Category: Region (Page 39 of 49)

The 15 regions are as defined by the visitscotland website, the Nation Tourism Organisation; http://www.visitscotland.com/destinations-maps/

44. North Inch. 10th June 2016.

June 12, 2016 / Moly McMillan

Historic course with some challenging holes, but let down by its poor condition given its vulnerability to flooding.

Round £15. Par 68. Value (out of 5) 2.5

‘The Inch’ is one of the worlds oldest golfing venues (supposedly dating back 500 years) and sits on the banks of the River Tay in the city of Perth. It is the base for the ‘Royal Perth Golfing Society’ founded in 1833, a year older than the R & A of St Andrews. Although the “royal” connection is there, this is very much a local authoritity pay and play course accessible to all.

4th at North Inch, the first of 6 par 3s on this historic course.

The course traces its current roots to 6 holes in 1803, and it had several holes laid out by Tom Morris himself in the late 19th century; after various course guises it became the current 18 hole layout in 1927.

Given its flat layout and location adjacent to the river it has become very vulnerable to flooding and was submersed under water as recently as 2012. This accounts for much of the poor condition of several fairways I experienced, and whilst the course has made a dramitic recovery, it was nonetheless in a poor condition, which is such a pity given its historical importance to the home of golf. The teeing grounds in particular could do with a lot of work.

The short par 3 9th, showing the poor teeing area.

However, given its very reasonable price of £15, it represents decent value, and there are also some challenging holes to overcome. The back 9 is the tougher of the two, and the 5 hole stretch from 11th-15th provide the toughest golf. The 11th is the worthy SI 1 hole, where only a drive exceeding 250 yards off the white tee can get you to the dog leg apex, still leaving a mid iron to the small green, with the approach shot having to negotiate a 100 yard long ditch along the left side of the fairway.

The long 13th looking back from the green, presents a difficult drive.

The River Tay only comes into view and play at the tough par 4 15th and the very short 79 yard 16th.

I had the most mercurial of golf rounds. I was 1 under for the 6 par 3s, yet 26 over for the other 12 holes, including 4 lost balls off the tee!

The 16th with the River Tay on the left – not really in play.

If you are in Perth on holiday, it’s worth playing “The Inch”, but I wouldn’t go out of your way just for the golf.

Some Facts

Course Type: Parkland

Par 71 (2 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 6 par 3s)

Distance (white) 5442 yards

Moly’s Gross Score 93

Moly’s amazingly mercurial scorecard: -1 for the 6 par 3s, and +26 for the other 12 holes! Driving was very poor!

43. Charleton. 7th June 2016.

June 7, 2016 / Moly McMillan

A rather bland open parkland course, but with magnificent greens – it’s a cunundrum!

Round £32. Par 71 (yellow). Value (out of 5) – 3

Charleton House on the East Neuk of Fife was built in 1759 and after passing through several hands is now owned by a Swedish family and it was Baron John Bonde (1918–2009) who established the golf course and small picturesque club house in 1994. The Estate house and terraced garden, with outstanding Firth of Forth views, is operated as an events location.

Short par 4 17th tee with Charleton house in the distance.

Firstly, I’d point out that unlike the club’s website boast, this is definately not in my opinion “Scotland’s Premier Parkland Course”, a rather embarrassing claim, given the competition. Given that the course was opened by ex-US president George Bush Snr, one can’t help conclude that the Bonde family have many good contacts!

The difficult short par 3 5th green.

Charleton is actually the most open of parkland courses, in fact it has some of the widest fairways you’re likley to find in Fife. Therefore it is a good course for Society outings, without the need for several balls in your bag.

The course is a bit of a conundrum, since although the tee shots are relatively mundane, when you get to the greens, many of them are rather magnificent; several are up to 50 yards from front to back, some guitar shaped narrowing to only 6 yards wide and there are several positions on the greens that you might have to pitch over the fringes to get to the flags. There are also some very severe sloping banks at the sides of the greens, which combined with deep bunkers, make the approach play some of the most challenging around.

The trecherous green at the par 4 14th.

There are some real highlights, but for me the most difficult were the par 3s, only 3 of them, but on each occasion I struck what I thought were excellent shots, only to discover my ball in devilish greenside bunkers. I also must mention the 14th green – it measures 50 yards front to back, and has several very damging bunkers – I took 4 to get out of one of them!

The guitar shaped 15th green – a par 4.

Therefore, the course without greens gets no more than 2/5 for value, whereas the greens are 5/5 alone, giving a rounded 3/5 value score. It was rounded down because the teeing grounds were in poor condition when I played.

The par 3 6th green at Charleton

I gaurantee if you play at Charleton, you’ll want to re-play many of your greenside chips and long putts. You can see from my card, of 99, I found the greens a challenge, having 3 putted 6 times!

Some Facts

Course Type: Parkland/Woodland

Par 71 (2 par 5s, 13 par 4s, 3 par 3s)

Distance (yellow) 5989 yards

Moly’s Gross Score 99

Moly’s scorecard at Charleton adding to 99, with two 9s.

42. Murrayshall Lynedoch. 6th June 2016.

June 7, 2016 / Moly McMillan

The “junior” Murrayshall course provides a surprisingly outstanding challenge

Round £30 ( variable on-line). Par 68. Value (out of 5) – 4

The Murrayshall estate, first built in 1664, was established as a commercially successful Country House hotel in the early 1970s, following the sale of the estate by the Norrie-Millar family, of whom Francis Norrie-Millar was one of the key instrumentalists in building the General Accident insurance company in nearby Perth, only 3 miles to the west of Murrayshall.

