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Andy Levett

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Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« on: January 19, 2013, 02:09:35 PM »
The internet is a wonderful thing. But the surfeit of information and images available nowadays does mean that we rarely, if ever, turn up at the first tee of a course with a big reputation without much of an idea what to expect. The thrill of discovery is becoming rarer.
One exception is The Machrie, which makes a lot of lists but unusually for an actual or potential world top 100 course you don't really have a clue how good it is before going there.
I'd read the fairly scant info in Steel, Macfarlane Lowe and Finegan on The Machrie, looked at the pictures, and was still expecting anything from a 3 to a 10 on the Doak scale.
Hence the title of this thread. If you don't want my amateur snaps and half-baked opinions of The Machrie to spoil your enjoyment, hit the back button now!

 Hole 1, 337 yards.

After a rather bland drive towards the first of many barber poles...



...a flick to the sunken green




Hole 2, 508 yards.

Excellent driving hole. Like all  diagonal carries, the difference between easy and unrealistic seems to narrow very rapidly.



After the drive the green is a tempting but dangerous target.



If you spurn the sensible shot short and right this is just one way it can go wrong.



Missing right's not so bad.




Hole 3 364 yard
We stayed a five-minute walk from the 3rd tee but 15 minute drive from the first tee, so the third was the first hole I saw.
In many ways an archtype: blind-ish tee-shot, blind approach.
The green from the left:



And from behind:




Hole 4 390 yards

Pix got deleted of this and five. It turns inland ( one of the stengths of The Machrie is that it boxes the compass) across billowing terrain before a blind approach over a hill into a dip.

Hole 5 163 yards

When the wind's behind, which it often seems to be, trying to run between the bunkers may be the smartest play. Sadly, as said above, pix were lost so there's just this one of a rarely used alternative tee to the left.



Hole 6 344 yards.

Another barber pole drive. The second shot is a ground game gem because you can play way left and the contours will feed the ball close to a front pin.



The slot:




Hole 7. 395 yards.

My snap really dimininishes how mean this hill is. Think Himalayas at Prestwick.



This view of the 6th from the top of the hill gives more of a an idea of the scale of it.



Then the second is blind as well. You can't see any of the flag from the fairway and a barber pole could be hit by a good shot so the marker is on the bank at the back, ringed in this pic.



Lots going on on this green:






Hole 8 337 yards

By The Machrie standards this doesn't really count as a blind drive, as a bit of fairway is visible...





It's another blind second over a big hill.





To one of the wilder greens.





Hole 9 392 yards

Quite an unusual hole, with a diagonal drive to a sort of triple fairway ("sort of" because the high road and low road are maintained as semi).



We need to follow the middle way to a green just tucked around the corner. A reliable fade would come in handy here.

It would be interesting to know more about the architectural history of The Machrie. It was originally laid out by Willie Campbell in the nineteenth century. In the 1970s holes to the south were in Donald Steel's words "an area not for sale when new owners wanted to buy a full 18 holes". Steel was brought in and his current 2nd appears to link the Campbell holes at the south. He built new holes to the north and I suspect the ninth was the first of these, though the course profile in his Classic Golf Links of GB & I is self-effacingly vague.Besides the rather shaped look of the fairway it has one of his "potato chip" greens.



Hole 10 156 yards

An island green!



I like the simplicity of the bridge, just sod laid over a sturdy pipe.



Hole 11 357 yards

A good driving hole, though many will dislike the internal OB stakes, precluding the direct line down the 13th.



Worth taking a chance on the drive, over the mound, which is taller than it looks on my snap, to have a shorter shot into this green.



Hole 12 174 yards

This Steel hole is called New Mount Zion, in a reference to the famous original (over the burn alongside the current second) which was similarly uphill.



Neil Regan's postcard of the original:

Hole 13 488 yards

The second of the par fives, requiring a very accurate strike with a long club. I bet the members lay up in a medal because the rough, as throughout the course, was brutal and grown in rather close to the line of play.





Hole 14 423 yards

It's a fair hit to that barber's pole for a good view of the green.



