Review - Rowallan Castle, Ayrshire

Bunkers

Bunkers

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Rowallan Castle Golf Club is a parkland course situated just outside the village of Kilmaurs in the grounds of Rowallan estate in Ayrshire. The course surrounds 2 beautiful castles dating back to the 13th century to the time of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace (neither of whom were playing last Wednesday!).

Designed by this years Marmite Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomery, this track plays to over 7000 yards off the back tees and has a great combination of both delightful short par 3s and tough par 5s.

The first 8 holes are simply gorgeous and twist beautifully through the castle grounds providing great views over the surrounding rolling countryside. The 2nd hole in particular, a short par 3 over water twice with tricky green guarded by two huge bunkers was a stand out.

The large deep bunkers are a feature of the whole course, some of which you could easily get lost in. Watch out for the camels…

The back 9 is long and on the day we played it was blowing a hooly (30 mph gusts!), making this exposed part of the course very tricky indeed. The rough is penal, make no mistake that if you are off line in the jungle you face a lost ball.

The greens look great but are very slow and will take a bit time to play well but I’m sure that will come.

The clubhouse facilities are superb and at £30 a round (after 3pm) until the end of August it is well worth a go. Just remember your beach towel and take a few spare balls.

Raymond
 
A very good review Raymond.
Makes me want to go and give it a bash but unfortunately I'm 500 miles away
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Get your boots on then Smiffy, as the Proclaimers sing.....us Scotsmen would think nuffin of walking 500 miles, maybe even 500 more which will take you back home again.


:D ;)

Thanks for the review bunkers, do you have any pictures???
 
Sorry Craw, no pics but the Rowallan Castle web site has a great gallery.

Also forgot to mention that the course has a 19th hole called The Decider to be played if matches are tied on the 18th. Lovely wee heavily bunkered par 3 that all groups can play on the way back to the clubhouse.

Ray
 
bigslice- it had been raining heavily over the 2 days prior to us playing however, there were only 2 or 3 small areas of standing water. Drainage didn't appear to be a problem but it did slow the greens down ++

Ray
 
Also forgot to mention that the course has a 19th hole called The Decider to be played if matches are tied on the 18th. Lovely wee heavily bunkered par 3 that all groups can play on the way back to the clubhouse.

Ray
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How will this work with strokes etc. What will the stroke index be? I take it it will be off the bare feet( no strokes)

Am playing it on Monday so cant wait to see what it plays like.
 
Sorry Craw, no pics but the Rowallan Castle web site has a great gallery.
Ray
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Had a look at the gallery pictures Ray and yes, there are some nice ones. But far too many of the actual buildings surrounding the course. It would be good to have a picture of each hole as they do on some websites. But all in all it looks a great track and it's nice to see that they are offering reasonable green fee rates to play there, rather than take the pish and try to keep it "exclusive".
 
Great review Raymond, I drive past the course regularly and it certainly looks fabulous. If it is only £30 for twilight golf will definitely have to try for a game.
 
great review, was the ground like underfoot
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bigslice- it had been raining heavily over the 2 days prior to us playing however, there were only 2 or 3 small areas of standing water. Drainage didn't appear to be a problem but it did slow the greens down ++

Ray
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Played it today. In the pishing down rain from the 3rd hole. It never stopped until I got home!!!! :mad:

It was really wet. The drainage will/is an issue. I dont see much winter golf on it until something is sorted. The tee areas and greens were grean and the bunkers were fine with nice shape and good sand. But the course was covered in lots of standing water. Being used to links golf it was a big difference getting my trousers/waterproof legs soaked with every step. It was so bad in places I couldnt be bothered getting relief from the the standing water as there was nowhere to go.

I will return again before the end of the year and will only play it if its dry. It was no fun at all as it was also playing very long with no run on the fairways.

On a positive it is in a lovely setting and I can see it mature into a great course but until it can handle a drop of rain on the west coast of Scotland it may struggle to get repeat customers.

All in all looking forward to playing it again in the dry.
 
Rather than start a new thread I’ll put my review of my visit there today in this one.

One of the freebies I chose from the Scottish Golf Show was for Rowallan, having read previous reviews regarding its ability to handle the wet weather I decided that this current dry spell was the ideal time to get down there.
Finding the place – Their website warns you that a lot of satnavs will deliver you up a farm track to the middle of nowhere, mine was no exception. The same postcode covers a pretty sizeable area. If travelling down the M77 and then following the Kilmaurs road ignore any instructions to run right up farm tracks, the entrance to the estate is an unmistakable arched gatehouse which you drive through.

