I've held back a while from writing this, I did not want to get too carried away by post trip hysteria. A week later I am ready to go:
I won a golf break on FB to Edinburgh playing at Braids Hill and Swanston, both south of the city centre. Very enjoyable too but it gave me the chance to add on a special course. I was going with my son and we decided to play Gleneagles, The Kings Course. It was £99 each per round, a lot, but as the previous two days golf and accomodation had been for free it seemed the perfect time to go for it. We wanted to stay up near the course but could not justify staying at the Gleneagles Hotel. We booked the Duchally Estate Hotel, around 1/2 mile from the course. The hotel has a small number of rooms and a good number of cottages. A very nice set up, highly recommended. We went into Auchterarder for something to eat. It was grim, really grim so we had a quick pizza and then returned to the hotel for an overpriced beer (but in a safe place), comfy settee and a 60" screen to watch Utd get stuffed by Barcelona
. Maybe the pubs were better once inside but it didn't look as though the money from Gleneagles was filtering through to the nearby town.
The Gleneagles resort has an American feel to it. You turn into the entrance and there is an element of Disney to it. That is not a criticism but the perfectly manicured lawns, large hotel, pristine courses, no litter etc had that feel about it. You park your car and then walk past The Kings first tee and 18th green. Upon reaching the clubhouse we were met by a friendly 'greeter' who checked what we were doing and then took us inside to be booked in. We were looked after by one of 3 staff on non threatening, open desks who checked our time, printed off the booking slip for the starter and we were all done. We perused the lovely, but expensive, pro shop, bought our souvenir ball markers and pitch repairers, and went to the course.
After some practice on the putting green we went to the starter and were ready to go. The starter was ideal, friendly, jovial, helpful. Immediately put us at ease, not intimidating at all. Then the really fun bit.........
The course is gorgeous, really gorgeous. A cracking opening hole. A big open fairway to hit but the second shot is to a very elevated green with an enormous bunker in front of it. Every hole has something about it, no hole is dull. The tee boxes were large but perefectly flat. I have never noticed that on a tee box before but now I will. You could put a spirit level over all of them and the bubble would stay dead centre. Brilliant. The tee boxes and fairways had had some work done on them to aid drainage. That made some of them look not as aesthetically pleasing as they would normally be but they had no impact on playability. The fairways ran true all day.
The greens, lordy lordy. Fabulous, an absolute joy. They took some getting used to but once I worked out to reduce my backswing to about 3" I played them well. You don't hit putts on those greens, you stroke them. Oh to play on them every week.
One of the great benefits of the course is the landscape. Rolling hills, trees, gorse. The course seems to fit the landscape, rolling with it, curving, swaying, rising, falling. They may have done some digging but it all seems so natural, a wonderful fit. Then there are the bunkers. Some tees all you can see are bunkers on the fairway, plenty of greens are well surrounded. I didn't care. Just hit it. If you went in the bunker the sand was so damned perfect that it was down to you what happened next. I don't mind that.
I can't pick out a favourite hole, too many magnificent ones, they all made me smile. My favourite moment though was the 455yd, 452 on the watch, par 4 6th. I managed a par with 3 of my finest ever shots, leaving a 2ft putt which I didn't bottle for once. I swear an orchestra was playing music when that ball dropped. I have never played a hole of golf better, hit purer shots. I have made birdies before, made lots of pars (made way more bogeys, doubles etc) but that was a glorious moment.
There is an obligatory half way house stop. It is a relaxed place, prices were okay and it was a nice time, after 10 holes, to sit and savour what was happening.
After the round we went into the bar. This was the only blight on the day, the staff were miserable and the service poor. I can't tell you what the drinks cost as they ended up giving them to us for free (I didn't ask for that, they volunteered it). It was a shame as I would rather have had top service, as everywhere else had been, and paid. The bar was nice enough but it didn't work as well as Turnberry imo. I think it was because there were a mixture of hotel guests and golfers in there rather than purely golfers. That should not matter but somehow it didn't feel quite as golf special. It is a 1st world golf issue though, the margins are minor.
All in all, fabulous. There was a thread on here a while ago asking about what course would you play if you could only play 1 for the rest of time. I hadn't played that course I don't think up until now. For me I could play the Kings course for ever more. It has everything I want, it was an absolute joy. Any course designers out there, it was somewhere between 5,800 - 6,000 yds long and anyone feeling short changed needs examining. For £99 it was a steal and I never thought I would say that. Anyone who has not played there before, I can't recommend it enough.
