Ally
Fair point. As one of the few on GCA who hasn't had access to this course , what are the access arrangements if any ? Is this yet another high end/expensive/exclusive course that seems to be proliferating in Scotland ?
Niall
Niall
Nothing has been made entirely clear yet. It went through planning identified as a personal course for the use of the owner and his guests only. There keep being hints about access for others -- and certainly a personal golf course does not need four sets of tees, a substantial range and a fifteen bedroom lodge -- but nothing has been entirely confirmed yet AFAIK. Ally's hint about a very high price doesn't surprise me at all, though it sounds as though he has heard something that I have not.
At one point, before the lodge came on the scene, there was a story circulating that the only people able to play would be those who rented the big main estate house. Mr Coffey is reported to be fanatical about privacy and the path between holes seven and eight goes basically straight through his garden, so my suspicion is that there will be no public access when the family is in residence. But how long will they spend there? We don't know.
The only thing we know for certain is that the owner has big ambitions for his course. From that we can deduce that he'll have to allow SOME outside play, which I guess we already knew given that I got to see it being built and Ran and David have had the opportunity to tee it up. It isn't clear yet how that will operate. But I come back to that lodge. You can't exactly staff an operation like that with casuals who only work once every few weeks when there are guests in residence. And though Mr Coffey is super rich, it is a characteristic of the super rich that they don't like throwing money away. Which implies a regular guest presence. But this is all speculation and deduction.