A real treat to watch a long approach land short right and ground hook into the green, less fun if it keeps turning into the bunkers.




Hole 15 335 yards

Dubbed Willie's Fancy, suggesting it was the original architect's favourite, a decent drive will give a view of the attractively-situated green





Hole 16 411 yards

Back the other way over the big dune



Second can be blind, if not this is the view.



Hole 17 352 yards



Second is blind.



You might walk up to here to take a look



Hole 18 402 yards

Plays in the same direction as 4 and 16 and a variation on the same theme as those two of blind second over dune to flattish green. Better than the 18th at Machrihanish though!







« Last Edit: January 19, 2013, 02:14:07 PM by Andy Levett »

David_Tepper

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2013, 03:09:47 PM »
Andy -

Thanks for the photo tour. Looks like big fun.

How long ago were you there? I know the course and the adjacent hotel have gone thru some financial difficulties over the past couple of years. Do you have any idea of what the current situation is there? How well is the course being maintained?

DT 

Michael Goldstein

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2013, 03:49:43 PM »
Andy, thanks for the Photo tour. Great place!!

Did I read somewhere that the 3rd green had been altered?  That photograph definitely looks different to the one I have on my computer.

@Pure_Golf

Dave McCollum

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2013, 03:53:09 PM »
I enjoyed the tour and thought your snaps were quite good.  Surprised by how green it looked in your pix, but I also noticed the standing water on some fairways.  Not getting to The Machrie was the biggest disappointment of my one golf trip to Scotland.  I guess I made up for it by playing Gairloch.

David_Tepper

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2013, 03:57:55 PM »
Dave M. -

I am not sure how long ago Andy took those pictures, but be aware that Scotland (and most of Britain) has endured one of its rainiest years in decades, if not a dozen decades. Golf courses almost everywhere in Britain a very, very green.

DT  
« Last Edit: January 19, 2013, 04:42:08 PM by David_Tepper »

Bill Gayne

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2013, 04:37:13 PM »
Thanks, I enjoyed the pictures but what makes this course a "potential world top 100?"

Ronald Montesano

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2013, 04:58:31 PM »
I don't see a ring in the photo of the 7th approach.
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

Mac Plumart

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2013, 06:06:35 PM »
Literally, adrenaline started to flow through my body as I saw these pictures.  This place looks like an ideal place to play golf, given my tastes.

Thank you for sharing!
Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

Adam Lawrence

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2013, 06:35:47 PM »
Andy -

Thanks for the photo tour. Looks like big fun.

How long ago were you there? I know the course and the adjacent hotel have gone thru some financial difficulties over the past couple of years. Do you have any idea of what the current situation is there? How well is the course being maintained?

DT  

David, the course and hotel were sold a year or so ago to Gavyn Davies, former chief economist of Goldman Sachs and chairman of the BBC, and his wife Sue Nye. They have quite big plans for the place, including a few course works, overseen by DJ Russell, a new maintenance facility for greenkeeper Simon Freeman, possibly the course's first ever irrigation system, a full refurbishment of the hotel, and I believe some cottages too.
Adam Lawrence

Editor, Golf Course Architecture
www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Principal, Oxford Golf Consulting
www.oxfordgolfconsulting.com

Author, 'More Enduring Than Brass: a biography of Harry Colt' (forthcoming).

Short words are best, and the old words, when short, are the best of all.

David_Tepper

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2013, 06:57:09 PM »
Adam L. -

Thanks for the update.

Bless Mr. Gavyn Davies, his good intentions and his efforts, although I suspect he may yet be another well-intentioned investment banker/private equity/hedge fund tyro with way too much money and not quite enough common sense! ;)

DT
 

Mac Plumart

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2013, 07:29:07 PM »
with way too much money and not quite enough common sense

Let's hope so.  Heck, maybe even less common sense than Mr. Keiser had...or Mr. Youngscap.  Those guys were fools!

Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

jeffwarne

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #11 on: January 19, 2013, 08:31:15 PM »
What a great spot-splendid isolation, great relaxing ferry ride.
Black water in the shower was a bit dicey, but a charming old hotel.

