Scotland Golf Bible

A guide to green fee value for money

Category: 9 holes (Page 5 of 13)

104. Dalbeattie. 14th Sep 2020.

July 6, 2021 /

A delightful and great value “crowd funded” course

Round £10 (9 holes). Par 34. Value (out of 5) – 5

I was glad to meet the greenkeeper half way round my game at Dalbeattie, as I’d called him several unrepeatable names since the 2nd green, where I had hit two great shots to the green and walked off with a 9. I didn’t technically 7 putt, since I had putted off the green at least twice.

“These pin positions are a joke, they are ridiculous!”. “Yes, I agree”, said the very affable greenkeeper, “we held a charity texas scramble yesterday and were told to make the pins impossible”. “Ah, well, they certainly are that!”.

So my 50 for 9 holes, or 16 over par, at least has a decent excuse for once.

Difficult short opening hole at Dalbeattie – which had the first of many impossible pin positions.

In addition to the ‘difficult’ pin positions, the drive into the car park, had also not boded well. The sat nav took us through a small wood on a dirt track, which without our 4 wheel drive we may not have made it. Apparently the locals park on the streets surrounding the 9th green.

Beautifully contoured 5th fairway at Dalbeattie

Having got my grumbles out of the way, lets get to the point. This is about as good value golf you can buy and also a good data point in the history of golf development in Scotland. The club was founded in 1894, around the time when golf was becoming accessible to holiday makers due to the expansion of the railways. The club has a delightful, albeit short, history page on its web site here. In summary, the elder fathers of the area raised money through a bizarre to ensure Dalbeattie golf club was an attractive venue; in effect it was “crowd funded”.

Shorts aren’t always the order of the day in September at Dalbeattie – Moly shown here driving at the short par four 6th hole

Despite some excellent information on the club’s web site, there is no detail of the designer of this 9 hole layout. I suspect it was an experienced golf course architect as there is some lovely design, very both pleasing on the eye; the views are wide ranging along the Urr valley and south to the Lake district.

The 7th at Dalbeattie, the nicest framed hole on this course in Moly’s opinion

In particular, there is great framing on many of the holes, with the 5th and 7th holes vying for the signature hole. The 4th, a par 4 dog leg right hole, is also very difficult, with the window to drive intoquite narrow.

The course was in lovely condition when we played on a beautiful September “Indian Summer” day. Just the tonic, before heading off the day after towards the mystical golfing island of Arran.

Very worth playing at Dalbeattie.

Facts:

Course Type: Parkland

Par 34 (7 par 4s, 2 par 3s)

Distance: 2,733

Moly’s Gross score: 50

Moly’s Dalbeattie scorecard – a pretty poor 50 on this nice course
October 29, 2020 /

This incredibly fun 9 hole course is like playing in Gordon’s Dream

Round £10. Par 31. Value (out of 5) – 5

Covesea, pronounced “Cowsea” by the locals, is a wonderful surprise. Built by Gordon Clarke in 2010 pretty much on his own and still maintained by him, Covesea costs £10 for 9 holes or £15 for the day. It used to have a cafe called the Tee Shack, which unfortunately burnt down in 2014. Overall, it feels like playing in someone’s dream.

The 5th green with the wonderful view back towards the Covesea Skerries Lighthouse

The course sits on the Moray coastline between the towns of Lossiemouth and Hopeman, set in a cove just west of the Covesea Skerries lighthouse. It is a magnificent setting for a golf course and my first thought on seeing it, was why had this piece of land never been developed as a course during the heyday of Victorian golf course building – unfortunately I wasn’t able to track down an answer, but there must be one! For those familiar with Scottish golf, Covesea has many resemblances with Cullen (1908), Anstruther (1890) and Shiskine (1896).

The dramatic and difficult tee shot at the 8th, with the sandstone structures enveloping the hole.

With it being basically a “one man band” operation, Gordon’s green keeping duties concentrate on the greens and their surrounds; this means the tees and fairways are, in places, very poor. However, if you can see past that, the condition of the greens are really good and must be the best in Scotland with a fee of “up to £10”.

The course comprises 5 par 3s and 4 par 4s, and several of these are very challenging holes.

The 2nd at Covesea, with a “Good, Bad and Ugly” feel – a very difficult pin to find.

In particular, the 5th through 8th, are dominated by the craggy rock formations and offer a lovely stretch of golf, with spectacular views from the 5th green and 6th tee.

The 8th green, clearly showing the variance between the fantastic greens and less well kept surrounds.

Overall, this is a brilliant “Value for Money”, and what a legacy for Gordon to have built. With good tees and fairways, I just wonder what the fees could be?

I played really well, other than a mess on the 2nd where I took 5 shots to get down from the left hand bunker – the resulting 7 dominating my overall score of 38, seven over par.

