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Malcolm Mckinnon

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Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« on: October 27, 2015, 12:28:02 AM »
Welcome to the Cumbrian Coast!


Silloth was a lively Victorian Seaside resort and then it fell out of favor. The Willy Park Jr. golf course is one of the great courses in the UK yet today is "off the map" for the average golf tourist.


Too bad as it is "freaking" great.




Clubhouse view.


DSC00271 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


1st tee.


DSC00272 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


Approach to a sunken 1st green..


DSC00273 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


2nd tee view!


DSC00274 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


View of 2nd green..


DSC00276 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


2nd green...


DSC00277 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


3rd tee..


DSC00278 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


Approaching the 3rd green...


DSC00279 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


3rd green...


DSC00281 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


4th tee...


DSC00283 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


4th approach..


DSC00284 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr




4th green...


DSC00285 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


4th Green looking down from 5th tee!!!!!


DSC00288 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


5th tee...


DSC00287 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


View across to Scotland...


DSC00289 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


5th getting closer...


DSC00292 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


6th tee par 3...


DSC00293 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


6th again...


DSC00294 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


6th green...


DSC00295 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


to be continued!




« Last Edit: October 27, 2015, 12:39:06 AM by Malcolm Mckinnon »

Martin Toal

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2015, 03:31:38 AM »
Nice pics. I was a member of Silloth (as others here have also been or are) for a few years and it is a terrific honest golf course and club. Some quirk, but genuine quirk rather than contrived quirk, and lots of character. Friendly club too. I went to work in Carlisle and arrived in the area ahead of time to look for somewhere to live. Played at Silloth with some local members and halfway round one of them asked me if I was going to join. I said I would love to. He told me they would sort it out after the round, and I joined and was accepted while having a drink in the bar.


It is a genuine 'worth going out of your way to play' course.

Joe Bausch

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2015, 05:48:18 AM »
Lovely colors, M2!
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Malcolm Mckinnon

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2015, 11:20:26 PM »
7th tee...


DSC00296 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


7th  Fairway..


DSC00297 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


7th green!


DSC00298 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


7th green from above...


DSC00299 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


8th tee..


DSC00300 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


8th approach..


DSC00301 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


9th tee.. What a great short par 3!!!


DSC00302 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


10th tee..


DSC00303 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


10th approach..


DSC00304 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


10th green...


DSC00305 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


11th tee...


DSC00306 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


11th tee again..


DSC00307 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


11th approach..


DSC00308 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


12th tee, par 3..


DSC00309 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


More later, Let's Go Mets!!!






Josh Stevens

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2015, 05:41:26 AM »
If there were a prize for best course in worst town, Silloth would be a contender

Niall C

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2015, 09:32:49 AM »
Josh


As a former member of Silloth I suppose I should answer your scurrillious remarks about the beautiful fair town of Silloth. While it is perhaps true that grid pattern on which it is built doesn't lend it any charm, and the architecture is much of a muchness, and also it does have the feel of a town that has seen it's best days, it does possess a lovely public area fronting the Solway with glorious over to Scotland. Also, a few idiots excepted, the people of Silloth are a friendly bunch as I can testify having made quite a few friends in my years as a member of the club.


One thing though we can agree on and that is that Silloth is a great course.


Niall

Malcolm Mckinnon

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2015, 12:09:44 AM »
Have any of you played Pine Valley Golf Club in Clementon, NJ, USA?


Clementon is a pit, yet I can't  figure out how it drags down the golf course.


Answer:  It doesn't.






« Last Edit: October 29, 2015, 12:12:47 AM by Malcolm Mckinnon »

Josh Stevens

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2015, 08:02:44 AM »
I'm being mean so I apologise.  IT is the nearest decent course to the Lake District and so worth a trip, but always skuttle back to the Lakes in the evening

Niall C

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2015, 08:13:38 AM »
DECENT !!! Now you really are being scurrillious.


Niall

Josh Stevens

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2015, 07:20:57 PM »
A "decent track" is high praise where I come from.

Rich Goodale

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2015, 10:30:17 AM »
Great pics, Malcolm.  Thanks.

Silloth is in my personal top 50.  The BUDA that we had there a few years ago was one of our best and the club is one of the most friendly I have known.  The town lacks charm, but so do Brora, Bandon, Hoylake, Deal, Prestwick, Hutchinson, Ponte Vedra Beach, Newcastle, Mullen, etc. etc.

Rich
Life is good.

Any afterlife is unlikely and/or dodgy.

