Great thread, Marty.
Golspie, to me, sums up what travelling golfers miss out on when they endeavour to see too much of the countryside in the time they have available. I can't imagine a trip to the Highlands being complete without playing Golspie, but I am sure most do just that.
It's a pretty unique course in the way it so seemlessly transitions from meadow to links to open heath to pine heath to open heath to meadow and once more to links, and holes like 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 17 and 18 are all bloody good holes.
It's hard to be absolute about these things, but the 16th might be the best par three I played during my time in GB&I.
I was with Mike Whitaker, Robin Hiseman, Stan Dodd and Niall Carlton, who'd skipped the round but came out to walk the final few holes with us, and all of us agreed it was an enormously thrilling shot. We, I believe, had the wind into us from the left. We all hit 5i or 4i or an equivalent hybrid, some running it up to the back pin, others flying it back. And those who missed the green had some pretty fun-looking recoveries.
The back-right slope also provides an option to work the ball off or help to stop it if it comes in a bit hot, and you can see that little R-to-L slope in front of the RHS of the green off which a draw will jump nicely.
And all that praise without once mentioning the freakin' view!
On the 6th, I loved two things beyond how the hole plays:
1. My May visit meant the whins in bloom and heather flowering also -look at the gold in the ridge and purple atop the mountain in the pic below!
2. How the small landforms on the hole mimic the larger landforms in the hillside and mountains off in the distance. I think that is a fantastic feature.
And just for good measure, here's a photo of the green at the par four 9th - who would ever believe the picture of the 16th and the picture below are of the same golf course?! Though the pic of the 6th linking them goes some way to displaying how Golspie transitions from one to the other.
