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Brian_Ewen

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Iona GC
« on: December 26, 2021, 01:38:16 PM »
Never mentioned in the Discussion Group before?


Iona Golf Course is maintained by sheep and costs £1. It’s the best course you’ve never heard of

https://golf.com/travel/iona-golf-course-best-never-heard/
« Last Edit: December 26, 2021, 01:40:59 PM by Brian_Ewen »

Steve Wilson

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Re: Iona GC
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2021, 03:24:34 PM »
There has been some discussion, but not much.  I recall offering to get Tom Doak on the course with my connections!  I played it with one club in the spring/summer of 2018 I think.  It's beyond rustic and well onto the primitive side of upkeep.  Even with the course map on the score card (obtained at the St. Columba Hotel when you pay your green fee), some of the holes are difficult to suss out at first. 


On the front nine there's a par three uphill to a plateau that is defined by rock outcropping.  The potential exists for a very good shot to ricochet well off line or straight back at you for that matter.  This is the only course I ever played when I had to climb a stile over a fence to get to my tee ball.  Let me amend that by saying it's the only time my tee ball was still inbounds that I had to climb over a stile to get to it.  On most occasions I was retrieving it, but at Iona I was stalking it to play it.  On that hole I played a bump and run from about 80 yards to leave myself a birdie putt from about eight feet.  Using the hybrid I tracked the career of my putt from wormcast to sheep droppings to clumps of flowers as it bobbled along and somehow dropped into the hole.  I


If you are ever on Mull with your sticks, take the ferry to Iona and go play it.  Golf in the raw, back to its origins.  Great fun.

Some days you play golf, some days you find things.

I'm not really registered, but I couldn't find a symbol for certifiable.

"Every good drive by a high handicapper will be punished..."  Garland Bailey at the BUDA in sharing with me what the better player should always remember.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +3/-1
Re: Iona GC
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2021, 06:29:59 PM »
Iona is ahead of Ardfin on my personal list of places to see.  More my speed.  I had identified it from Google Earth as a cool place for a golf course, not realizing there was one!  (It’s so lightly maintained that you really can’t make out the greens.)  Clyde Johnson did write it up somewhere a year or two ago, but not here, maybe?

David_Tepper

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Re: Iona GC
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2021, 09:27:33 PM »

Enno Gerdes

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Re: Iona GC
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2021, 04:30:39 AM »
There's a chapter on Iona in Andrew Greig's 2006 book Preferred Lies (not to be confused with Mike Clayton's 2018 book with the same title).

Mark Chaplin

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Re: Iona GC
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2021, 09:20:34 AM »
Sounds very posh compared to Sanday in the Orkneys. Greens surrounded by fences and you enter the green via a gate, several greens had rabbit warrens not scrapes! You were permitted to move the ball a club length on the “fairway” and on the green to avoid rabbit scrapes, hoof marks, stray daisies and detritus. 
Cave Nil Vino

Niall C

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Re: Iona GC
« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2021, 04:39:45 PM »
I note the article was penned by our very own Tim Gallant. Perhaps he might have something to add, maybe even some photos ?


Niall

Tim Gallant

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Re: Iona GC
« Reply #7 on: December 28, 2021, 06:23:22 AM »
I note the article was penned by our very own Tim Gallant. Perhaps he might have something to add, maybe even some photos ?


Niall


Thanks Niall!!


I actually wrote about the course when I first got back, and it includes a bit more detail on the holes:


https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,68718.msg1648205.html#msg1648205


I was hesitant to give photos to the magazine, but in the end, gave two from the course. But as it is one of the courses where photos can't readily be found on the internet, I think I'll keep it that way, and others can have a joy of 'discovering' the course as I did :)