Skibo

[Gary Daughters]

Ran's review of The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle is fairly high on praise, but low on pictures.

As Skibo goes I'm low on praise.  But here are some photos of the somewhat rarely seen course.


#1 green.  One of the better holes actually.  Long and tough for an opener.  I can imagine a lot balls into this difficult bunker and some big #'s to start a round.





#4




#5  You can hit a solid drive to the right of the more prominent of the 2 bunkers and have the sweep of the fairway push your ball into the other bunker, which is hidden off the tee.  I found that aspect a bit lame.







#6.  The best hole to me, easily.  First the view from the tee, then green.







#16  The last three holes at Skibo are tucked away on their own little parcel, one of several aspects to the course that makes me wonder how Ran could call it a classic out and back links.  





OK, action shot.  #17 tee above the Dornoch Firth is pretty thrilling.  The hole may be drivable for some, but no one wants to be in any of that sand.







Andrew Carnegie's cool indoor pool




Carnegie's study

[Gary Daughters]

Sean,

I do have some more.  Will send them to you later.

[David_Tepper]

Gary -

If you have more pix of the Skibo course, please feel free to post them here. I have only seen 5 or 6 holes of the course walking about, but have not played there at all. If nothing else, the setting of the course, with the firth on one side and the loch on the other, is quite stunning.

Skibo hosts the Northern Open, a Scottish mini-tour event, the 3rd week of May each year.  The course is open (free!) to spectators who want to watch the golf.  The one time I went, the weather was so nasty I bailed after spectating for about 20 minutes!

DT  

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Skibo has the best host on earth. I would not dare say Ran was influenced by his presence. I cannot imagine this being more than a 5 in anyone's book. There are 5 or 6 really good holes and the rest are oh so average in a really cool place. I will go a step more and say if Donald Steele designed as well as he wrote the course would be better. I am up to my neck with praise of Pat Ruddy and Donald Steele. It seems much like Archie Manning and his children in football one they become part of the media they are off limits to normal critque. The European Club is so over hyped it hurts and Skibo is not a top 25 in Scotland either.

[Eric Franzen]

Thanks for the pictures, Gary.

I took a quick walk on a couple of the holes while up in Dornoch. My impression was that the holes on the other side of the road, next to the Firth where crammed in on a extremly small piece of land, just for the sake of getting some nice views.

[Gary Daughters]

Tiger,

Skibo's GM Peter Crome is in a league by himself, a true gentleman and a delight to deal with.  The way in which guests are received becomes a real trap for reviewers, no doubt.


Eric,

The odd location of the last 3 holes makes them feel like an afterthought, but they are among the better holes out there.  The #6, #7, #8 sequence is also quite nice.


David,

Here are a few more.  My photog was not having the greatest day.  But given the surroundings the course struck me as oddly unphotogenic.