{"id":823,"date":"2016-10-21T16:47:26","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T16:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=823"},"modified":"2016-10-21T16:49:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T16:49:43","slug":"55-silverknowes-20th-oct-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=823","title":{"rendered":"55. Silverknowes. 20th Oct 2016."},"content":{"rendered":"

Golf\u00a0of the people, by the people, for the\u00a0people, shall not perish in Scotland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Round \u00a322.70. \u00a0Par 71. \u00a0Value (out of 5) 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

Silverknowes is a small suburb\u00a0in the north-west of Edinburgh on the south bank of the Firth of Forth with views across to Fife. \u00a0The community evolved around the 1930s and the golf course\u00a0opened in 1957 after an almost 30 year gestation.<\/p>\n

\"The

The commanding views of the Forth from the first at Silverknowes<\/p><\/div>\n

In trying to sum up my thoughts about Silverknowes golf course, I couldn’t help thinking about Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote about government being\u00a0“of\/by\/for the people”. Arguably, no other country in the world would provide\u00a0a low cost public golf course on such prime real estate as that on which Silverknowes is laid out.<\/p>\n

\"The

The approach to the difficult 5th with the clubhouse in the background.<\/p><\/div>\n

The course is managed as a pay-for-play facility by Edinburgh Leisure<\/a>,\u00a0a not for profit charity, which manages the leisure activities formerly run by Edinburgh Council, although there is also a separate private members Silverknowes Golf Club. \u00a0Edinburgh Leisure operate 6 golf courses, with\u00a0an annual 7-day membership to play all 6 costing around only \u00a3400 – excellent value.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Arboretum backdrop to the 14th at Silverknowes<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0par 71 parkland layout provides an easy walking course with several wide fairways, so you can open up with the driver, without carrying around a bucket of spare balls. However, you do need to keep a keen eye on your line as the lush and green rough make losing a ball possible when you least expect to.<\/p>\n

The course has undergone several changes in the hole order over the years, but now has a relatively easy opening 4 holes, but toughens up from the 5th, with the stoke index 1 par 4 7th, being the first of a number of very difficult holes. \u00a0Indeed, it’s actually worth playing Silverknowes to try out the Par 4 16th, which is one of the most difficult par 4s I have encountered, and that includes the 17th road hole at St Andrews. \u00a0At over 460 yards, it’s dog leg apex is only about 170-180 yards from the tee, leaving an almost 300 yard second shot – not something many amateurs (or even professionals) have in their bag!<\/p>\n

\"The

The “par 4” 16th at Silverknowes<\/p><\/div>\n

The greens and fairways were in nice condition when I played, although annoyingly the bunkers had no rakes available, which caused myself and my partners on the day to have some interesting bunker lies. \u00a0The tees and tee boxes were also in need of some added care.<\/p>\n

There were however many\u00a0magnificent views across to Fife and the several islands that festoon the Forth, and I would highly recommend playing in the Autumn as the colours of the many variety of trees on several holes make for quite an arboretum.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately I found the trees a few too many times on my back 9, coming back in 52, having gone out in 41 – golf the great leveler! \u00a0\u00a0This course reflects so much of the ethos of golf in Scotland, and it is worth playing, just to understand that alone.<\/p>\n

\"The

The urban backdrop a reflection of Golf in Scotland – The peoples game<\/p><\/div>\n

Some Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Par 71\u00a0(2 par 5s, 13 par 4s, 3 par 3s)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Distance yards: \u00a05942 (yellow)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moly\u2019s Gross Score: 93<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Moly's

Moly’s Silverknowes scorecard – 93 (41 out; 52 back!)<\/p><\/div>\n

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

Golf\u00a0of the people, by the people, for the\u00a0people, shall not perish in Scotland Round \u00a322.70. \u00a0Par 71. \u00a0Value (out of 5) 3 Silverknowes is a small suburb\u00a0in the north-west of Edinburgh on the south bank of the Firth of Forth with views across to Fife. \u00a0The community evolved around the 1930s and the golf course\u00a0opened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,24,44,35,19,29,32,9,54,15,30,38,11,2,18,28,20,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-holes","category-1946-1980","category-3-star-overall-value","category-3-star","category-course-architech","category-course-owned-by","category-course-quality","category-course-type","category-edinburgh-the-lothians","category-holes","category-local-authority","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\/823","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=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}