In recent years, I’ve been most fortunate to make annual trips to Scotland to pursue our favorite game on the traditional Scottish Links courses. This year, I was accompanied by my son Jack, his buddy Griffin and my friend Jim Reichert from Savannah, GA. Privileged as I am to be a member at Royal Dornoch, we focus mainly on the Scottish Highlands and play several rounds at Dornoch along with a few others to get the full taste of the Highlands, in addition to Millionaire Slices (Chocolate Caramel Shortbread), Tennents Lager and Balblair Scotch (more on that later). Despite all that, I actually lost 2.5 lbs!!!
Both the Championship and Struie Courses at Royal Dornoch are always as tasty as golf gets. Not nearly enough people play Struie when visiting and should. We also added Fortrose & Rosemarkie (Jack’s a member there), Old Petty at Cabot Highlands, Golspie, Tain (the youngsters) and both the Landsdowne and Rosemount courses at Blairgowrie GC. While I didn’t play at the Golspie Open (back issues) Jim shot a 77 in 40 MPH winds and won the event and was given a complimentary membership.
The most pleasant surprise was Blairgowrie Golf Club, a stunning 45-hole club managed by the most capable and hospitable Stuart Wilson with 18 holes by the collaboration of Dr. Alistair McKenzie & James Braid (Rosemount) and Peter Allis & Dave Thomas (Landsdowne), along with the “Wee Course” short course designed by McKenzie consisting of 4 one-shotters and 5 par 4’s which was where golf at Blairgowrie began in the late 19th century. Though not the typical Scottish Links, this combination parkland/heathland property is well worth the visit and nicely breaks up the drive from Edinburgh Airport north tot he Highlands.
At Old Petty, I found the course to be as aesthetically pleasing as anywhere and the fescue fairways were a pleasure to hit irons from. The green complexes were also both very large and interesting despite some being blind not only from the tee but in a few cases on approach shots. The scale of Old Petty is quite vast, making for tough judgement of distance in some cases. The conditioning was excellent.
As a Royal Dornoch member, I’m sure I’m biased but there’s truly nothing better and I haven’t met many who disagree. I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate my friend, GM Neil Hampton and his team along with club leadership on a job well done with the beautiful new clubhouse, offering the added dimension to RDGC of a “great hang” heretofore not present.
As I mentioned, we also visited the Balblair Scotch Whiskey distillery just a 15 minute drive from Dornoch. Though I don’t partake often, Balblair has become my favorite for its smooth consistency and visiting where it’s made was most interesting. The most prominent things I learned were that their water all comes from nearby runoff down the mountain (not a waterway) and that a whiskey’s consistency (smooth vs. “a bite”) is largely determined by the physical shape of the still.
As usual, a great 9 days. Kudos and thanks to the folks at Dornoch Town & Country Lettings (as usual) for our accommodations at Frazier Cottage just a short stroll to the golf course. Plans already in the works for next year.