The course was one mower pass on each side of being great fun last time I was there.
Those pictures make it look wider than it was.
Can't wait to get back and hope it doesn't change much
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

Dave McCollum

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2013, 10:48:20 PM »
David T,
Any self-respecting golf addict knows about the lousy weather you’ve been having this year.  My sincere sympathies and hope that ’13 will send you some global warming in the guise of warm, dry, sunny days.  In the photos I saw the standing water on some fairways and the full burns and assumed it was more of the same.  The light in the photos clearly indicated an absence of direct sunlight and the diffuse, soft light of a heavy cloud cover.  This certainly promotes color saturation with proper exposure, thus my comment about the quality of the “snaps.”  I guess I was just reacting to my mental filing cabinet of images of The Machrie.  With no irrigation, everything I had seen previously in photos was nothing like these snaps.

When I finally drug my aged ass to Scotland for golf (I had been there several times before for other pursuits), this was exactly the kind of course I wanted to play.  I wanted to get as close to the origins of the game as I could.  As a Yank, we have no easily accessible examples of traditional golf.  The American game has evolved in different directions and, sadly, our DNA largely ignores its origins.  As time passes, I wish I had made the effort to visit Askernish and The Machrie and as many authentic old links as I could because it is like walking into an old cathedral.  I may not be religious or had a religious experience, but I respect the faith and vision that it took to sustain the effort to build such an incredible old hulk.  Maybe it was so simple as “we’re stuck on this miserable, storm-drenched isle, so let’s build a golf course for some bloody fun when we are not busy distilling the freaking whisky.”  The motivation doesn’t matter.  It’s a DNA we should tip our hats to.  Not that anyone on this side of the pond would understand.  We should.

Mark Pearce

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #13 on: January 20, 2013, 04:41:40 AM »
Dave,

Sadly most models suggest that global warming will just bring wetter summers for the UK.  Brown fairways may already be a thing of the past in Scotland.
In June I will be riding the first three stages of this year's Tour de France route for charity.  630km (394 miles) in three days, with 7800m (25,600 feet) of climbing for the William Wates Memorial Trust (https://rideleloop.org/the-charity/) which supports underprivileged young people.

Rich Goodale

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #14 on: January 20, 2013, 09:15:12 AM »
Mark

Sadly, all climate/weather models are sadly unproven in terms of predictive capability.  Your and my wild-arse guesses about the future of UK summers are as likely to be right (or wrong) as any model I am aware of....

Rich
Life is good.

Any afterlife is unlikely and/or dodgy.

Jean-Paul Parodi

Niall C

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #15 on: January 20, 2013, 02:32:14 PM »
Andy

Many thanks for posting the photo tour. One of the few courses in Scotland that I haven't played and really want to.

BTW, I have a contemporary newspaper cutting of the time with a layout of the course as originally designed by Willie Campbell. From what I remember of the plan it shows the possibilities for extending one of the holes as though what was built was a temporary layout. I also have a newspaper snippet from the mid 1920's stating that John McAndrew long term pro at Cruden Bay had designed 6 new greens for the Machrie. The article doesn't really make clear whether that involved completely new holes or simply redesigning the greens using the same green sites. Between the changes then, the more recent changes by Steel and the changes to come, its possibly getting more and more difficult to call it a Willie Campbell golf course.

Niall

Andy Levett

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2013, 05:01:37 PM »
Bill,
Having been there I agree with you but I had to go there to find that out. Having said that I had a fantastic time on and off the course and would recommend Islay and The Machrie to anyone not expecting a world top 100 golf course. Our cottage (the white building) was a few yards from a 10-mile beach:

David, Dave,
I was there in October 2011, a wet week in a wet month in a wet year on the wet side of a wet country. This year was similar except the dry

side of Britain was wet too. Still played like a links, just a bit slower.
Jeff,
Agree about maintaining more of the course as fairway. Never lost so many balls anywhere.
Adam,
Refurbing the hotel seems a decent idea but not convinced by all the course changes, especially straightening the second. This shows the ones within the SSI. New 10th can't be a bad thing and new 11th tee would eliminate internal OB.
http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/Planning/StreamDocPage/obj.pdf?DocNo=20622396&PDF=true&content=obj.pdf
The owners' website http://www.machrie.net/future hasn't been updated for a while but the club's suggests some progress http://www.islaygolfclub.co.uk/ Seems a bit odd they are getting their news from the local paper (the Ileach) rather than direct from the owners.
Niall,
Would be interested to see Willie Campbell's layout. I do get the impression he thought knocking the ball back and forth over a big hill was what golf architecture was all about but that may be completely unfair.

