Arbroath GC, NE Scotland

[Thomas Dai]

Reading through my recently received Confidential Guide there's a statement in the Montrose summary that "(Montrose) is the next town north from Carnoustie".

Well it's not! There's also Arbroath, long established fishing port, home of the famous 'Arbroath Smokie' and base for the Royal Marines.

Arbroath also has a rather nice 18-hole 6,200 yd James Braid links course, originally a Tom Morris course, founded back in the 1870's. The course is sometimes referred to as Arbroath-Elliot and it also has an Artisans section too.

I played it a few times many moons ago and always rather enjoyed it. Famous locally for playing nice-n-dry dry when other local courses are dampish. Front-9 out, back-9 comes, well back with the Dundee-Aberdeen railway line coming into play on several holes.

No photos I'm affraid but I do recall the course being full of features like this, the 16th green,


and this, the 10th green


Both photos are taken from the clubs website - http://www.arbroathgolfcourse.co.uk/index.html - which has lots of interesting information including about the clubs history, although the site does take a bit of navigating.

Arbroath's not been profiled herein and has only really been mentioned in passing by the likes of Brian and myself but it's somewhere worth calling in to if you're passing on the coastal route north from St Andrews-Carnoustie up to Aberdeen-Cruden Bay.

Here's a Bingmap - http://binged.it/1FYLRp5

atb

[jeffwarne]

Thomas very interesting you should post that today.

I've spent the last few days/nights working on accomodations during this year's Open Championship and kind've stumbled upon Arbroath (the town-specifically the cliffs and trails in the area)
great news to hear there's a course there as well-especially since I'm a James Braid cheerleader evidently

Ended up booking a house in Forfar which was about 1/2 the price nightly of any of the Hotels in Fife/Edinburgh for that week.
Certainly Niall Carlton sings the praises of Forfar ,so I intend to check that out as well as it's right out my back door.
With the 2016 Senior Open at Carnoustie I may sneak a round in at some of the venues used for Final Qualifying as well (Panmure, Monifieth, Downfield)

Looks like a train from Dundee to Leuchars should make Open travel a snap.(if I can pull myself away from the golf )

Anybody looking for a game up in that are that week(Tues-Fri) shoot me a pm.

[Thomas Dai]

Jeff,

Nice coincidence then and smart sounding move accommodation wise if I may say so.

Two other under the usual radar courses, semi-heathlands, in that area and both worth a go are Alyth - originally by Tom Morris with later modications by James Braid - and Edzell which Braid also re-designed.

Alyth - http://www.alythgolfclub.co.uk/

Edzell - http://www.edzellgolfclub.com/

Like Arbroath I played them both many moons ago, persimmon driver and balata days, and liked them. There's Blairgowrie too, very fine, but not really under the usual radar.

Any other target courses/areas for your next summer visit?

atb

[jeffwarne]

Jeff,

Nice coincidence then and smart sounding move accommodation wise if I may say so.

Two other under the usual radar courses, semi-heathlands, in that area and both worth a go are Alyth - originally by Tom Morris with later modications by James Braid - and Edzell which Braid also re-designed.

Alyth - http://www.alythgolfclub.co.uk/

Edzell - http://www.edzellgolfclub.com/

Like Arbroath I played them both many moons ago, persimmon driver and balata days, and liked them. There's Blairgowrie too, very fine, but not really under the usual radar.

Any other target courses/areas for your next summer visit?

atb

Thomas,
just 4 days there with one dedicated to attending the Open so it's probably Panmure, Forfar and one other.(probably Monifieth)
Then it's down to London for 3 days(at least) but I don't get to pick that itinerary

[Bob_Huntley]

When I saw the Headline of Arbroath my mind went completely Off Topic, forgive me.

The record score made in a senior league football match in Britain was a 36-0 victory to the home team of Arbroath vs Bon Accord in 1888. 
 
Years ago when every football fan claimed to know everything about the game, I would wager they could not tell me how many goals were netted in that match. Of course most answers were 36. I never lost a bet.... nets were not introduced until 1890.

Bob

[Jim_Kennedy]

When I saw the Headline of Arbroath my mind went completely Off Topic, forgive me.

The record score made in a senior league football match in Britain was a 36-0 victory to the home team of Arbroath vs Bon Accord in 1888. 
 
Years ago when every football fan claimed to know everything about the game, I would wager they could not tell me how many goals were netted in that match. Of course most answers were 36. I never lost a bet.... nets were not introduced until 1890.

Bob

Yours is a more sure-fire trivia bet than asking who was the only person to have played for the Knicks, the Dodgers, and the Rangers.     

[Bob_Huntley]

When I saw the Headline of Arbroath my mind went completely Off Topic, forgive me.

The record score made in a senior league football match in Britain was a 36-0 victory to the home team of Arbroath vs Bon Accord in 1888. 
 
