{"id":848,"date":"2016-12-03T14:43:40","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T14:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=848"},"modified":"2016-12-03T14:43:40","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T14:43:40","slug":"57-stonehaven-1st-dec-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=848","title":{"rendered":"57. Stonehaven. 1st Dec 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

A curate’s egg of a course with great views and some excellent par 3s\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Round \u00a337. \u00a0Par 66. \u00a0Value\u00a0(out of 5) 2.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stonehaven golf course in Aberdeenshire sits atop a\u00a0cliff on land called the Braes of Cowie just to the north of the seaside\u00a0town of Stonehaven. \u00a0The cliff top vantage provides for some outstanding views of the coastline, North sea and the town.<\/p>\n

\"The

The open 1st hole at Stonehaven.<\/p><\/div>\n

The course, founded in 1888, has\u00a0a convoluted architecture influenced by 2 distinct lines; \u00a0the east coast train line which goes directly through the course and\u00a0the Highland Fault line (dividing Scotland from east to west). \u00a0The Fault Line forms “The Gully” feature which dominates\u00a0play on holes 13 and 15 where it has to be carried.<\/p>\n

\"3rd

3rd green at Stonehave looking south towards the town.<\/p><\/div>\n

The course is played on arable land and to the east of the train line, with 14 holes, it has no trees, whereas the 4 holes on the west of the train line has trees; \u00a0the overall course feels typically parkland, with pretty generous fairways. \u00a0 On the east of the line, the major hazards are the cliff tops and the gully, which collectively impact about 6 holes, and these are the real challenge here. \u00a0The remaining holes are fairly bland, with only few fairway bunkers.<\/p>\n

\"The

The tough mid-iron par 3 7th, with green beside the cliff!<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the major design work was completed by 1897, the course is a designated James Braid “design”, as he and Archie Simpson, the Royal Aberdeen professional, are deemed to have planned improvements to the course, although I couldn’t find out what they are. \u00a0An interesting design note, is the presence of “Hitler’s bunker” a crater hole between the first and second fairways, caused by, you’ve guessed it, a bomb during WWII.<\/p>\n

\"8th

8th at Stonehaven with Winter sun<\/p><\/div>\n

The course is around 5000 yards, so distance is not the issue here. \u00a0The feature holes are those where the cliffs and gully are in play. \u00a0In particular the mid to long iron par 3 7th hole, requires a cool head to go to the heart of the green, and the long par 13th at 220 yards uphill over “The Gully” will need driver for all bar the long hitters. \u00a0Note these were played as holes 14th and 5th on the winter card (see below).<\/p>\n

Overall, play to keep the ball away from the cliffs and you’ll be rewarded. \u00a0I did so, but my putting let me down on the day, although the greens were in excellent condition for the time of year. \u00a0In fact the course was in all round good condition.<\/p>\n

\"18th

The typically small 18th green with church ruin and graveyard…perhaps an apt epitaph for some rounds here!<\/p><\/div>\n

My only gripe with Stonehaven was how the website oversells the course as “The best value golf in the North-East of Scotland”. \u00a0It is a really nice golf course, with great views, and is worth playing, but this self-declared “value” is a exaggeration in my opinion, which is a shame.<\/p>\n

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

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

Par 66 (1 par 5, 10\u00a0par 4s, 7\u00a0par 3s)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Distance yards: \u00a04458<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moly\u2019s Gross Score:\u00a086<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Moly's

Moly’s Stonehaven scorecard, 86 – note this is the winter card, which has a different layout.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A curate’s egg of a course with great views and some excellent par 3s\u00a0 Round \u00a337. \u00a0Par 66. \u00a0Value\u00a0(out of 5) 2.5 Stonehaven golf course in Aberdeenshire sits atop a\u00a0cliff on land called the Braes of Cowie just to the north of the seaside\u00a0town of Stonehaven. \u00a0The cliff top vantage provides for some outstanding views […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,43,35,49,92,19,29,32,9,15,27,31,38,11,2,18,20,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-holes","category-1851-1900","category-2-5-star","category-3-star","category-aberdeen-city-and-shire","category-archie-simpson","category-course-architech","category-course-owned-by","category-course-quality","category-course-type","category-holes","category-james-braid","category-members","category-overall-value","category-parkland","category-price-range","category-region","category-when-course-established","category-20-39","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","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=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}