. This is links golf at its most basic, which I really like.
It’s an open course, with many wide fairways, so several of the holes aren’t readily framed to the eye. It’s also made up of 14 par fours, with only 1 par five and 3 par 3s; to some this likely lacks the desired variety of holes.
On the other hand, many golfers who prefer the natural feel of what courses were historically like, might love Wigtownshire County; however, to that extent, the course is also a bit of a façade. It was a 9 hole course (current holes 1 to 4 and 14 through18) when designed in 1894 by Charlie Hunter, who also designed Machrihanish and Royal Troon, so he has has great pedigree. It was only extended to 18 holes as recently as 1987, by designer Gordon Cunningham, whose work is really brilliant in that you really feel like you’re playing a joined-up 18 holes , unchanged for 100 years.
Given the open aspect of the design and its coastal location, weather is going to dominate your experience here. I played in very high winds, with gusts up to 40mph, didn’t break 100, and racked up 4 triple bogies or worse. I suspect the wide fairways and relatively open approaches as well, would see very low scoring in benign conditions. Weather notwithstanding, the would be a great society day out. Good greens, no impossible challenges, 2 nice coastal holes and generally good course conditions.
If you’re a lover of links golf and like the historic feel of a basic layout, it’s worth going out of your way to play here, especially as the price represents excellent value and great natural drainage guarantees all year round golf.
Facts:
Course Type: Links
Par 70 (1 par 5, 14 par 4s, 3 par 3s)
Distance: 5829
Moly’s Gross score: 102