Years ago when every football fan claimed to know everything about the game, I would wager they could not tell me how many goals were netted in that match. Of course most answers were 36. I never lost a bet.... nets were not introduced until 1890.

Bob

Yours is a more sure-fire trivia bet than asking who was the only person to have played for the Knicks, the Dodgers, and the Rangers.     

Jim,

Do tell.

Bob

[JMEvensky]

Gladys Gooding-- the organist. Everyone who owned an original Trivial Pursuit game remembers this one.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Gladys Gooding-- the organist. Everyone who owned an original Trivial Pursuit game remembers this one.

[Bill_McBride]

Jeff,

Nice coincidence then and smart sounding move accommodation wise if I may say so.

Two other under the usual radar courses, semi-heathlands, in that area and both worth a go are Alyth - originally by Tom Morris with later modications by James Braid - and Edzell which Braid also re-designed.

Alyth - http://www.alythgolfclub.co.uk/

Edzell - http://www.edzellgolfclub.com/

Like Arbroath I played them both many moons ago, persimmon driver and balata days, and liked them. There's Blairgowrie too, very fine, but not really under the usual radar.

Any other target courses/areas for your next summer visit?

atb

Thomas,
just 4 days there with one dedicated to attending the Open so it's probably Panmure, Forfar and one other.(probably Monifieth)
Then it's down to London for 3 days(at least) but I don't get to pick that itinerary

Have you played Elie?

[jeffwarne]

Jeff,

Nice coincidence then and smart sounding move accommodation wise if I may say so.

Two other under the usual radar courses, semi-heathlands, in that area and both worth a go are Alyth - originally by Tom Morris with later modications by James Braid - and Edzell which Braid also re-designed.

Alyth - http://www.alythgolfclub.co.uk/

Edzell - http://www.edzellgolfclub.com/

Like Arbroath I played them both many moons ago, persimmon driver and balata days, and liked them. There's Blairgowrie too, very fine, but not really under the usual radar.

Any other target courses/areas for your next summer visit?

atb

Thomas,
just 4 days there with one dedicated to attending the Open so it's probably Panmure, Forfar and one other.(probably Monifieth)
Then it's down to London for 3 days(at least) but I don't get to pick that itinerary

Have you played Elie?

I haven't. It was on the schedule along with Leven and Lundin when i was going to stay in Fife.
Don't want to deal with Open traffic and there's plenty to play up where I am.
Will take the train down from Dundee to Leuchars to attend Open.

[Brian_Ewen]

When I saw the Headline of Arbroath my mind went completely Off Topic, forgive me.

The record score made in a senior league football match in Britain was a 36-0 victory to the home team of Arbroath vs Bon Accord in 1888. 
 
Years ago when every football fan claimed to know everything about the game, I would wager they could not tell me how many goals were netted in that match. Of course most answers were 36. I never lost a bet.... nets were not introduced until 1890.

Bob

Yes Bob, I remember the day you got me with that one   

[Tom Kelly]

Jeff,

Nice coincidence then and smart sounding move accommodation wise if I may say so.

Two other under the usual radar courses, semi-heathlands, in that area and both worth a go are Alyth - originally by Tom Morris with later modications by James Braid - and Edzell which Braid also re-designed.

Alyth - http://www.alythgolfclub.co.uk/

Edzell - http://www.edzellgolfclub.com/

Like Arbroath I played them both many moons ago, persimmon driver and balata days, and liked them. There's Blairgowrie too, very fine, but not really under the usual radar.

Any other target courses/areas for your next summer visit?

atb

Edzell is currently undergoing some work by Mackenzie & Ebert though I'm not sure whether it is Tom or Martin doing the work. Might be interesting.

https://twitter.com/golfarchitects/status/525337663029514240

[Brian_Ewen]

Edzell is currently undergoing some work by Mackenzie & Ebert though I'm not sure whether it is Tom or Martin doing the work. Might be interesting.

Dont want to say too much, just now, but some of the work being done at Edzell saddens me.

It looks less and less like a Braid each time I see it.

Cross bunkers don't seem to be in any more, and must be obliterated.

[Clyde Johnson]

Played here today...I had been curious for quite a while, and at only 12GBP (plus 1 quid for fairway mat hire) it would have been wrong not to!

While Tom D wouldn't have seen anything new (I doubt?!), I'd still have Arbroath as a good "4" on his scale - on the East coast of Scotland this of course places it firmly amongst the 'also rans,'and easily miss-able.

The course starts off southwards with seven holes on the inland side of the property. The first two are, in truth, slightly bland. The third, a short four, with a heavily protected green, calls for a little restraint with the OOB wall pinching in around the driving zone. Four is the first of a good set of threes, with a green sloping quickly from left towards a burn on the right. The other on the front, seven, is a quirkier number, tucked/angled into a punchbowl of dunes, with bunkers high. Five makes nice use of the OOB over gentle, more agricultural land; six is surprisingly rwild in its micro-contours with its green angled in the opposite direction.

