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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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!
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