{"id":3158,"date":"2026-10-20T17:50:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=3158"},"modified":"2026-10-20T17:51:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:51:50","slug":"192-dalmilling-28-apr-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/?p=3158","title":{"rendered":"192. Dalmilling. 28 Apr 23."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dalmilling \u2013 please check this course is still open.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price paid \u00a317.99 (GolfNow), against a \u00a319 rack rate.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current price (2026): \u00a345 list; \u00a322 GolfNow; \u00a319 GolfNow Hot Deal.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Value 2\/5 at \u00a319\u2013\u00a322 via GolfNow; 1\/5 at \u00a345 list price.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dalmilling has a long history of being given up on. Around 1220, Walter fitz Alan, High Steward of Scotland and ancestor of the Stewart kings, brought the Gilbertines (England\u2019s only home-grown monastic order) to found a priory here on the River Ayr. Within a decade they had resigned it \u201cof their own free will\u201d. By about 1240 the last two canons had been told to hand the lands to Paisley Abbey and go home to England. Nothing of the priory survives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The golf course, opened by the council in 1961, has outlasted the monks six times over, no thanks to the landlord, South Ayrshire Council, that has tried to close it at least three times. There was an attempt which ended with a Councillor facing 200 angry golfers. Then in 2018 the council leader wanted houses and an urban park, but conceding that the course was good for golfers but not for anyone else. Then in early 2020 it appeared on a list of five of the council\u2019s eight courses earmarked for closure. Each time it survived. The 2018 reprieve came with promises of trees and a perimeter path, and the pandemic golf boom turned the 2020 hit list into an investment programme. Hence the headline, Before you drive to Dalmilling, check the booking page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The first, encapsulating the fairly bland layout of the least inspiring of South Ayrshire Council’s courses.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The council has spent money on the clubhouse but not, as far as I could see, on the course. There were no rakes, a Golf South Ayrshire policy already covered in Blog 136<\/strong><\/a>. The tees were marked by little plastic cones, and the teeing grounds were scuffed bare. It took me straight back to the Caird Park nine-holer in Dundee, where I started playing: honest municipal golf, maintained to a budget, for people who expect nothing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A typical Dalmilling view at the 8th: wide, open and generous, with divots abounding.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At 5,209 yards from the yellows, with five par 3s, it\u2019s short. The one hole with genuine character is the 6th, a 107-yard par 3 over a burn sunk in a steep-sided ditch, with mature trees on either side. Naturally, I made a double-bogey 5 there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The 6th, the best hole on the course: 107 yards, but the burn in its ditch makes it count.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dalmilling is a good starter course: short, open and forgiving. But it doesn\u2019t need 18 holes. Nine good ones would serve beginners better and cost the council less. I suspect it survives on the season-ticket and green-fee income of Belleisle (Blog 189) and Troon rather than on its own account. At \u00a317.99 it was cheap, but cheap isn\u2019t the same as good value, hence 2\/5. The list price has since more than doubled to \u00a345, for a course where I saw no sign of investment. That\u2019s 1.5\/5. GolfNow still sells it for \u00a319\u2013\u00a322, a gap which suggests even council don’t know what it\u2019s really worth. Or perhaps, they’re laying the ground for closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course Type<\/strong>: Parkland<\/em>
Par 69 yellow tees<\/strong> (2 par 5s, 11 par 4s, 5 par 3s)<\/em>
Distance:<\/strong> 5,209 yards (yellow tees)<\/em>
Course Rating \/ Slope (yellow):<\/strong> 65.7 \/ 113<\/em>
Course Quality:<\/strong> 2\/5<\/em>
Moly\u2019s Gross Score: 85<\/strong> (32 Stableford points)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Moly’s Dalmilling scorecard, poor for such an open course, albeit ground conditions heavy.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

Dalmilling \u2013 please check this course is still open. Price paid \u00a317.99 (GolfNow), against a \u00a319 rack rate. Current price (2026): \u00a345 list; \u00a322 GolfNow; \u00a319 GolfNow Hot Deal. Value 2\/5 at \u00a319\u2013\u00a322 via GolfNow; 1\/5 at \u00a345 list price. Dalmilling has a long history of being given up on. Around 1220, Walter fitz Alan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,17,24,34,51,19,32,9,132,133,15,38,11,2,18,28,20,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-5-star","category-18-holes","category-1946-1980","category-2-star","category-ayrshire-arran","category-course-architech","category-course-quality","category-course-type","category-discounts","category-golfnow","category-holes","category-overall-value","category-parkland","category-price-range","category-region","category-unknown","category-when-course-established","category-40-59","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3158"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3192,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions\/3192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scotlandgolfbible.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}