Turning back, the eighth could be a classic. A mid-four with the railway line on the right, a high platform opens up a clear view of the green, but short of this leaves only the very top of the flagstick; playing left may be the ideal compromise, but two nasty pots await. Two more fours follow - the tenth has a nicely nestled green-site, beyond very flat ground - before turning back for two more. The twelth is rescued by a sharply canted green against the line of play, defended on the high-side by two deep pots. Back north, and on this occasion with the wind, holding the 25 yard deep, 8ft raised pimple, is not easy (even in winter!)

Only 5800 or so yards off the middle markers, the 200 yard-plus fourteenth adds some real bite. Tucked through a cut in a dune ridge, a run-up must carry be precise to carry some rumpled fore-ground and played with cut to hold a narrow green that falls away to the left. The blind drive from the fifteenth, to a double green, offers just enough variety. The par-three sixteenth tacks back south one last time - with five pots don't miss short! A short-five and mid-four return through the flatter opening section.

#7:


#8 (from short of RHS platform):


#10:


#12:


#13:


#14:


[According to the current captain of the Arbroath Artisan Club they are struggling, and sadly down (from 75) to only 3 junior members (apparently it is not just them in that part of the world.)]

[Steve Wilson]

I'd like to add a few words on behalf of Arbroath.  While it wasn't my first choice, my others plans were blown to smithereens by family matters for my contacts, a son's broken arm while playing rugby in one case and an unscheduled descent by a son and his family on the father in another. So one happy and one unhappy intervention.


Nevertheless, off to Arbroath having played Montrose the evening before.


Arbroath, though a cramped routing in places, has width.  While you may be using an adjacent fairway or the rough that supposedly separates them, there is room to drive the ball.  OOB is certainly reachable for the left to right shot shape but there is substantial room to employ in playing away from it.


The course is amply and occasionally cunningly and even wickedly bunkered.  Laying up requires some thought (and execution).  On several occasions I found myself unable to play at the flagstick with any hope of stopping the ball close because a bunker kept me from using the terrain to move the ball toward the hole.  This became an internal litany, if I were three yards more that way I could use the shoulder of that bunker to kick the ball....


There a virtually hidden bunkers; one green side on the second hole is visible only as a lifted eyebrow as you walk nearer the green. And at my height it was just ambiguous enough to cause me to walk forward a little further to confirm my suspicions.  I know it's only hidden once to a golfer with a memory, but it's one of those features that might slip even the experienced golfer's consideration in the heat of the fray.


Clyde mentioned the one shooters and they are an admirable collection.  The sloping green on the 4th, Lint Pot, took me completely by surprise.  From just off the green and about fifteen away I settled over my birdie attempt confident of the line only to see it dive under the hole and trickle six feet away.


The 7th is at south end and the high point of the property.  Though named Corse Hill, I will think of it as the Bathtub for the green sits down in a hollow with only the entrance open at green level.  Four or five bunkers surround this little gem.  A good line and good distance gives you an excellent chance for birdie and almost a certain par.  Finding one of the bunkers can lead to interesting times.


After I played the 7th and turned northward along the railway line I saw the haar settling in for a guest appearance.  Fortunately, it was only a cameo as it never mustered itself to full strength.  The last two par threes the 14th and the 16th are very good as well with the 200+ yard 14th looking like a short par four.  The 16th is similar to the 7th in its configuration and even plays back to the south as the course makes its last turn away before swinging back northwards to the clubhouse for the last two holes.


Clyde already mentioned the sixth and how the green is sweetly turned away from the line of play and makes the second challenging, but, and I speak from experience, provides a convenient target  for the approach that has been stopped short and left.  The eighth has a bunker that guards the middle of the green and if you are right or middle with your approach you had best have determined the hole is cut left.


Thirteen has a table top green which is open to run up butthe back third  runs away from you.


The 10th hole though relatively flat does have a narrow burn runnning at the oblque from left to right, the most menacing of configurations for the average player.  Moreover, this green baffled to the extent of misreading an approach putt by a good 10-12 feet off line to the right.


And speaking of the greens, having played Montrose the previous evening and experiencing the almost billiard table flatnesss of them, Arbroach's greens reminded me very quickly that not all links courses have flattish putting surfaces.  In speaking with the pro afterwards, I told him I would recommend Arbroath to anyone who is tired of getting beaten up by the name courses, but "don't expect to make a lot of putts the first time around."


And if it is one of the quickest draining and drying of links courses I may be tempted to try it again once this "all day" rain stops.


So, if you are in the area and want a quick round, tr Arbroath and you might be surprised by some of the golf you find there.