What did you think of Machrie? When I was last there it was going under the knife. And it sounded like they wanted to get rid of everything that made it so special. I hope I misunderstood.
Hi Chris:
I expected not to like the course, for the same reasons you stated. My only prior experience there was in 1983, when the course was crazy full of blind shots . . . I didn't think that was a great course in any way, but it was something of a museum piece.
The new course is certainly much more modern and designed to make more of the seaside views, but there was also a lot of good golf, and 3-4 blind shots to retain a taste of the old course. After forty years, I didn't remember the old layout well enough, but one of the locals helped me piece together how it had all changed and it is pretty much ALL changed, except for the green site of the 17th.
Also the hotel, which was once a wreck, is now lovely. It's clearly geared toward the international tourist crowd who go to Islay for the distilleries, but also want to stay somewhere nice and have some golf, and it hits that mark.