I'm going to skip ahead to Pitlochry since I just finished downloading my photos. I apologize for the (lack of) quality but some of the more exposed holes were a bit breezy and due to operator error the electromechanical stabilization in the camera was turned off on some shots. I also inadvertently turned on exposure compensation on the last few shots, truly playing golf and taking pictures do not coexist easily.
I didn't think to take the camera out until after finishing the second hole but here's one photo from after the round that has the uphill first fairway in the background (with the eighteenth foregrounded). This was taken from the path that separates the eighteenth green from the clubhouse. BTW they are only 30 yards apart which is typical spacing for Pitlochry's rather compact, old-fashioned routing.
The first five holes are uphill, uphill, uphill, crosshill (Par 3) and uphill respectively. I ask the club Captain which wind direction made the course play toughest and he said it was from the North because the first five are uphill and upwind. That is the prevailing direction and on the two days I played it was primarily from the Northwest. I tend to agree with his assessment. For a short course those first five holes played like five miles on 12-13C temps and 10-15mph breezes (with stronger gusts during my first round). I need to find a small-interval topo map but I'd say the overall climb from clubhouse to fifth green is probably 300 feet or a bit more. Then just to add insult to injury there's an additional set of steps leading up 20 feet or so to the back tees on the sixth before you're finally allowed to start downhill (only to return uphill several more times later in the round).
As you can see from the above photo, the first fairway is well bunkered. In addition to being slightly uphill on the tee shot (landing into an uphill and left-to-right slope) and severely uphill from there to the green you will also likely have a sidehill lie for the second and there is a burn (lateral hazard) running along the right side of the hole. It's a tough an opening hole as I'd care to see on an under-6,000 yard Par 69 "short" resort course. The medal tees for the second are atop a 30-foot hill to the left of the first green and you hit over a slight valley to an upsloping fairway with OB right.
Personal Note: During my medal round on Saturday I took eight on the first hole when a shot from a fairway bunker clipped the lip, popped high into the air, was blown backward by a gust of wind and landed squarely atop my noggin. I never saw the ball due to sand in my eyes but that's what my two fellow competitors described. I followed this with an eight on the second after pulling the ball into the out-of-bounds pasture. Don't you love having a scorecard in your hand on days like that?Anyway, after a successful tee shot on the second there's a blind, long approach over a ridge to a smallish green which has a rise in front of it to deflect runups. Here's a picture looking back over the second green from between there and the third tee. From pin position for the open competitions, natch.
More climbing to the third tee where you're facing this uphill/sidehill dogleg-right beauty. A very short hole at well under 300 yards from even the medal tees but due to the slope and the wind and the tilt of the green (not to mention more OB right) I would not consider it drivable with a scorecard in your hand for even the strongest player.
Better a 180-190 yard shot to the left side of the fairway leaving proper angel, especially to this weekends back-right hole location.
Here are two photos from behind the third green.
The second photo gives a sense of how far the course has climbed to the point of reaching the tee of the Par 3 fourth hole. You can just catch a glimpse of the red clubhouse roof at the left edge of the last photo. At this point you get a breather with basically a sidehill (and crosswind in the prevailing northerly) shot to the fourth green before resuming the climb at a more gentle slope up the fifth fairway.
Personal Note:I arrived in Pitlochry on Saturday morning exactly an hour before my tee time in the Athol Palace Open event. I stopped off to unload my luggage and change clothes at my B&B in the village of Moulin, just at the foot of the golf course and then decided to walk the 3/4 mile up the hill to the clubhouse. I missed the rather narrow and unobvious "Golf Course Road" and continued walking all the way up the gravel path to the fourth tee before asking a golfer where the clubhouse was located. He then pointed back down the path shown in the above picture. To make matter worse, the forecast was for cold and rain so I was dressed in thermal underwear and a full rain suit including hat along with toting my golf bag, shoes and a 2-liter bottle of water. So by the time I trekked the 1/2 mile back to the clubhouse I had not only missed my tee time but was literally running sweat out of my rain pants and jacket legs since the weather was in fact 13C and sunny. I was rescheduled into a later tee time but suspect that my 8-8-6 start was in part due to being overheated, exhausted, out of breath and without even a moment's warmup or practice putting. But I still had a great day score notwithstanding!Onward to the fourth hole, first of the three one-shotters at Pitlochry. There are no Par 5's by the way, just Par 4's of every conceivable length leading to a course Par of 69. The visitor's SSS is 72 and for members it is 69. With the wind direction I experienced, it was playing across from right to left with bunkers right and a falloff down to adjacent tees on the left. So the goal is to miss on the upwind side. During the medal round from the back tees I made bogey from a right-hand bunker and from the visitors tees the next day attempted a runup shot which was rejected into a left-hand bunker for another bogey. The sand was soft, dry and course and I didn't see anyone get spin out of a bunker all weekend. A good bunker shot tended to be one that only bounced high once and rolled out within 15 feet on the firm and reasonably quick greens.
Here's the green on the second day, looking from the right side of the green back down the hill toward clubhouse, village and overlooking parts of the back nine.
The gentleman in the latter photo is teeing off on the ninth hole from a tee below the fourth green, actually back toward the third green.
Here's a picture of the fifth fairway, from the front tee. It's hardly uphill at all until about 60 yards short of the green which is atop a 30-foot-tall plateau and blind from the fairway. You can just make out the tall, black-and-white aiming pole behind the green.
And here's a photo looking back from basically the base of that pole (I lipped out that par putt BTW). Except for the steps leading up to the medal tee on the sixth this is the high point of the course. I'm out of breath and sweating just looking at the picture...
Personal Note:I had a lucky pitch-in recovery shot for bogey during the medal round, having chipped out of the trees after my second shot sliced far left (there is OB right along the wall separating the course from the walking path up Craigower Hill) and my fourth shots was hit into the rough on the upslope to the plateau. It was just that kind of day, gentle reader.Time to take a break, having reached the top of the hill. Later today I'll post more photos from the front nine and at least get a start on the second nine. There are still several trips up and down hills to go but no more 1/2-mile 10% continuous climbs thank goodness.