Facts:

Course Type: Links

Par 31 (4 par 4s, 5 par 3s)

Distance: 2000

Moly’s Gross score: 37

Moly’s Covesea Scorecard – 38, 7 over

97. Blair Atholl. 7th July 2019.

March 30, 2020 /

Nine hole course to boost your confidence

Round £15.   Par 35.  Value (out of 5) – 3.5

If web searching for Blair Atholl golf club, don’t confuse this Perthshire course with the Blair Atholl Estate golf course in South Africa, built by Gary Player, and a monster of some 8300 yards – yes, that was correct, 8300 yards!

The 438 yard par 4 opening hole at Blair Atholl

Gary Player’s estate actually takes its name from the original Blair Atholl, which is just off the A9 and, since 2008, included within the boundary of the Cairngorms National Park. The original Blair Atholl is also home to a lovely little 9 hole course, which is an easy walking affair of around 3000 yards, or 6000 yards for the 18 holes, not short by any means.

Given its Highland location this course is soft underfoot and was very green during the July time I played here. Surrounded by tranquil ‘highland’ scenery this must be very beautiful to play during the Autumn.

The very short 4th hole at Blair Atholl, at only 96 yards, but well bunkered

With the rough being quite receptive and not too penalising, this is a course which can yield good results – the greens were also receptive and very true. I can well understand why this is a well played course by the tourist community – especially given the restaurant “The Tulach” in the small clubhouse, which also attracts non golfers as well.

The course was established in 1896, and mysteriously on some web sites, is cited as being designed by James Braid, but I’m afraid it does not appear on the list of James Braid courses as kept by the James Braid society. I would appreciate if anyone can advise on the architect.

The course was in good condition when I played, and in particular the teeing grounds had been well prepared.

The tricky approach shot over water at the Stoke Index 1, par 4, 7th hole.

After a long par 4 to open, but played ‘down’ from a plateaued tee next to the clubhouse, the next 4 holes, all relatively short, are where the score is gained on this course. If you avoid the water hazards, which are in play on 3 holes and you should play short off the tee, most notably at the 7th (par 4 SI 1), then this course can be a good opportunity to boost your confidence. After the 7th, with the second shot being over water, the par 5 9th hole also needs great care with the second or 3rd shot (depending on your strategy) needing to avoid some mature trees. Also double check the whereabouts of the pin on the 9th, which shares a double green with the 3rd.

The demanding par 5 9th at Blair Atholl

I indeed kept out of the water hazards and my round of 42, for 20 stableford points, was my best play all season.

This is a nice course and worth playing

Facts:

Course Type: Parkland

Par 35 (1 par 5, 6 par 4s, 2 par 3s)

Distance: 2739

Moly’s Gross score: 42

Moly’s scorecard, 7 over par 42, for 20 points.

96. Craigieknowes. 19th June 2019.

March 23, 2020 /

Playing 150 years ago might have felt like this

Round £7.   Par 27.  Value (out of 5) – 3

This course is really worth playing, but its assessed ‘value’ of 3 does not necessarily mean this course is good or even average quality; it’s not. Craigieknowes is cheap at less than £10. The greens were terrible when I played – little more than well mowed lawn. The teeing grounds don’t actually exist, they are just areas of the fairway with a tee marker. There are no bunkers – or if there were I can’t remember any.

Craigieknowes Facebook Page focuses on the real attraction – Cake!

Craigieknowes golf course, near Kippford in Dumfries and Galloway, is really worth playing, for no other reason than it is what I imagine golf would have been like in the late Victorian era, when golf courses were sprouting up all over Scotland.

Fran on the 3rd green – she played much better than me on the day.

It’s a 9 hole par 3 ‘highland’ course against the beautiful and peaceful backdrop of South West Scotland which still exists I suspect from the income generated during the Summer months in this holiday park of Scotland. The golf course seems to be secondary to the delightful tea room, which is the centrepiece of the facebook page of the course. The fact that Craigieknowes doesn’t even have its own proper website is also a measure of its status.

Unfortunately, despite some research I couldn’t find any meaningful history of the course.

The difficult 4th, take at least one club longer, for the 156 yard hole

Although being in poor condition, there are some meaty holes to overcome here. In particular the 4th, played uphill to a plateaued green, requiring more club that it looks to the eye, and the 166 yard 6th, again uphill, with OOB to the left of the green. On the 6th I lost a ball near the OOB wall, despite at least a 5 minute search – no-one was behind us!

The 6th – a challenge with OOB on the left.

On the day, we had lovely weather, and it was really good fun. Nevertheless, I couldn’t par any of the holes in my score of 43, which I’ll put down to the greens;)

If you are in the area this is fun to play, and the tea and cakes were really yummie!

Facts:

Course Type: Highland

Par 27 (9 par 3s)

Distance: 1391

Moly’s Gross score: 43

Moly’s 43 at the par 27 Craigieknowes GC
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