Almost three years ago, post BUDA at Littlestone and Rye, my traveling companion and I headed way north to Scotland. Amongst other courses we had a round at Turnberry Ailsa. It has taken me a long time to get to it, but I took a lot of photos and I thought I'd share them since this course doesn't get a lot of attention around here despite it's high ranking.
As most will know the course was significantly changed in 2015 by Martin Ebert. The major changes to holes 9, 10 and 11 are well known. But it is fair to say that Ebert touched every other hole in some way or other and in a small way or on some, a major way. I had played Ailsa some 15 years before with my son and remembered almost all the holes. Many of the changes were quite noticeable and by and large improved the course in my opinion. One of the design briefs was to enhance the course to be challenging to the professionals in an Open championship. Although obviously I'm not anywhere near that quality of player, I'd say that that aim was achieved, although it is not clear that the Ailsa will host an Open in the near future.
Turnberry Ailsa is a relatively modern course having been rebuilt after WW II by Phillip Mackenzie Ross. And, of course there was the major renovation in 2015. Rather than rehashing the history of the course or going over the changes made in 2015, I'd refer you to Martin Ebert's 80 page Proposal for the changes to the Ailsa course. It is a fine piece of work describing both the history and the design changes and can be found at:
http://www.mackenzieandebert.co.uk/TrumpTurnberryBrochureThe new Turnberry Ailsa is a very good "championship" golf course, better than it's predecessor in my opinion. I cannot however recommend it given the current ownership and egregious pricing. I cannot suggest enriching an owner who has threatened the ruination of my country and declared us a national security threat to the United States. Perhaps at some future time, under different ownership, and at a more reasonable fee it would be well worth a visit.
The iconic hotel has certainly dominated the views looking inland since the early 1900's. The new clubhouse is modern and typically posh if that turns your crank.
Although the course is thought of as a links course, it really is not a natural links. Much of it is on a rocky cliff and a lot of the internal mounding was apparently man made after the war using parts of the concrete runways as fill and using an imported soil mix. Nevertheless it is now a fine, challenging seaside "championship" course.
We were lucky to get a decent Scottish weather day to play, apart from a typical squall coming in off the Irish sea on the 18th hole. The photos for holes 1 through 4 are from after the squall when I went out and walked the holes to get pictures in very benign conditions. From holes 5 through the 18th the photos are from before the squall in decent conditions. I played the course from the yellow tees at par 71 and about 6100 yards. My playing companion played the whites at about 6500 yards. There are back black tees listed at almost 7500 yards for the big boys. The actual playing length of the course is, of course, often affected by the wind blowing in off the Irish sea predominantly from the South West. On this day it was a relatively light wind. On this day I scored well for my abilities while my playing partner had a tough day. I'm not sure if the latter was a result of the course being significantly harder from the 6500 yard tees, or he just had an off day.
The Ailsa is in a very aesthetically pleasing place with the Ailsa Craig offshore, the lighthouse on the point and the sea and wind pounding the cliffs as can be seen from the new 10th green. You'll be able to click through some of the photos to get a larger version.
