Todays blog is dedicated to having fun at ease in Southern Ayrshire, or more specifically around Troon in Soth Western Scotland. Having found an "all-exclusive airline" to Prestwick and thinking about golfing in the Glasgow area, we did some last week changes to the program and set up our base in Troon at the Piersland House Guest Hotel.
Arriving to the hotel we were welcomed with our home country flag at the entrance. The hotel turned out to be very well managed, great dinners at affordable prices, a wide selection of whiskys in the bar and plenty of golf courses within a 10GBP taxi drive. This became our home for 3 days.
The top-course played was Western Gailes, a course used for the qualification rounds for this years British Open. Nicely laid out on the dunes between the sea and a railway. 4 holes north, 9 holes south and 5 holes back up north. Nice layout and a fantastic finish. Our scores did however take a big hit in the wind that was blowing strongly. We got use for the expression "It was so windy so that even the birds were walking" And the challenge was further enhanced by playing 36 holes in a day. Don't miss a beer and a whisky afterwards that were offered at what we interpreted as a 3 for the price of 1 concept.
The second best of the courses played was Dundonald Links, just on the other side of the railway, and u r right, it was windy as well. Mor variety of the holes and a few dog legs. A PAR 3 playing at 145m straight into the wind, we all played driver and no one reached green.... Started a bit late so the last two holes were tee shoots in "leap of fait" style, just hoping that they landed on the fairway. Hard to put well.
The third was Kilmarnock (Barrassie) links also across the railway from Western Gailes. A course with 9 holes located inbetween trees and 9 more open = windy. A lot of doglegs and varying holes but distance markes was limited to one single 150 yard sign per hole!!! Almost impossible to guestimate the right clubs for approaches and many shoots sent way off the target. Bunkers in play on most tee shots as well as around the greens, I think I managed to get 5 decent shots into bunkers on the first 3 holes.
We were recommended LochGreen among the public courses, and I have a run around the lot, most likely against the local rules, and found it to be a open course with now trees, plenty of straight holes and open for wind when that is around.
Will most likely go back, keen on playing Troon, Prestwick St Nicholas and a public course. And May and September seem to be the period to travel. The only thing to be aware of is to book tee times veeerrryyy early if you plant to play a Saturday or a Sunday, most clubs then only offer a handful of teetimes in the late afternoon. But these negatives are more than balanced by all the possitives that we experienced.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment