{"id":2595,"date":"2023-07-19T11:02:40","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T11:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=2595"},"modified":"2023-11-03T15:01:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T15:01:04","slug":"167-uphall-15-oct-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=2595","title":{"rendered":"167. Uphall. 15 Oct 22."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quirky <\/strong>opening fairway at club with “progressive”<\/strong> ambitions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Value for Money (out of 5) \u2013 4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a friendly Starter briefed me, I was pre-occupied by two groups of golfers only 40 yards in front of the first tee – one group on the 16th tee the other on the 2nd green. As a wayward driver, I was trying to remember if I had paid my annual golf insurance. His summarised message had been, “take great care!”.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The good conditioning of Uphall seen from the 1st tee. It’s a hazardous area, with both teeing ground and greens in immediate view – take great care.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Uphall’s first and second holes share a fairway with a green at either end, which I reasoned may have been okay at the turn of the 19th century, when balls didn’t travel so far and times were less litigious. I kept musing on this somewhat dangerous layout, my feelings later reinforced when I met a long standing member who told me “someone’s going to get seriously hurt one day”. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The par 3 third hole – Uphall’s best hole in my opinion, where one has to avoid the Brox Burn.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The golf course (in the village of the same name) sits either side of the A899 with holes 1 to 3, and 15 to 18 on the north side, and holes 4 through 14 on the south. It is near Junction 3 of the M8, and therefore very accessible from any direction. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Autumn colour on display into the trickily placed 5th green, a short par 4.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This Central Scotland location, coupled with the interesting course layout makes for a good society venue, albeit at the time of writing the club are yet to rebuild the clubhouse which was sadly burnt down during the Covid Pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The mature Uphall parkland on view here as Fran drives at the tough par four 8th hole.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Much of the course lies amongst mature parkland, once part of the Houstoun House Estate. The estate ‘castle’, dating back to 1598, is now a MacDonald Hotel, and sits behind the 4th, 5th and 6th holes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At just 5366 yards from the yellow tees, with a slope rating of 113, I should have been challenging 80, whereas I didn’t break 100 in the wet and windy autumnal conditions. My score wasn’t helped by losing 3 balls in the leaves. It was very picturesque though with the trees in good colour.
<\/p>\n\n\n

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The par three 16th, “burn”, where good club selection is needed at this 95 yard hole (yellow).<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

With four par threes and only one par five, the courses variety was aided by a good variety of par fours, from the drivable downhill second hole of 293 yards, to the stroke index 1, 14th at over 400 yards. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Moly’s short approach into the par five 11th at Uphall.<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The course was in decent condition, with good turf, and is likely a delight on a dry Summer day. I paid only \u00a318 through golfnow.com, a sizable discount on the \u00a330 list price. Overall, I give this 4 out of 5 for value, and worth checking out. Just take great care on the first tee shot.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The short dog leg right par four 17th hole at only 240 yards is a good birdie chance, but be mindful not to run out of fairway like Moly did.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It’s worth noting the Club’s commitment to junior golfers, with its website declaring “a strong focus on the development of our Junior players”, well done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facts:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Round List Price \u00a325.<\/strong> Actual Paid \u00a318 using Golfnow.com <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course\/Slope Rating (yellow) 65.9\/113. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course<\/strong><\/em> Type<\/em>:<\/strong> Parkland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Par 69 <\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>(1 par 5s, 13 par 4s, 4 par 3s)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distance<\/em> (yellow): 5366 yards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Moly’s scorecard – high winds didn’t help, but it was a poor day.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quirky opening fairway at club with “progressive” ambitions. Value for Money (out of 5) \u2013 4 As a friendly Starter briefed me, I was pre-occupied by two groups of golfers only 40 yards in front of the first tee – one group on the 16th tee the other on the 2nd green. As a wayward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,35,46,19,29,32,9,132,54,133,15,31,38,11,2,18,28,20,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-holes","category-1851-1900","category-3-star","category-4-star-overall-value","category-course-architech","category-course-owned-by","category-course-quality","category-course-type","category-discounts","category-edinburgh-the-lothians","category-golfnow","category-holes","category-members","category-overall-value","category-parkland","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\/2595","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=2595"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2647,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2595\/revisions\/2647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}