Garland:
It's a really neat course -- not just because it's so odd (which it is), but because it genuinely embodies several of the features that many here on GCA find admirable about golf courses:
-- It uses the lay of the land quite well, and does so despite where it takes the golfer on occasion.
-- It's full of the unexpected -- not just the odd blind shot here and there, but straight-up-a-hill to a green unseen blindness, and some great blind punchbowl greens.
-- It's fast and firm (or was when I played it, but the locals said that was the norm) and is subject to arbitrary things like wind and strange bounces.
-- At 3,000 yards and 12 holes (par 42), it's hardly taxing, but I've played 27-hole golf complexes with half the character of Shiskine.
-- It has a certain atmosphere about it -- truly isolated, on an island that's sort of hard to get to, and on the less populous side of the island. Along with Dunaverty not far away, it feels like you're playing an antique golf course -- something little changed over years and years.
The course opens conventionally, with a par 4 of @ 370 yds, but the beach runs along the entire left side of the hole, from tee to green. It's an unnerving tee shot right out of the gate. Staying too far to the right, away from the beach, will lead to a blind or semi-blind approach.
The 2nd, a similar-length par 4, doglegs gently to the left, with an approach over a burn to a green sitting in a depression.
The famous 3rd, the par 3 Crow's Nest, is straight uphill to a green unseen, framed by a massive rock formation. The 4th, nearly as famous and just as thrilling a hole, is from atop the cliff next to the Crow's Nest green, to a large green down below. The scenery up there, with the blue Atlantic a few steps beyond the green and the Kintrye Peninsula off in the distance, is truly remarkable. (Robert Kroeger, a Cincinnati dentist who wrote the definitive "Complete Guide to the Golf Courses of Scotland," was so taken by Shiskine that he used a photo of the 4th green, backed by the massive rock formation, for the cover of the book.)
The 5th is the third par 3 in a row, a longish, flat hole that runs alongside the beach entirely. Again, a beautiful setting. At 212 from the everyday yellow tees, it often plays straight into the wind.
The 6th is a very short par 4 with a great hidden, punchbowl green. The 7th is Shiskine's version of the Dell, a par 3 totally blind over a rock outcropping to a sunken green. The 8th and 9th are relatively conventional (by Shiskine's standards), but the 10th is a nice drop-shot par 3 to a well-bunkered green. The 11th, a longish par 3, features another wonderful hidden punchbowl green, with another hidden depression in front of the punchbowl green to catch unsuspecting timid shots. The home hole is a bit of a disappointment, a short par 3 over flat terrain with only a pot bunker fronting the green providing uncertainty about the shot.
As you can tell, I'm a big fan. On my whirlwind trip to Scotland about 10 years ago, it was one of the real highlights, and along with a few others (Machrihanish, Fraserburgh, Crail Balcomie, Traigh), one that really sticks out in my mind as emblamatic of how the Scots envisioned golf to be played. The stretch from holes 2-7 is about as quirky as you'll find anywhere, and comes with true links turf and conditions and great scenery. Worth a detour, in my book, for those who appreciate and seek out the odd and unusual and fun.