Jean-Paul Parodi

Malcolm Mckinnon

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #11 on: October 30, 2015, 10:46:11 PM »
Now that we  have that out of our system Let's proceed. The 13th is one of the finest par 5's I have encountered.


13 tee, a constrained fairway


DSC00310 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


To an uphill 2nd shot


DSC00311 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


The upper portion of the hole is laid along a narrow spine of ridgeline that falls away steeply both right and left with the green positioned at the summit.


DSC00312 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


View from the summit and green looking back!


DSC00314 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


14th tee, another par 5 but heading home now.


DSC00315 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


And, my apologies, my Sony Camera switched to "special effects" mode. Still I enjoy the impressionistic shots.


14th fairway, going up!


DSC00316 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


14th approach, over the hump.


DSC00317 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


14th looking back.


DSC00318 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


15th tee


DSC00319 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


15th green


DSC00320 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


16th, par 3


DSC00321 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


16th again!


DSC00322 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


17th tee, "Duffers"


DSC00323 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


17th approach


DSC00324 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


17th green, we were using putters to approach from 50 yards out!!


DSC00325 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flick




18th tee


DSC00326 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


18th again


DSC00327 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


18th approach, short and left there is a "Ladies bunker" which if you find with your ball you are obliged to donate 5 quid to the Ladies golf fund.


DSC00329 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


The Ladies bunker is over there and yes!, there is a vigilant eye watching from the clubhouse and enforcing the penalty fee for finding it.


DSC00330 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr


18th green, and 19th hole is welcoming as well!! One Guinness  extra cold, please. yum!


DSC00331 by Malcolm Mckinnon, on Flickr






« Last Edit: October 31, 2015, 12:01:27 AM by Malcolm Mckinnon »

Peter Pallotta

Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #12 on: October 30, 2015, 10:54:31 PM »
Thank you, Malcolm- yet another charmer of course!

I was looking at the 8th hole and thinking, 'Ah yes, more of that lovely restraint and simplicity that I like so much'.  There it is, a good size fairway to aim at, and the only sign of 'architecture' or 'design' are two wee bunkers out in the distance. But, if you should find yourself *in* one of those bunkers, alas, you've almost assuredly lost a stroke.

And that's golf.

Peter

Malcolm Mckinnon

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #13 on: October 30, 2015, 11:18:16 PM »
Peter,


It would appear that the right to left slope of the fairway might direct your ball right into that fairway bunker.


Doesn't seem fair!?!

Thomas Dai

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2015, 07:35:31 AM »
Thanks for the tour Malcolm. Lots of very fine stuff at Silloth, and as you say, the 13th is some hole/green.
atb

JJShanley

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #15 on: June 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM »
I took Papa Shanley to Silloth on Solway a few weeks ago for our now annual away day.  I played 36, while my father sat out the afternoon round.


It takes some scheduling to get there - 2 hours plus from Edinburgh, for example - but I recommend visiting if you can.  Perhaps the members would get bored after having played it several hundred times, but I sat in the clubhouse at about 8:00 p.m., with a well deserved pint, wondering if I could get out and play another six holes.  (I didn't.)  I could sit by the corner window looking out on the course for hours on end during the high season. 


I'd describe it as "Royal Troon, which I have seen in person but not played, except on a far more interesting piece of property."  We played it in a NW wind, apparently the opposite of the typical wind.  That did make for an unbalanced of nines, with a bunch of driver-wedges on the way out, with driver-hybrid the weapons of choice on the way back.  I'd love to have seen it in the conventional wind, in which I understand it plays the overwhelming majority of the year, but I'd a grand time there.


I enjoy blind second shots, with seven (humble brag alert: I birdied it second time around with a 50° wedge to three feet pin high) as particularly fun example.  Perhaps I simply miss links golf, having played a decent amount of it as a junior in East Lothian, but I enjoyed the intellectual challenge that SoS poses.  The only criticism I have involves the routing of the eighth green, the ninth hole (postage stamp par three), and the tenth tee.  Perhaps also the walk back to the sixth tee from the fifth green.


(I believe the club wants to do some work on the holes early in the back-nine.  They have a display in the clubhouse detailing proposals, but I didn't want to photograph it without their permission, and then I forgot about it.)


The folks at the Queen's Hotel B&B are magnificent as well.  I can recommend staying there.




Mark Pearce

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #16 on: June 06, 2016, 12:35:43 PM »
JJ,


What don't you like about the 9th?  I've always thought it to be a really good short par 3.
In June I will be riding the first three stages of this year's Tour de France route for charity.  630km (394 miles) in three days, with 7800m (25,600 feet) of climbing for the William Wates Memorial Trust (https://rideleloop.org/the-charity/) which supports underprivileged young people.

