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!