Approach to the par 4 second - requiring a well placed tee shot, into a narrow green over a deep ditch.

Approach to the par 4 2nd – requiring a well placed tee shot, into a narrow green over a deep ditch.

The esteemed golf architect Hamilton J Strutt (grandson of James Braid’s foreman) designed the original Championship course in the 70s, and returned to design the Lynedoch course which opened in 2000. The latter course is named after Thomas Graham, aka Lord Lynedoch, who became second in command to the Duke of Wellinton’s Armies in the early 1800s.

Playing the Lynedoch actually reminds you of the Duke of Wellington when importalised in song for “marching them up to the top of the hill, and marching them down again!” There’s plenty of hills to march up and down on the Lynedoch course, which feels longer than its 5279 yards off the white tees. I wouldn’t recommend carrying a full bag!

The demanding SI 1, par 5 14th hole on The Lynedoch

The demanding SI 1, narrow par 5 14th hole on The Lynedoch

The Lynedoch Course really surprised me for both its quality and character, given that it is very much the junior course at Murrayshall. It is very difficult to give a single course type categorisation, and is a mix of woodland and parkland/medow, and has some wonderful highland views to the north. It also has a fair amount of bracken, ditch/water hazards and Disney sized bunkers on some holes.

Given its all round quality and design, it’s arguably better value than the longer Championship course. It has many memorable holes, starting on the first, a dog leg right par 4, which is much harder than the stroke index of 10 would suggest. The second, a shorter par 4, starts to lay out the need for accuracy needed here. Then the 3rd is the first of 6 delighful par 3s, with a hugh amount of variety.

The long par 3 15th tee on The Lynedoch, with deep ditch just visible on the left - cant impagine many 2s here!

The long par 3 15th tee on The Lynedoch, with deep ditch just visible on the left – can’t imagine many 2s here!

My favourite holes were the 14th, 15th and 16th, with stroke indexes 1, 5 and 3 repectively – I rather suspect these holes have defined many match play games here. The 15th is particularly interesting played as a long par 3 (212 yards) off white but as a short par 4 (294 yards) off yellow. It requires the most accurate tee shot, due to a right to left sloping fairway into a deep ravine/ditch – which I had to chip out of!

View from green at the par 3 15th (although par 4 from yellow tees)

The course was in excellent all round condition when I played and I had a very mercurial round of 88 (net 2 over), including 3 birdies for the second time in my life, but unfortunately 2 quadruple and 1 triple bogie! I think this scorecard rather sums up the Lynedoch course – lots of opportunity and hazard, but very true greens!

I highly recommend playing here.

Some Facts

Course Type: Parkland/Woodland

Par 68 (2 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 6 par 3s)

Distance (white) 5279 yards

Moly’s Gross Score 88

A mercurial 88, with 3 birdies and 2 quadruple bogies!

41. Letham Grange Glens. 3rd Jun 2016. CLOSED

June 4, 2016 / Moly McMillan

Mainly open parkland course, with a tough finishing stretch

Round £30 ( variable on-line). Par 68. Value (out of 5) – 2.5

Letham Grange, on the outskirts of Arbroath, has likely had more written about it in court proceedings than in golfing magazines! It is one of the failed attempts in Scotland to create an American style Golf & Country Club Estate similar to Gleneagles, or Wentworth in Surrey. Opened in 1987 as a full resort, the hotel and many facilities are long since closed.

Approach to the 2nd on the Glens at Letham Grange, a typical open parkland hole.

The club members, several living in the many fine houses which still adorn the fairways, now do a great job at keeping the Old course and the smaller Glens course open.

The Glens Course opened in 1992 and is at 5528 yards, much shorter and less demanding than the Old course. The parkland layout is very open for the first 12 holes, but the stretch from the 13th to 17th is much more challenging and will dictate your scorecard.

The 9th green at Letham Grange Glens course

In particular the short par 4 14th requires a very acurate tee shot; the dog leg 15th needs a straight shot of about 200 yards to the tree lined dog-leg; and the 17th is a pretty scary drive down an avenue of trees about 40 yards wide.

The condition of the course was pretty reasonable, with the highlight being the very well maintained teeing grounds. However, the bunkers though were actually terrible, with a thin covering of grainy sand over hard packed earth – unfortunately I found several bunkers eventually realising the only way to play them was to chip the ball cleanly off the sand.

The difficult to find small 15th green, part of the difficult stretch of 5 holes from 13 to 17 on the Glens course

The price of the Glens is £30 per round and I was able to play on the Carnoustie Country offer, and paid only £15. At the full price its not the best value by any means in Angus.

I had a good round with 37 stableford points (using the new 9/10s allowance), and played to my new handicap of 18, which included an 8 on the par 4 3rd, needing to take 2 shots to get out of a greenside bunker.

Some Facts

Course Type: Parkland

Par 68 (2 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 6 par 3s)

Distance (white) 5528 yards

Moly’s Gross Score 86

Moly’s Letham Grange Glens Scorecard – 86 (net par off 18)

Category: Region (Page 39 of 49)

44. North Inch. 10th June 2016.

Par 71 (2 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 6 par 3s)

43. Charleton. 7th June 2016.

Par 71 (2 par 5s, 13 par 4s, 3 par 3s)

42. Murrayshall Lynedoch. 6th June 2016.

Par 68 (2 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 6 par 3s)

41. Letham Grange Glens. 3rd Jun 2016. CLOSED

Par 68 (2 par 5s, 10 par 4s, 6 par 3s)

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