As a warm up before our game at Machrihanish Dunes yesterday afternoon, my golfing chums decided that we should play the delightful little Pans course at Machrihanish. This 9-hole layout is where the Machrihanish Ladies normally play their regular games of golf.
I’m not sure when the course was actually laid out or if Old Tom was involved in its construction. If Ken Campbell the professional can shed any light on the matter then I’ll edit this thread accordingly.
Here’s a quick tour of the course, which sits slightly inland from the Championship layout.
Hole 1 “Trodigal” is 184-yard par three that plays alongside the road that leads to the clubhouse. Note the wonderful swale that fronts the green. None of our four balls (launched into a three club wind) found the putting surface.
Hole 2 “Machairinnean,” the short par four 2nd hole (289 yards) is, along with the short par four 8th, one of the two least interesting holes on the course. It plays to a rather featureless green that I will not try to embellish with reverential nonsense like “note the subtlety of the putting surface”…
Hole 3 “The Red Broose” is a terrific par three (187 yards) where the green sits on the edge of higher ground over which the remainder of the course is laid out. A stout blow is required across Machrihanish Water to reach a bunkerless putting surface that tilts from back to front.
Hole 4 “Park Fergus” is the only par five on the card, measuring a very modest 411 yards. Note the substantial hidden depression to the front of the green that only becomes apparent the closer one walks towards the hole.
Hole 5 “Clochkeil” is a par four that extends to a mere 316 yards and it concludes the run of holes away from the clubhouse. Note the fantastic rumpled right hand side of the fairway approaching the green.
Hole 6 “ The Laggan” begins the run for home and it’s a very short (270 yards) par four the doglegs slightly to the left to a green that’s protected by a couple of bunkers to the right and one to the left.
Hole 7 “Drumlemble” measures only 120 yards from tee to green. It’s very short but the offset tee position that our group played from offered a decent challenge.
Hole 8 “Skarry-Fell” is a short par four (256 yards) that plays to a rather bland green positioned close to the 3rd green. Not much to say about this hole, I’m afraid. On leaving the green , a walk of a couple of hundred yards to the final tee then follows, down onto the lower-lying land that leads to the clubhouse.
Hole 9 “The Pans” is the 343-yard home hole. There’s Out of Bounds all the way along the right side of the fairway which leads to a green that runs away from front to back. Like the Championnship course, the home green is situated a god way away from the clubhouse.
And there you have it, the Pans course at Machrihanish.
By no means a world beater, but one that I’d match hole by hole against any of the more celebrated (or sacred) nine holers that adorn the pages of gca from time to time.
It might only measure 2376 yards in length but when did size ever matter when looking at a golfing beauty?