Garland
Not sure how this got on to a thread on BUDA but glad you posted that aerial. Yes, you’ve got the routing bang on. Holes 5-8 are on the other side of a public road from the rest of the holes, and lie adjacent to RAF Lossiemouth which you can see at the bottom of the picture.
The flight path for landing comes in from the sea and flies more or less directly down the approach to the 9th green. By the time the planes (used to be Tornados, now I think it might be Typhoons ?) go over in front of the 7th tee and behind the 6th green, they are low enough to be hit by a tee shot struck from the 7th. Apparently it has happened although never managed it in my time there.
Jon refers to 6 and 7 being nothing special and I think he’s correct. 6 is a slightly downhill short/medium par 3 with a fairly circular flattish green. Nothing wrong with the length or situation, it’s just that the green complex is bland. A face lift isn’t enough, I’m afraid, it needs to be a complete redesign.
The 7th is on the worst bit of land for golf that the club owns. Not only is it flat but the ground is more peaty than linksy. If I recall it’s a 4 on the card but unless the ball is running hard I can’t get up in two. The green has one bunker front right and clearly designed for long approaches, and there is a centreline bunker further down the fairway but again I rarely reach that. So for the vast majority (I include myself in the ranks of medium hitters) it’s a 3 shotter with the 3rd shot usually a short iron or half wedge to large(ish) open(ish) green. Not very inspiring.
By the time you get to the 15th tee you’ve played 12 par 4’s (depending on where you tee-off on the second). That might sound like monotony but due to the variety and quality in the par 4’s you don’t really notice.
Now how would I improve the course ? Well Garland, I’m glad you asked that question
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First off I’d completely redesign the 6th green.
Secondly I’d address the pacing, if I can call it that, of the stretch from 7 to 10. At the moment you have two hard to reach par 4’s followed by two almost driveable par 4’s. All good holes in their own right apart from the 7th but as a sequence they’re not the best IMO. My changes would be as follows;
7th – build a new green further back to make it a proper par 5 with the green more challenging for short/mid length iron approaches.
8th – I might be tempted if anything to move the tees slightly forward but otherwise leave alone.
9th – leave alone other than perhaps remove the fairway bunker that was built several years ago.
10th – your aerial shows the hole from the very back medal/championship tee behind the 9th green (as you play the 10th). The usual tee plays from in front of the 9th green and makes the10th green nearly driveable. I’d be tempted to move the tee a wee bit further up to make a long par 3.
Thereby by building one new green, two new tees, the sequence goes from two long par 4’s and two short par 4’s to a par 5, a long par 4, a short par 4 and a par 3 which to my mind is a better sequence and you do get to address the bland 7th.
Niall