Played here after New Year as the wife and I were staying with Friends near Fochabers.
The day I played the course was being battered by 70-80mph winds and my friend Mike, his wife and mine were non to keen on venturing out. The side of the club house was covered in sand from the beach and standing in the car park we were also getting sand blasted.
The course was laid out by Old Tom Morris is 1870 and is pretty short at just over 4000 yards as I’d convinced Mike that it wouldn’t show him up much due to the courses lack of length .Anyway off we go from the first a fairly straight forward par 4 which crosses and access road. The 2nd a very interesting hole up a cliff to the raised part of the course at only just over 100 yards blind. At this point the wind had really got up and managed to get on with a 7 iron, unfortunately it started to go wrong for my companion from here and two lost balls later we found ourselves on the 3rd again a fairly straightforward par 4 on a plateau with oob on the left a driver and 5iron here for a 5 and another two lost balls for mike. The 4th is again a blind par 3 up a bank onto the next level. 5th was a long hole in the wind a took a good drive and 3 wood to get close alas another lost ball or two saw mike close to giving up. Then follows another shortest par 3 over a gorge but this time down wind and a couple of pars which impressed the girls. You are then faced with a par 3 from the top of the cliffs down to sea level. This still required a driver as the wind was pretty strong, my drive though only about 170 yards ended up behind where I had started on the fairway. Again mike lost his tee shot as we had no idea where it had gone. Another par 3 and another lost ball saw Mike deicide to call it a day and he, the girls and our respective dogs all headed for the beach and back towards the clubhouse and car.
I carried on and pared the next couple of par 3’s and was looking forward to the back 9 which should have be mostly down wind. Up into the corner and I’m faced with the Boar Cragg a massive granite cliff splitting the course and a stunning feature of the course. A couple of shortish par 4s then a short par 3 over on of the cliffs blind. At this point I’d given up with my range finder as i was being blown around so much a couldn’t get a fix on any of the flags and it one point couldn’t even get the ball to stay on a tee. Once over the cliffs it’s homeward bound apart from one hole you have to hook the ball around a very large volcanic obstruction. It’s then the par 5 15th which was reduced to a driver a 7 iron, then back into the wind for 16. 17 is down wind and the only thing that stops you driving the green is the 2nd tee on top of a large cliff. 18 a shortish par 4 was most welcome despite the fact that I managed to drive though the green a bounce back off the public toilet wall for and easy birdie.
I had a great time despite the wind and I’m definitely going back in the summer for an open.
One of the quirkiest courses I’ve ever played and a stunner at that.
I can’t see mike going back thoughïŠ
The day I played the course was being battered by 70-80mph winds and my friend Mike, his wife and mine were non to keen on venturing out. The side of the club house was covered in sand from the beach and standing in the car park we were also getting sand blasted.
The course was laid out by Old Tom Morris is 1870 and is pretty short at just over 4000 yards as I’d convinced Mike that it wouldn’t show him up much due to the courses lack of length .Anyway off we go from the first a fairly straight forward par 4 which crosses and access road. The 2nd a very interesting hole up a cliff to the raised part of the course at only just over 100 yards blind. At this point the wind had really got up and managed to get on with a 7 iron, unfortunately it started to go wrong for my companion from here and two lost balls later we found ourselves on the 3rd again a fairly straightforward par 4 on a plateau with oob on the left a driver and 5iron here for a 5 and another two lost balls for mike. The 4th is again a blind par 3 up a bank onto the next level. 5th was a long hole in the wind a took a good drive and 3 wood to get close alas another lost ball or two saw mike close to giving up. Then follows another shortest par 3 over a gorge but this time down wind and a couple of pars which impressed the girls. You are then faced with a par 3 from the top of the cliffs down to sea level. This still required a driver as the wind was pretty strong, my drive though only about 170 yards ended up behind where I had started on the fairway. Again mike lost his tee shot as we had no idea where it had gone. Another par 3 and another lost ball saw Mike deicide to call it a day and he, the girls and our respective dogs all headed for the beach and back towards the clubhouse and car.
I carried on and pared the next couple of par 3’s and was looking forward to the back 9 which should have be mostly down wind. Up into the corner and I’m faced with the Boar Cragg a massive granite cliff splitting the course and a stunning feature of the course. A couple of shortish par 4s then a short par 3 over on of the cliffs blind. At this point I’d given up with my range finder as i was being blown around so much a couldn’t get a fix on any of the flags and it one point couldn’t even get the ball to stay on a tee. Once over the cliffs it’s homeward bound apart from one hole you have to hook the ball around a very large volcanic obstruction. It’s then the par 5 15th which was reduced to a driver a 7 iron, then back into the wind for 16. 17 is down wind and the only thing that stops you driving the green is the 2nd tee on top of a large cliff. 18 a shortish par 4 was most welcome despite the fact that I managed to drive though the green a bounce back off the public toilet wall for and easy birdie.
I had a great time despite the wind and I’m definitely going back in the summer for an open.
One of the quirkiest courses I’ve ever played and a stunner at that.
I can’t see mike going back thoughïŠ
