Golf in the Highlands

[David_Tepper]

Nice article on golf in the bonnie Highlands of Scotland:

http://www.worldgolf.com/features/highlands-golf-links-courses-14063.htm

[Tom_Doak]

Brora is the third must-play course in the Highlands, not Nairn.

Also, I walked around Muir of Ord a couple of months ago and thought it was a charming little course that deserves a mention.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I've a feeling Moray Old gets underplayed as well although I've only ever seen the New and that was a long time ago... Would I be right?

Visiting the area next June so have a round organised at the Old... Hoping to head up Dornoch / Brora way as well...

[Rich Goodale]

Yes, Tom

Nairn (or, as they now call themselves "The Nairn" ("Pretenious? Nous?!") is highly overrated.  Both Brora and Lossiemouth put it to shame, golf wise and ambience wise.  As for Muir of Ord, I now have some good friends who grew up there, but since the Cromarty Bridge cut the town off from civilisation before I knew these people, I've never played there.  Along with Boat of Garten, yet another entry on my bucket list....

Rich

PS--RAN!!!  THIS IS THE UMPTEENTH TIME I'VE BEEN "TIMED OUT" TRYING TO MAKE A POST!!!!  FIX YOUR WEBSITE asap, please........

[Jon Wiggett]

Tom,

Brora is a super course though it is beginning to lose some of its rustic charm compared to a few years ago.

Rich,

I have always found Nairn to be a really solid golf course which although not having many standout holes is of a high quality through all 18. Muir of Ord is a good course and worth playing. I am shocked you have not played the Boat yet.

Ally,

Moray old is well worth the effort to play. I am of the opinion that if they were to use a combination of the old and new they could create a real world beater and still have a solid second course. When in the area it is worth popping along to play Covesea which is a fun little 9 hole course.

Jon

Jon

[Greg Taylor]

+1 for Nairn being overrated. Good but not "highest echelon" material to me at least.

And Brora I played in 40mph wind. Let's just say it was a tough test of golf!

[Thomas Dai]

+1 for Nairn being overrated. Good but not "highest echelon" material to me at least.

+1 from me too, or should that now be +2?
A mention for Golspie. Lovely place and course. Three styles of course in one 18-hole round. Nice to hear it's recovered from that awful winter storm.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie? Any thoughts folks?
All the best

[David_Tepper]

"A mention for Golspie. Lovely place and course. Three styles of course in one 18-hole round. Nice to hear it's recovered from that awful winter storm.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie? Any thoughts folks?"

Thomas D. -

I played Golspie this morning. The course is in terrific shape. Alexander Macdonald and his assistant have done a wonderful job putting the course back together from the winter storm. It is now in better shape than ever before.

Fortrose & Rosemarkie is certainly worth playing at least once. It is a remarkable routing set on one of the most unique properties I have ever seen.

DT

[Ken Moum]

A mention for Golspie. Lovely place and course. Three styles of course in one 18-hole round. Nice to hear it's recovered from that awful winter storm.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie? Any thoughts folks?
All the best

My wife and I played Brora, Golspie (twice each), Gain and F&R within a few days of each other and I think we'd rank them in that order. Although I can't see why Tain doesn't get much love.

Could it be that the best holes aren't in sight of the sea, while the seaside ones are a little boring by comparison?

After a few questions, I think I know why Golspie gets the nod over Brora... the blind shots.  As I told someone today (the bartender @ North Berwick, FWIW) the low handicappers seem to hate blindness, while a 13 like me thinks it's kind intriguing.

Fortrose and Rosemarkie is indeed one of the most interesting sites for a golf course I have ever seen.  But I'm not in a hurry to go back.

Dunbar, where played yesterday, is another matter entirely.

And, I also think THE Nairn Golf Club is overrated, mostly because, IMHO, it's one of the most "Americanized" links courses around. Nairn Dunbar is pretty damned good if you ask me.

K

[Thomas Dai]

Ken's point "can't see why Tain doesn't get much love" is one I go along with.
Maybe the view from the 1st tee and over the last couple of holes coming back towards the the clubhouse are not that visually stimulating but when you reach the opening green things change and then to me the course flows and plays very nicely all the way home. There are some damn fine holes out there, I was going to specify them, but when I ran through them in my mind I liked just about all of them!
The hole I think least of however, is the famous Alps hole, the 11th, the one with the Dolly Parton mounds in front of the green. IMO the hole would be better if the two mounds were not there at all, rather the green was raised with a drop at the rear, bit like the 11th green at TOC or the 12th at Southernness. You'd then also get to see more of the wonderful views out over the Firth towards Dornoch.
Other than the 11th, there are some deceptive green complexes, some are still the original ones from Old Tom's time, and lots of gorse around. Perhaps the hump-bumpy fairways put some folk off, particularly if the course is playing dried-out firm-n-fast, but I happen to like that characteristic of links golf.
I could happily play lots of golf at Tain. They have a open competition golf week in August apparently, tempting one day.