The next question, when I go back do I play one of the other courses there or do I stick with what I know and have loved?
I won a golf break on FB to Edinburgh playing at Braids Hill and Swanston, both south of the city centre. Very enjoyable too but it gave me the chance to add on a special course. I was going with my son and we decided to play Gleneagles, The Kings Course. It was £99 each per round, a lot, but as the previous two days golf and accomodation had been for free it seemed the perfect time to go for it. We wanted to stay up near the course but could not justify staying at the Gleneagles Hotel. We booked the Duchally Estate Hotel, around 1/2 mile from the course. The hotel has a small number of rooms and a good number of cottages. A very nice set up, highly recommended. We went into Auchterarder for something to eat. It was grim, really grim so we had a quick pizza and then returned to the hotel for an overpriced beer (but in a safe place), comfy settee and a 60" screen to watch Utd get stuffed by Barcelona
. Maybe the pubs were better once inside but it didn't look as though the money from Gleneagles was filtering through to the nearby town.The Gleneagles resort has an American feel to it. You turn into the entrance and there is an element of Disney to it. That is not a criticism but the perfectly manicured lawns, large hotel, pristine courses, no litter etc had that feel about it. You park your car and then walk past The Kings first tee and 18th green. Upon reaching the clubhouse we were met by a friendly 'greeter' who checked what we were doing and then took us inside to be booked in. We were looked after by one of 3 staff on non threatening, open desks who checked our time, printed off the booking slip for the starter and we were all done. We perused the lovely, but expensive, pro shop, bought our souvenir ball markers and pitch repairers, and went to the course.
After some practice on the putting green we went to the starter and were ready to go. The starter was ideal, friendly, jovial, helpful. Immediately put us at ease, not intimidating at all. Then the really fun bit.........
The course is gorgeous, really gorgeous. A cracking opening hole. A big open fairway to hit but the second shot is to a very elevated green with an enormous bunker in front of it. Every hole has something about it, no hole is dull. The tee boxes were large but perefectly flat. I have never noticed that on a tee box before but now I will. You could put a spirit level over all of them and the bubble would stay dead centre. Brilliant. The tee boxes and fairways had had some work done on them to aid drainage. That made some of them look not as aesthetically pleasing as they would normally be but they had no impact on playability. The fairways ran true all day.
The greens, lordy lordy. Fabulous, an absolute joy. They took some getting used to but once I worked out to reduce my backswing to about 3" I played them well. You don't hit putts on those greens, you stroke them. Oh to play on them every week.
One of the great benefits of the course is the landscape. Rolling hills, trees, gorse. The course seems to fit the landscape, rolling with it, curving, swaying, rising, falling. They may have done some digging but it all seems so natural, a wonderful fit. Then there are the bunkers. Some tees all you can see are bunkers on the fairway, plenty of greens are well surrounded. I didn't care. Just hit it. If you went in the bunker the sand was so damned perfect that it was down to you what happened next. I don't mind that.
I can't pick out a favourite hole, too many magnificent ones, they all made me smile. My favourite moment though was the 455yd, 452 on the watch, par 4 6th. I managed a par with 3 of my finest ever shots, leaving a 2ft putt which I didn't bottle for once. I swear an orchestra was playing music when that ball dropped
. I have never played a hole of golf better, hit purer shots. I have made birdies before, made lots of pars (made way more bogeys, doubles etc) but that was a glorious moment.There is an obligatory half way house stop. It is a relaxed place, prices were okay and it was a nice time, after 10 holes, to sit and savour what was happening.
After the round we went into the bar. This was the only blight on the day, the staff were miserable and the service poor. I can't tell you what the drinks cost as they ended up giving them to us for free (I didn't ask for that, they volunteered it). It was a shame as I would rather have had top service, as everywhere else had been, and paid. The bar was nice enough but it didn't work as well as Turnberry imo. I think it was because there were a mixture of hotel guests and golfers in there rather than purely golfers. That should not matter but somehow it didn't feel quite as golf special. It is a 1st world golf issue though, the margins are minor.
All in all, fabulous. There was a thread on here a while ago asking about what course would you play if you could only play 1 for the rest of time. I hadn't played that course I don't think up until now. For me I could play the Kings course for ever more. It has everything I want, it was an absolute joy. Any course designers out there, it was somewhere between 5,800 - 6,000 yds long and anyone feeling short changed needs examining. For £99 it was a steal and I never thought I would say that. Anyone who has not played there before, I can't recommend it enough.
The next question, when I go back do I play one of the other courses there or do I stick with what I know and have loved?