Pete_Pittock

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #17 on: January 23, 2013, 01:31:45 AM »
Andy missed a couple of holes. This is what he missed.
First another view from the left of the third green. In the background is the hotel and you can see the fourth fairway and the hollow in the ridge in the following picture


Fourth hole:
Taken from somewhere early in the hole, looking toward a crossdune. If I remember correctly your drive should run out about just short of the ridge. The green is pretty much straight ahead.



Sideview of the green from the left hillside. Play to the green is from the right of the picture


5th hole
From the front of the tees. My shotl ended up in the front right bunker right next to a vertebra. That slowed me down until I figured out it was more bovine or ovine that human.



« Last Edit: January 23, 2013, 01:40:13 AM by Pete_Pittock »

Garland Bayley

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #18 on: January 24, 2013, 07:44:46 PM »
Routing from Google Earth


"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne

V. Kmetz

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #19 on: January 25, 2013, 12:11:02 AM »
Beautiful look to it all

thank you for posting

cheers

vk
"The tee shot must first be hit straight and long between a vast bunker on the left which whispers 'slice' in the player's ear, and a wilderness on the right which induces a hurried hook." -

Garland Bayley

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #20 on: January 25, 2013, 03:43:38 PM »
Early routing of Machrie May 21st 1891



The Google Earth shot above places the whole course inside the two rivers. Did they loose land? Were the channel(s) of the river(s) moved?
« Last Edit: January 25, 2013, 03:58:13 PM by GJ Bailey »
"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne

James Boon

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #21 on: January 26, 2013, 04:54:58 AM »
Andy,

Thanks for the photos! The course and setting look ideal to me and I can't wait to get there one day.

The bunkers on the 5th look a little out of place in your photo (less so in Pete's) because there aren't many other bunkers on the course, seeing 4 on one hole really jumps out!

A trip to Islay has been on the cards the last few years but I keep putting it off, mainly because I'm not sure of the position regarding the ownership and running of the place. Of those in the know, would I be better off waiting a few more years till the current owners have found their feet and made the changes to course and accommodation, or should I take the plunge now?

Cheers,

James
2023 Highlights: Hollinwell, Brora, Parkstone, Cavendish, Hallamshire, Sandmoor, Moortown, Elie, Crail, St Andrews (Himalayas & Eden), Chantilly, M, Hardelot Les Pins

"It celebrates the unadulterated pleasure of being in a dialogue with nature while knocking a ball round on foot." Richard Pennell

Niall C

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #22 on: January 26, 2013, 05:37:30 AM »
Garland

That's the one. Shame Melvyn didn't send you the full article with the description. The alternative 8th and 9th holes shown spanning the burn were I think only suggestions, and indeed the yardages for the two proposed holes are 750 yards and 620 yards respectively. Looking at the starting and finishing holes on the other side of the right hand burn, its a bit difficult to reconcile that with a google earth photo now. For one thing the burn looks straighter in 1891 than it is now. Its possible that the burn was either diverted or naturally took another course. In any case I assume that these were the holes lost when Donald Steel did his redesign.

Niall

Garland Bayley

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #23 on: January 26, 2013, 11:20:34 AM »
Niall,

Melvyn sent 3, and the third one may have the article you mention. I will get it up eventually.
"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne

Garland Bayley

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Re: Spoiler alert - The Machrie
« Reply #24 on: January 28, 2013, 01:04:20 AM »
Routing from 1896 Golfer Guide


"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne