{"id":1950,"date":"2022-06-09T16:44:33","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T16:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2022-06-20T10:46:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T10:46:39","slug":"134-fereneze-27-mar-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=1950","title":{"rendered":"134. Fereneze. 27 Mar 22."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What a great surprise to find this course, so close to Glasgow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Round \u00a330. Par 71. Course Rating \/ Slope Rating (yellow) 67.7\/123. Value (out of 5) \u2013 4.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Go and play Fer-En-Eeze”, said the helpful professional at Gailes Links in Irvine, when I told him my mission of playing all golf courses. “I’m talking about Scottish golf courses”, said I, thinking his suggestion sounded more Italian than Scottish. “It’s in Barrhead” he said. That, of course, didn’t make it any easier to understand the name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first, but by no means the last, magnificent view towards Glasgow. Here at the second, looking back towards the tee. A difficult short hole at 140 yards, playing at least 1-2 clubs longer.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fereneze has been, to date, the most wonderful surprise of courses I’ve played. A quite remarkable heathland setting with exceptional views over Glasgow and the Clyde valley. Set only a few hundred feet above the tough town of Barrhead, a place more known for products most peed on by UK residents – i.e. Armitage Shanks porcelain!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The start of the moorland holes, the par five third, is also the most difficult hole at Fereneze. Keep your drive left to avoid finding the gorse at this left to right sloping hole (bottom right quadrant highlights).<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The ‘rough’ town claim is well justified; when searching for information on Fereneze Golf Club you keep finding stories like local youths setting fire to the heathland or the greenkeepers spending much of their time cleaning up the cans and bottles from heathland parties. None of that, however, should put you off playing at Fereneze, which provides excellent value.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The lovely par three 7th at Fereneze at 148 yards.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As to the the origin of Fereneze golf club, little is really documented other than on its crest showing it was established in 1904. The club sadly no longer operates a web site. The course is situated on The Fereneze Hills and the origin of the name is reportedly from a Gaelic name “Fernieneese” as it is spelled in some old records\u2014meaning, fern, or alder [reference: A History of the Parish of Neilston].<\/p>\n\n\n

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The drivable par four 9th at Fereneze, where Moly 4 putted from just off the front of the green….ouch!<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Back to the golf course. The Gailes Links professional, was spot on. Fereneze is well worth a visit. After a severely uphill par four opening hole, followed by a tricky par three, your walk to the third tee leaves you in no doubt what you are then facing. A magnificent piece of moorland; dry fairways, gorse and broom in abundance. Thankfully, I played on an exceptionally dry and unseasonably warm March day. I can imagine this being a windswept landscape that takes no golfing prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A more successful hole for Moly, here just missing a birdie at the 320 yard par four 11th hole.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The course is a par 71, but relatively short at 5676 yards. Most of the variety is in the front nine, with the back nine having only one par three (the 14th) and the rest being par fours. That makes for a fairly imbalanced layout; with the last few holes being the most disinteresting. But there is still plenty of variety in the use of blind shots and dog legs, to retain your interest. The course was in excellent condition and playing like a June day, not a March one. For example, I nearly reached the green at the par four 9th (300 yards) and actually reached the green at the 377 yard 18th which was both downhill and downwind.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The severely downhill par four 18th hole at Fereneze, Moly 3 putted for par after driving the green. That typified the day really. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The greens were very fast and the sand excellent. Although generous off the tee, finding the rough or gorse tended to mean double bogie. Stay on the fairway, even if that means taking iron from the tees. I shot 92 for 30 stableford points, and felt I played more solidly than my score suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shop staff were a little cold, and not particularly helpful towards my wife in seeking where the ladies toilets were. It was the only downside of an otherwise memorable golfing day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course<\/strong><\/em> Type<\/em>:<\/strong> Heathlan<\/strong>d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Par 71 <\/em>(3 par 5s, 11 par 4s, 4 par 3s)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distance<\/em>: 5676 (yellow)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moly\u2019s Gross score<\/strong><\/em>: 90<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Moly’s 90 at Fereneze, a course well worth playing.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a great surprise to find this course, so close to Glasgow Round \u00a330. Par 71. Course Rating \/ Slope Rating (yellow) 67.7\/123. Value (out of 5) \u2013 4.5 “Go and play Fer-En-Eeze”, said the helpful professional at Gailes Links in Irvine, when I told him my mission of playing all golf courses. “I’m talking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,23,36,47,19,29,32,9,55,13,15,31,38,2,18,28,20,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-holes","category-1901-1945","category-4-star","category-4-5-star","category-course-architech","category-course-owned-by","category-course-quality","category-course-type","category-greater-glasgow-the-clyde-valley","category-heathland","category-holes","category-members","category-overall-value","category-price-range","category-region","category-unknown","category-when-course-established","category-20-39","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1950"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1980,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions\/1980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}