I recently caddied for my brother in the Scottish PGA Championship at Gleneagles and managed to take a few pictures, which I thought some of you may like to see.
Hole 1
Hole 2
Hole 3
Hole 4
Hole 5 Tee Shot
Hole 5 Approach
Hole 6
Hole 7 New green by DMK
Hole 9
Hole 11
View from behind new 12 Green (Not yet in play) looking back down fairway
Hole 13
Hole 14
Hole 15
Hole 16
Hole 17 (tee in foreground)
Hole 18
Apologies that I've not got a decent picture of all holes, but its not easy taking photos when caddying...
I have been to Gleneagles before to play James Braid’s Kings and enjoyed Philip Gawith’s recent thread and photos of the Kings:
http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,35227.0.htmlI was therefore looking forward to my second trip to Gleneagles to see the new Nicklaus course, though I hadn’t enjoyed my previous experience of a Nicklaus course at Carden Park in Cheshire. I eventually left the PGA Centenary at Gleneagles somewhat ambivalent. I loved the setting and I’m really looking forward to the Ryder Cup there, but the course itself just didn’t quite do it for me.
Firstly, it’s a monster of a course! It plays well over 7,000 yards off the back tees, but the Scottish Pros played off some tees a little further forward on the second round as the course was playing so tough. There are 5 sets of tees, so if I was to play myself I would be able to play it a little shorter, but if you combine the length of the course with the length of overall walk, its tough, and boy is it a long walk!
There are several long walks, often uphill, from a green to the next tee, which seems to show how much faith Gleneagles now puts in buggies! Unfortunately, I prefer to carry and try to carry even when a course expects me to use a buggy. Now I was carrying a tour bag which isn’t easy, but if I’d been carrying my own bag, the walk would I’m sure, have had a negative effect on my golf. The Scottish PGA even put on a buggy service for players and caddies, from the second green to the third tee as its such a long walk.
Jack Nicklaus is quoted as saying that the course is over “the finest parcel of land in the world, I have ever been given to work with.” Now this may be true, the setting is stunning, but if it was such a fine parcel of land, what does it say about his abilities as a golf course architect if Dave McLay Kidd been appointed to come in and make so many changes? For those of you interested I’ll try and sum up some of the key changes so you can see how much DMK has come in to do. If anyone can expand on or put me right on any of these then please do so:
Original New Notes regarding current or proposed
1 4 426 4 426 Larger bunker short right of green removed.
2 5 516 5 516 Gleneagles website lists this as a 436 par 4 but I think this is a website error?
3 4 431 4 431
4 3 239 3 239
5 4 461 4 461
6 3 201 3 201
7 4 410? 4 468 I think this was previously a much straighter hole of approx just over 400 yards. It has been changed to a 468 yard dogleg right, that has been in play for some time.
8 4 419 4 419
9 5 564 5 564
36 36
10 3 208 3 208
11 4 350 4 350
12 5 503 4 480? This is currently a short but uphill par 5 with a slight dogleg to the left. There is a new green built short and right which will make it a straighter long par 4.
13 4 449 4 481 This was a downhill dogleg right but has now been changed to a dogleg left that is now in play.
14 3 196 4 320 This was a par 3 but has been changed to a short par 4 which is again now in play.
15 4 463 4 463
16 5 543 5 543
17 3 194 3 194
18 5 533 5 533
36 36
72 72
As I said, that’s my interpretation of the recent and proposed changes. I may have missed something or there may be more changes planned?
I think this should prove interesting for the Ryder Cup as on the back nine are 2 par 4s which could be driveable, making for great matchplay! Firstly the 11th which is 350 uphill, with a green behind a small valley with a stream at the bottom, if the tee was put forward it could tempt some players to go for it. Secondly the 14th, which is a much flatter par 4 of about 320 yards, so I imagine most would be tempted to go for the green. Also two par 5s in the last three holes should make for some interesting finishes in matchplay.
I’d be interested in hearing other peoples thoughts?
Cheers
James
Ps a few more links…
http://www.dmkgolfdesign.com/portfolio-gleneagles.aspxhttp://www.gleneagles.com/golf/courses/pga-centenary-course