Roadtrip; The Schedule

Before I go to St Andrews to work at the Open Championship next week, myself and a friend have decided and planned to go on a little trip, playing 5 courses in three days in the north east of Scotland. I was lucky when I was a kid that my dad took me around most of the courses in the area, so I called on my memories of them to design a schedule. This was more problematic than first imagined, because the sheer volume of great courses to choose from meant that the shortlist contained 18 courses!

We finally narrowed it down to five, and fortunately we have managed to plan it so that two of them are having 18 hole Open competitions on the day we are playing them, giving us a couple of chances to reduce our handicap, as well as reducing the amount spent on green fees.

Most readers outside of this corner of Scotland will probably never have heard of any of these courses, but I think they are all absolute gems, you don’t have to play a Carnoustie or St Andrews when in Scotland (as good as they are) in order to play real top quality golf courses. I would happily recommend any of the following five courses to anyone. For those on a budget, this shouldn’t be a problem. We are playing 5 top quality golf courses, with 2 overnight hotel stays, and the total cost is £190 ($280) each (of which the golf is £140 ($206) and the hotels are £50 ($74)).

I will post from my BlackBerry, including some spectacular photos, as we work our way around the country over the weekend.

Setting off on Friday morning from the chequered flag near Dundee, we go up first of all to; (1) Boat of Garten. It is a James Braid designed course, set in amongst silver birches, heather, and with magnificent views of the Cairngorm mountains. It’s a par 70 with an SSS of 69, but don’t let this fool you, anyone playing to their handicap on this course is doing very well. An hour’s drive later we will play (2) Nairn Dunbar. I haven’t played this course before, but it’s reputation precedes it. Looking at pictures of it, it really looks like Carnoustie, with a bit more gorse waiting to catch errant tee shots. Off the back tees it is par 72, with an SSS of 74 indicating how difficult it is. Off the midweek tees it is the same par, but a gentler SSS of 71 and 500 yards shorter.

We stay in (A) Elgin on Friday, and Saturday contains just the one round, in the (3) Aboyne 18 hole Open. I haven’t played Aboyne in about 15 years, but I remember enjoying it when I did play it. It is par 68, and the first and last holes are both par 3s. However, don’t think that it’s too easy – those first and last holes measure 237 and 230 yards respectively.

After a night in (B) Aberdeen, we have an early start on Sunday to play (4) Stonehaven. I haven’t played this course either, but I have passed it on the train many times and have always wanted to play it since I first set eyes on it. It is only a par 66, with an SSS of 65, and a yardage of around 5,100 yards, so it is not the most difficult course but a lot of it is uphill. However, it has some of the most spectacular views imaginable on a golf course, with several of the holes being on the side of, or indeed require a hit over, steep cliffs that the North Sea has pounded for several thousand years. On Sunday afternoon we take a step closer to home to play (5) Montrose Medal in the Royal Montrose Bicentenary 18 Hole Open. Not many golf clubs can claim to be 200 years old, but Royal Montrose has reached that milestone this year. It is reputed to be the 9^th oldest golf club in the world, whilst the medal course at Montrose is reputed to be the 5^th oldest in the world. It is a traditional Scottish east cost links course, which hosts final qualifying when the Open Championship is held at Carnoustie. It is a tricky par 71, with an SSS of 72. This course wasn’t originally in the top 5 we chose, purely because it was out of scope due to being too close to home, not because of the quality of it. However it has fitted nicely into our plans as playing here on Sunday afternoon means that we can get home in time to watch the World Cup Final, and it will also be a practice round for me playing a 5 Day Open competition over the same course in a couple of weeks time.

By Sunday night there will be aching limbs, but it will be worth it to play 90 holes of truly traditional golf, mixing parkland, heathland and links courses, with views changing from mountain ranges to seaside cliffs, all in the space of a weekend.