Tough South Lanarkshire Council course in perennial danger of closing

Value – 4/5

Hollandbush Golf Club near Lesmahagow was founded in 1955 as a 9 hole course, later extended to 18 in 1963. Web searching “Hollandbush GC future” though will return articles about council funding woes; it’s highly likely this blog becomes redundant in future after the course closes. This will be a great shame, as Hollandbush represents a great example of a Scottish municipal course.

The free course planner, a surprising addition at this municipal course, worth playing

South Lanarkshire council operates 6 courses, in addition to Hollandbush, the other 18 holes layouts are Biggar, Langlands and Torrance House, plus two nine hole courses of Larkhall and Strathclyde Country Park.

The 17th at Hollandbush, a drivable par four, but with well positioned protective ditches

Hollandbush also has an independent golf club, providing members with competition and social benefits. This is a common feature of municipal courses in Scotland. This ‘club’ costs £115 annually.

The well maintained ditches shown here at the difficult par 4 12th hole.

Golf pricing is interesting. Annual golf membership for one of South Lanarkshire’s 18 hole municipals is £475, but for just £32 more you can play all 6 courses for £508. If you can make sense of that price differential, good luck! A green fee in peak season is £25, but the winter senior rate I paid was only £9, incredible value.

The 14th at Hollandbush, with one of the relatively few bunkers at this course.

The course is well designed; with constant changes of direction, the undulating fairways, regularly interspersed with well maintained ditches, provide a tough challenge. The slope rating of 129 from the yellow tees testifies to that, albeit it was a fairly generous course from the tee.

The greens were good at this municipal course, here seen at the 10th hole, a long par 3, one of the best holes on the course.

The course was well presented, especially given the wet conditions. I saw no-one else playing and the car park had only one other car, possibly owned by the clubhouse attendant. I think the council could reasonably consider “honesty” box payment to reduce its costs.

The second was one of several card wreckers at this well designed golf course.

I played pretty well, scoring 88, but with 4 blobs. I actually beat the course ‘1 up’, something which is a good measure of your game,

As to the name ‘Hollandbush’ it remains a mystery for me despite my efforts to find it’s origin.

It’s worth playing Hollandbush, a course I hope continues operating.

Price £25.

Discount: Senior winter rate. £9

Course Type: Parkland

Par 70 (1 par 5, 14 par 4s, 3 par 3s)

Distance: 5552 (yellow)

Course Rating / Slope Rating (yellow) 67.8/129.

Moly’s Gross score: 88