Gary and David on the 9th tee at Cruden Bay at 8:30pm

A bright and early start for our castle visit. Yes if you remember this was our chance to experience Skibo Castle, the uber exclusive golf and accommodation venue north of Inverness (near Dornoch).

Access to Skibo had been kindly organised by Chris Bertram (our Golf World UK buddy who is writing a book on our Links4032 trip – well a few paragraphs anyway). We left Kingsmill Hotel at 7:30am for the one hour drive (or so we thought). Now just how do you find this place??

With no signage at all we finally entered via the maintenance access road when an assistant told us over the intercom that we should go to another entrance. 15 minutes later (and after two other false entrances) we arrived at a series of grand gates with another intercom.

Buzzing us inside we made the long drive up to Skibo Castle. This castle is amazing. It is grand, imposing, classy and rooms are available for….well a lot of money per night. This is extravagence at its finest. Unfortunately we had arrived at the castle itself and not the golf clubhouse.

A further one mile drive saw us arrive at the golf course. We were greeted with polished friendliness by Jack Bailey, assistant professional (David Thomson director of golf and our host was away for the day). Jack showed us through the golf clubhouse and got us ready for the first tee.

What we really needed were ski jackets as the wind was whipping through the golf course like nothing we have experienced to date. It was cold! No sign of sun just heavy cloud but thankfully no threat of rain. We managed to get away just after 9:30am and began our round.

The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle is a members only golf club that seldom sees more than 8 golfers per day on average. In fact we were the only golfers on the course (silly Australians playing in any conditions). The course is relatively open with large greens and bunkers cut into the moderately undulating landscape. Downwind provides some respite but you know you need to turn around at some stage.

Halfway houses in golf are varied. In fact we have seen a few good ones and a few average ones. But the halfway house at Skibo takes the cake for opulence. In fact it was larger than our hotel room at a number of places we have stayed at. Tea/coffee/hot chocolate/cold drinks/chocolates/chips pretty much anything was at our disposal. It is also well located after the 5th hole and next to the 12th so you get to go there twice! We didn’t because we were “satisfied” the first time around.

A grand buffet lunch awaited us as we came off the course and in the warmth of the golf clubhouse we really did not want to go anywhere. But we knew we had another game planned just down the road (4 hours drive that is) at Cruden Bay.

So with heavy hearts we bid farewell and started on the long trek to Cruden Bay.

Scotland is the home of fine whisky and on the way to Cruden Bay we managed to see no less than 5 distilleries including the famous Chivas and Glenfiddich brands. No time to stop and we eventually reached Peterhead for our evening game at Cruden Bay.

We say evening game because our tee time was6:50pm, yes 6:50pm! Because it is light until after10:30pm you can hit off this late and it is popular with members who work and then go out for a full 18 holes after work.

Kaitlin and Neil were waiting for us in the pro shop (we had changed the tee time a few times and they were great in accommodating this) and they sent us on our way (probably thinking how silly these Australians are…)

This course immediately grabbed our attention and we loved it! It is fun, quirky and has some amazing views, vistas and holes cut around towering sand dunes. Elevated tee shots make you feel you can hit it for miles (downwind that is).

Every hole on this golf course is different, challenging and fun. A combination of drivable par 4s (David drove two of these), long par 4’s and everything in between gave us great enjoyment as we made our way around the course.

Cruden Bay also features a blind par 3, 2 blind par 4 approach shots including a fantastic sunken green on the 14th. On the blind par 3 an innovative bell pulley system allows you to signal to the group behind you that you are on the next tee.

We finished our round at 10:25pm (took a photo to verify this) and then headed off to Aberdeen (45 minutes away). Tired to say the least.

Shot of the Day

Clearly the shot of the day was David’s tee shot on the par 4 10th at Cruden Bay. A 310 metre par 4 playing downwind it features a burn running across the fairway. David’s ball was still going up as it crossed the burn and it landed on the green 35 feet from the hole. A two putt birdie and onto the next hole.

Overall birdie tally

Gary (1 birdie – Skibo, 2 birdies – Cruden Bay, cumulative – 34)
David (1 birdie – Cruden Bay, cumulative – 12)

A well deserved sleep and some catchup on the mounting email tally awaits before our 3:44pm tee time at Royal Aberdeen – another course we have heard lots about. Stay tuned….

Castle Stuart is a 17th century estate with an imposing and impressive castle. It is also the home to one of the latest additions to the Scottish golf portfolio – Castle Stuart Golf Club. This course is, in one word, spectacular. Comprising a relatively thin strip of land only 10 minutes from Inverness Airport and overlooking the Moray Firth (body of water) the course is laid out over some dramatic land and takes full advantage of its location with a series of holes that play along with the water to start each 9 before heading inland.