As to Davids points about the condition of Golspie, this is great to hear. When I was up that way the best greens we putted on were at Golspie. They were better at Golspie than at Royal Dornoch. FWIW, the greens at Tain came second behind Golspie for surface trueness, although things change with monthly etc maintenance timings.

Seems like Fortrose and Rosemarkie is worth playing at least once so it's going on my 'one day' list.

Great part of the world, especially with the proximity of Inverness Airport......for six month of the year! The rest of the year? Well around Melbourne, playing the sandbelt courses, would be extremely acceptable, time and £$£ permitting.

All the best.

[Jon Wiggett]

Thomas,

Tain tee to Green is as good as it gets. The routing is good and a good variety of challenges but the green complexes are mundane at best. The first is a great example. Wonderful contours all the way until the last 30 yards and then a pancake green. I would recommend playing up here in the winter as you have these wonderful courses to yourself apart from the odd member. There is nothing better than stepping out on to the first tee at Dornoch on a beautiful winters day with the course to yourself.

Jon

[Niall C]

Got to disagree with those giving Nairn a kicking. Yes its incredibly pretentious but if you ignore the clubhouse, the members and the views that are OK but pale in comparison to other courses along the same coast, the golf course is very good with some compelling golf. To me its like Troon in that the course gets dissed because the club lacks charm and the course lacks aesthetics. Give me the choice and I'll take a quality golf hole over charm and a nice view every time.

Ally

Moray Old - cracking course. There's a couple of blah holes on the airbase side of the road however both could be improved immensely with new greens (amateur architect alert !), one on the par 3 and the other on the long par 4 seventh. I'd also put the seventh green back a bit making it a (reachanle) par 5 in the right conditions. The next hole is also a long par 4 followed by two cracking short par 4's. By lengthening the seventh and turning the second short par 4 into a par 3 by way of a new tee, I think you'd have a much better sequence of holes. Do that and it would be nearly as good as Silloth  

Indeed the 10th has a forward tee (yellow) that is about 250 yards that could qualify for Adams thread.

Moray New - all the making there of a cracking links course, just needs a new set of greens and some "featuring" as they used to say, on the new holes that were built in the 1970's to turn it into 18 holes.

Niall

[Jonathan Mallard]

We played Nairn last Saturday.

I thought that the 4th hole, particularly the green complex was spectacular.

I thought the 13th and 14th holes were very good.

I thought the other 15 holes were solid, and unremarkable either way. Much like 1-6 at Troon.

[Phil McDade]

Get off the coasts and head for the mountains -- I hope folks aren't left with the impression that Boat of Garten is only worth a play because it's a bargain. A bunch of very good holes, a couple of outstanding ones, a bit of quirk, and maybe one -- the par 3 1st -- that borders on being dull. Maybe the toughest course you can play at under 6,000 yards?

[Sean_A]

I too think Nairn is getting an unreasonable kicking.  I don't think its great and because of the green fee I don't think its good value, but the course is good.  I think its a very good choice to play the day one flies.  When I played it, the conditioning knocked the socks off Dornoch. Anyway, I think its in the same class of quality as Brora.

Ciao

[Joe_Tucholski]

Dunbar, where played yesterday, is another matter entirely.

And, I also think THE Nairn Golf Club is overrated, mostly because, IMHO, it's one of the most "Americanized" links courses around. Nairn Dunbar is pretty damned good if you ask me.

K

Ken I played Nairn and Nairn Dunbar on back to back days in comps...so the green fee was 20 pounds at each course.  If the green fees were the same on each course would you really pick Nairn Dunbar over Nairn?  I know I pick Nairn.

[Chris Oldham]

I agree that Fortrose & Rosemarkie is worth playing at least once, but it is such an interesting course with many wonderful holes that I would try to play it at least twice - possibly on the same day.  I played the 2013 Black Isle Open earlier this year (36 holes in one day) and found the second round to be much more enjoyable knowing the course a little better. The location may be one of the best in the Highlands in terms of scenery and the staff and members are exceptionally welcoming.

"A mention for Golspie. Lovely place and course. Three styles of course in one 18-hole round. Nice to hear it's recovered from that awful winter storm.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie? Any thoughts folks?"

Thomas D. -

I played Golspie this morning. The course is in terrific shape. Alexander Macdonald and his assistant have done a wonderful job putting the course back together from the winter storm. It is now in better shape than ever before.

Fortrose & Rosemarkie is certainly worth playing at least once. It is a remarkable routing set on one of the most unique properties I have ever seen.

DT

[Jon Wiggett]

Phil,

the 1st & 13th greens at BoG is are new ones and totally out of character with the rest of the course. The old first was quite flat but a good enough starting hole. The new 13th is a bit of a mystery to me because whilst its individual elements seem to be good it just does not fit. Thing is I can not put my finger on why but suspect it might just be its newness which will fade with time.

Jon