JJShanley

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #17 on: June 06, 2016, 12:44:09 PM »
JJ,

What don't you like about the 9th?  I've always thought it to be a really good short par 3.
My error: I meant I didn't like doubling back to get to the 10th tee.  I really enjoyed the 9th hole both times around.  Perhaps the club could use the dune land to the south for a new tenth tee.  I wouldn't change anything about 9 as a standalone hole. 

Niall C

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #18 on: June 06, 2016, 01:08:49 PM »
JJ


The 9th is the postage stamp hole, a classic. As a former member who has played there hundreds of times I objected more to the climb up to the 9th tee rather than the walk down to the 10th but I suppose I was also used to the views therefore didn't experience that sense of arrival and wonder that first timers get when the reach a summit.


I have to say I'm a bit concerned that they are looking to tweak any more of Silloth. To me it's certainly the best links course I've played and also possibly the best course I've played. The only thing I can think that might improve that stretch might be to shift the 10th tee to the right of the 9th green as you look at it from the 9th tee, so that the 10th tee would sit on the boundary fence atop the dune ridge with the hole playing over the slack area between the two dune ridges. That would/should lengthen the hole while straightening it out as well. At the moment the 10th is an awkward sharp dog-leg left that the big-hitters now routinely try for in one resulting in all sorts of issues.


If they did that then they could move the 8th green back and right further up towards the 9th tee. In recent years the area to the left of the 8th green and beyond in front of the current 10th tee is boggy in winter with the general rise in the water table.


It was Tom MacKenzie who made the changes at the 5th. Do you know if it's him that has come up with the proposed changes at the far end and what is it that is being proposed anyway ?


Niall

JJShanley

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #19 on: June 06, 2016, 02:08:43 PM »
I had meant to email the club to thank them for a wonderful day, so I'll ask if they could share the proposed changes.  I want to say that it involved the 12th. 


The walk up to the 9th might get old after a hundred rounds, but I found it worth it at about 5:45 p.m. on the Thursday evening. 


It ranks as one of my favorite (favourite?) clubhouses.  I know that folks here look down on the fancy food thing, but my BBQ pork burger hit the spot.  Ditto the steak sandwich.  Give me a comfy chair, comfort food, a decent view (with binoculars, no less!) and I'll say lots of nice things about your club.


There's something about a well struck shot from links turf.  Perhaps it's the sound or the resistance.  Whatever it is, it's like crack for me. 

Mark Pearce

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #20 on: June 07, 2016, 01:00:04 AM »
Thanks for the clarification, JJ.


Silloth is one of those places where the golf club is, by a distance, the best place to eat in town.
In June I will be riding the first three stages of this year's Tour de France route for charity.  630km (394 miles) in three days, with 7800m (25,600 feet) of climbing for the William Wates Memorial Trust (https://rideleloop.org/the-charity/) which supports underprivileged young people.

Michael Graham

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #21 on: June 07, 2016, 03:45:25 AM »
Johnjo,


I'm glad you and your Dad had a good time at Silloth. Did you play 36? I don't know why I've never made the journey down from Edinburgh. Maybe this summer...


I hope you packed more appropriately than you did at North Berwick.

David McIntosh

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #22 on: June 15, 2016, 09:08:13 AM »
Malcolm,

Many thanks for posting - excellent tour.

Michael,

I'd recommend making the trip down to Silloth this summer if you possibly can. I've only played it the once back in October 2014 and it was definitely worth the trip to get there from Edinburgh. I tied my round at Silloth in with a game across the Solway Firth at Southerness the following day - a great weekend's golf. The wind was absolutely howling when I played so conditions were tough but very enjoyable nonetheless. Personal favourites would be the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 13th holes but, as you can see from Malcolm's photos, they're all very good and you won't be disappointed.

David

Eric Smith

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #23 on: June 15, 2016, 09:18:20 AM »
Silloth looks to be playing f&f judging from today's Facebook posting:



Niall C

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Re: Silloth on Solway Photos, Welcome to the Cumbrian coast
« Reply #24 on: June 15, 2016, 09:50:48 AM »
Eric


I played at Gailes at the weekend and it was similar. The west coast has had a good spell of weather in the last couple of weeks and its amazing how quickly it can turn from emerald green with water-logged bunkers to yellow fairways with dust and sand thrown up when the ball lands. The last couple of weeks I've been going by bunkers that I've been nowhere near for about 2 years. Fingers crossed this bodes well for the Open.


Niall