{"id":771,"date":"2016-09-16T13:27:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T13:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2016-09-16T17:42:52","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T17:42:52","slug":"51-ballindalloch-castle-11th-sep-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=771","title":{"rendered":"51. Ballindalloch Castle. 11th Sep 2016."},"content":{"rendered":"

Creatively ambitious Highland Estate course with single malt 19th hole<\/strong><\/p>\n

Round \u00a315(9)\/\u00a325(18). Par 36(72). \u00a0Value (out of 5) 4.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ballindalloch Castle golf course is\u00a014 miles north east of Grantown on Spey and sits alongside\u00a0the River Avon not far from\u00a0it’s confluence with the River Spey. \u00a0The Castle has been the home of the Macpherson-Grant family since it was finished in 1546; the golf course is a little younger, having been designed by 2 of the more prestigious designers around, Donald Steel and Tom MacKenzie, in 2002-3. \u00a0They obviously work well together, having also designed the well regarded\u00a0Carnegie layout at Skibo Castle – maybe they just like castles?<\/p>\n

\"Approach

Approach to the 1st (Par 5) or 10th (Par 4) – a difficult green to reach in regulation.<\/p><\/div>\n

The resulting golf course, with\u00a0views of \u00a0hills and birch woods, is a rather marvelous and pleasantly surprising layout at 6417 yards from the white tees. \u00a0Although a “9 hole” course, there are 18 tees, with many of the tee combinations significantly altering the front and back 9s – I would strongly recommend playing 18 holes to appreciate\u00a0the architectural cleverness of this Steel and MacKenzie design.<\/p>\n

\"The

The magnificent 4th \/ 13th at Ballindalloch Castle – here showing the 2nd shot view.<\/p><\/div>\n

The effect of the different tees, is\u00a0exemplified straight away with the 1st playing as a par 5 at 488 yards, but the 10th as a par 4 at 405 yards – however, the westerly prevailing wind make both\u00a0holes very difficult. \u00a0 The tees at the 5th\/14th are 100 yards apart, with the 14th playing as a near 90 degree dog leg right. \u00a0Arguably most stark is the par 3 7th\/16th, where I suspect most players need at least a rescue club on the 7th, but only a wedge on 16th; the holes are 70 yards different in length.<\/p>\n

\"The

The 7th\/16th green (here showing the 16th tee view)<\/p><\/div>\n

As I played around this very ambitious project for a highland estate, I was struck with how fitting the course adds to\u00a0the colourful history of the castle, which is the original home of the Black Watch, the oldest of the Highland regiments, and also the place where\u00a0Captain W.E. Johns wrote many of his Biggles stories.<\/p>\n

\"View

View from behind the 8th\/17th green at Ballindalloch<\/p><\/div>\n

The course was in excellent condition when I played, which I suspect might be helped by\u00a0the relatively small number of members and players the course attracts. \u00a0I guess\u00a0it’s because not many people want to travel too far “just for 9 holes”. \u00a0I think they are making a big mistake – this must be one of the best 9 hole courses in Scotland, and it is very competitively priced against its Strathspey and Baddenoch neighbours.<\/p>\n

\"The

The 12th tee at Ballindalloch<\/p><\/div>\n

On the day, I played pretty poorly, scoring 103 for 23 points, although I was only 1 over for the 4 par 3s.<\/p>\n

Finally, there is plenty to keep non golfing family members busy on the estate, which\u00a0has also recently opened a whisky distillery right next door to the golf course, again reinforcing this highland estate’s ambition.<\/p>\n

I highly recommend playing at Ballindalloch Castle.<\/p>\n

Some Fact<\/strong>s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Course<\/strong><\/em> Type<\/em>:\u00a0Highland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Par 72<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(4 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 4 par 3s)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Distance Yards<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a06170 (yellow)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moly\u2019s Gross Score<\/strong>: 103<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Moly's

Moly’s Ballindalloch scorecard – 103, for 23 points!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creatively ambitious Highland Estate course with single malt 19th hole Round \u00a315(9)\/\u00a325(18). Par 36(72). \u00a0Value (out of 5) 4.\u00a0 Ballindalloch Castle golf course is\u00a014 miles north east of Grantown on Spey and sits alongside\u00a0the River Avon not far from\u00a0it’s confluence with the River Spey. \u00a0The Castle has been the home of the Macpherson-Grant family since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,36,16,65,19,29,32,9,75,14,15,38,2,18,25,56,88,3,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-5-star","category-4-star","category-9-holes","category-commercial","category-course-architech","category-course-owned-by","category-course-quality","category-course-type","category-donald-steel","category-highland","category-holes","category-overall-value","category-price-range","category-region","category-since-2000","category-the-highlands","category-tom-mackenzie","category-under-20","category-when-course-established","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","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=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":789,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}