Well, on very short notice, I did the trip.
Planned it out on a Wednesday night, flew on a Sunday.
Connected into Inverness through Heathrow.
(Almost) no problems with delays and none with luggage.
Connections lined up very nicely for golf on both arrival AND departure day, very unusual for Scotland, where direct flights out of EDI are usually morning affairs.
5 nights,6 days of golf
Day 1.arrive Inverness and play Brora
2.Golspie and Dornoch
3. Wick
4. Reay and Durness
5. Ullapool and Ullapool (was supposed to play Bonar Bridge but enjoyed Ullapool so much we ate lunch and went out again
6. Fortrose and Rosemarkie and fly out of Inverness
Below is NOT a ranking, but commentary
1.Reay---Biggest positive surprise for first time play. Very rustic, warm welcome before and after(we were the only ones playing on a beautiful sunny day)
Raw, fun golf. Stern 233 yard par 3 opener and par 3 finisher. Good variety playing in a variety of different directions.
Good elevation change and many unique holes.
The only nit might be the narrow strippy native between the parallel fairways. Like Wick ,very hard to find a ball in the native.
I will DEFINITELY return.
2.Golspie-had played it before, but was very impressed. The place oozes texture, scenery and variety.
Probably the favorite course of the trip by the group.
Great to catch up again with GCAer David Tepper
3.Durness-still magical. Incredible variety, remoteness and Big Sky feeling.
The drive in from the east and out to the south is simply the most scenic drive I've ever taken.Moreso on this trip-perhaps because my drive direction was reversed.
4. Brora-very friendly welcome, still the great mostly unspoiled course it once was. A good choice right off the plane with wide sheep mown corridors.
Remains a favorite of mine. Definitely a bit busier these days-such is life.
5. Ullapool-mostly inland and they are planting many stupid trees, but the four holes along the water are just jaw dropping.
The other holes are mostly enjoyable and the 30 mph wind we had made for high entertainment value. No one reached the 181 downhill second from 181 yards, and the same group drove multiple 300 plus yard par 4's at Fortrose, Golspie etc.
6. Fortrose-highly playable on a calm day, limited variety on a windless day, mostly compelling holes and the best natural links grass conditioning-firm and fast(best greens on the trip).Perhaps lacking in variety and on the short side. Cool, unique site on a compact piece of property.
7. Dornoch. Had played it before, returned because the other three in my party hadn't played it. It's a very,very good links course, but Scotland has many.
Very good par 3's but we've all heard about them(especially the greens on #2 and 6). I preferred the par 3's at Golspie for variety.
Foxy, #14 is amazing green, making an amazing hole.
The pandemic, and America's discovery and unadulterated praise and love for the course has done it and the club no favors IMHO.
Either it's been in a micro climate lately(compared to nearby places it was far more green) or they feel compelled to use their fairway irrigation.
I had similar emotions when I played it in 2006, noting at the time the Disneyland like/factory like feel. Perhaps I just caught it on two bad days, but there I was, part of the problem.
I suspect this was not the case in 1985.
Great course and place, but to a man, we far preferred the rawness and remoteness of the other places by a lot.
8. Wick- very remote , another place we were the only people there.fairways a bit meadowy-straight out and back made some of the drives on both nines feel a bit repetitive.
Very interesting greens -perhaps the best of the trip in terms of interest and design.. A good links course with some very good views from tees.
Hit the fairways or lose the ball.
400 miles of driving in a Ford Galaxy van-great car.