The course at the moment is bone dry. The fairways are running well but don’t appear to be getting much growth. I presume they aren’t doing very much cutting at the moment as there are patches of grass types that shouldn’t probably be there plus a profusion of the never welcome daisy. Tee boxes are billiard table flat but showing signs of damage on some holes due I presume to a lack of growth/ watering.

The greens are fast, certainly much faster than I am used to, the net result being that it took me a good few holes to get anywhere near with a chip. The greens run very true thankfully, the contouring is severe on some and hitting the wrong area of the green hurts!

The course is heavily bunkered and a lot of them are deep, very deep. Placement is excellent though. My only criticism of them would be the lack of sand in a couple of them, an inch of sand on top of earth.

The layout of the course (with the exception of one hole) is excellent, you have that great feeling of isolation on every hole, no shared fairways or even parallel fairways. The exception and potential bottle neck comes as you finish the par 3 second, the route off the green takes you to a point about 230/250 up the third fairway. Therefore it’s prudent to wait until any group on the 3rd tee have played before you walk up to it. A minor gripe really given the quality of the rest of the layout. The course is well signed with no confusion as to where to go next.

It is a superb setting with views of both the old and the new castle, the odd ruin around the course and a good few dry stane dykes. A couple of holes offer views of Arran including the superb par 4 11th (Goat Fell) a sweeping dog leg left of 449 (500 off the blues!) with a downhill approach. Of the par 3s the 8th was a standout for me, only 149 and with the green below you but with the superb backdrop of the old castle. Even the straightaway par 4 18th looks magnificent with the new castle right behind the green. There is a superb mix of holes, a few that invite you to really let rip from the tee but the majority make you think about it, classic risk/ reward.

Definitely worth a visit – when dry!

If by any chance the housing developer Charles Church is a forum member, could you please stop building those white luxury exclusive villas near golf courses – it spoilt my view on a couple of holes. And they are not exclusive – you are building them everywhere!
 
Just to add to this thread. I played Rowallan yesterday thanks to some Scottish Golf Show Freebies.

Obviously the weather was and has been very dry. The course was very excellent. The Greens and bunkers especially, were well designed and in great condition.

Its a very long course and on every hole there are fairway bunkers on one side of the fairway ready to catch you at 250 yards, so you really have to be accurate off the tee or your in for a tough day. The par 3's are very good and of varying length. The par 4's again range from 300 to 490 and are all very different!! I don't fancy playing the 18th when its soft underfoot.

If you fancy playing it, I would try and get along while the weather is good and you won't be disappointed. Bring plenty of water and comfy shoes right enough, as its a fair old Treck.

Enjoy
 
Give me a shout for that one FM. I'm getting itchy feet again- may look to move this year. Rowallan wouldn't be on the list due to its notoriously wet conditions.
 
virtuocity said:
Would seem that Rowallan are doing their bit to improve drainage problems, by digging, lots!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rowa...rse-Management/783594078327638?ref=ts&fref=ts
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They needed to do something as an unplayable course in August, like in 2010 when I played there, is no good.

I have played on a course back home and they used this type of drainage when they went from 9 holes to 18 and each year I play it you can still see the tracks from the drains. They have taken ages to bed in. Interesting to see how these work in the medium to long term.
 
virtuocity said:
Give me a shout for that one FM. I'm getting itchy feet again- may look to move this year. Rowallan wouldn't be on the list due to its notoriously wet conditions.
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Bobirdie said:
If yous need to make a 4 ball up give me a shout. Fancy playing it again great layout
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I contacted the club about green fees and got this response...

http://www.rowallancastle.com/golf/

"green fee from 1 April 2015 is £35 per person. For groups of 16 or more we offer a discount, based on the number of golfers. For example, 16 – 40 the cost is reduced to £30 per person.

I am looking to organise a hit somewhere in the first 2 weeks of April. Somewhere Ive not played for a while for a change and I am happy to pay either to play Rowallen again however Im not sure about the playability of it in April. Ive already played it twice in the summer in sodden conditions due to rain. May need to leave that one for the summer???

Another option is playing Marr Hall but again I not sure about the condition of the course in April, anyone played before in April?

http://www.marhall.com/golf/

So failing either of them I may hit Dundonald .

http://www.dundonaldlinks.com/

Watch this space. Anyone else wanting to register initial interest, for a hit in the first two weeks of April, feel free. :)

Must add I am looking forward to playing Glasgow Gailes at the end of March. :thup:

https://www.gaileslinks.co.uk/
 
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