The course is only 3 years old and was designed by Gil Hanse (who was recently awarded the Rio Olympics site) and is owned by Mark Parsinen of Kingsbarns fame. Stuart McColm is the friendly General Manager and showed us around including taking us to the very top of the clubhouse which gave us a fantastic aerial view of many of the holes on the course.

The course is also host to the Scottish Open due to be held in 3 weeks time so initial preparations were well underway.

When the wind blows this course is tough! And did it blow when we were there. At times we felt we were going to be blown off the cliffs. Through all of this though the course was thoroughly enjoyable and one that will stay in our memory for a long time.

The course has a rugged feel with a combination of revetted and wispy grass bunkers, bumpy, wide fairways with lots of movement and large and heavily undulating greens. There are a number of holes with forced carries from the tee that tempt you to take on more than you (we…) should. Additionally 3 potentially drivable par 4’s (with the right wind conditions) give you a chance to claw back some strokes invariably lost playing into the wind.

It really is a small world. As we were registering David heard a familiar sounding accent and it turned out that Jona, our starter, came from a small town (Killaloe) 35 minutes from David’s home town of Renfrew in Canada. Jona played ice hockey for the same team as David although in different eras (Jona is 21, David is…a lot older than that).

The Ottawa Valley accent made the Scottish accent sound very clear.

We were fortunate that Jona could join us for the round. David and Jona spoke for hours about ice hockey, fastball and life in rural Canada. Gary listened in from time to time but it became too much by the time we reached the first fairway so he ran ahead and took photos (plenty to take also!)

Our lodging in Inverness was at the very nice Kingsmill Hotel. Gary’s contact at Kingsmill Paula was a lovely host and she gave us a full run down about everything to do with Inverness including people and dates who helped to make Scotland famous including Robbie Burns.

Who is Robbie Burns anyway? Well to let you know he was a poet and composed, among many famous songs, the unforgettable “Scots Wha Hae” (never heard of it) and Auld Lang Syne (we think we remember this from New Years Eve. It was a history lesson with a difference!

If you intend coming to the Highlands to play golf then this is the place to stay. Well located, friendly and efficient service and with comfortable rooms Kingsmill provides a central base for golf in the Highlands.

Inverness is also the home of the Loch Ness Monster who lives about 8 miles away in some big Loch…called Loch Ness. She pops out from time to time and must actually exist because Paula’s mum has seen her as have many others (including the local tourist industry who rely on visitors seeking out “Nessie” to make a living.

Shot of the Day

Playing into a strong wind the 10th is a mid length par 4 with water running down the left hand side. The approach shot is to heavily contoured green with fall off on both sides. Gary hit a 4 iron into the wind (only about 130 metres) onto the green 15 feet from the hole.

Overall birdie tally

Gary (3 birdies, cumulative 31)
David (1 birdie, cumulative 11)

Tomorrow is a special day. We have been granted access to the uber exclusive Skibo Castle (where Madonna and Guy Ritchie spent their honeymoon) – a strictly members only course with lodgings located on the way back to Dornoch, one hour from Inverness. We had to add this to our schedule at short notice but from everything we have heard it will be worth it.

Stay tuned…

The predominant colors on a golf course are green, white and blue (if you are playing on a sunny day). But when you get to Royal Dornoch, high in the Scottish Highlands one hour drive from Inverness, there is another color which stands out above all others – yellow. And we don’t just mean normal yellow we are talking fiery, bright, vivid yellow.

The gorse bushes at Royal Dornoch flower at around this time of the year. And with this flowering comes a splash of color that lines all fairways, forms backdrops behind greens and provides colorful obstacles to hit over from the tee.

We saw the gorse visually (and unfortunately with some of our tee shots) and this is one of the memories we will have of Dornoch.

The other is of a very good golf course, one that grows on you and you appreciate the more you think about it. Wide fairways give a sense of calm to your driving but as we found it is not just a matter of hitting the fairway which is important – it is where you hit the fairway. As is the case with so many good courses to hit the fairway alone does not ensure a good score.

Large greens (amongst the largest we have seen) also add to the memory of Dornoch as does the ever present ocean which can be seen from all 18 holes.

This was our best example of a “firm and fast” golf course. Thought was required on all shots and especially when hitting into greens. A number of the greens were raised with severe fall off areas placing a premium on accuracy.

The course starts alongside the Royal Golf Hotel (where we stayed) which has the wonderful address of “First Tee”, Royal Dornoch Golf Club and heads out for 8 holes generally into the prevaiing wind before coming back downwind. If you can hold onto your score early there are a number of birdies chances coming home.

The high point of the golf course is on the 7th tee where you can survey and see most of the holes on the course. This shows you the real shape of the golf course and how it hugs the coastline.

We had local help as we made our way around the course. 75 year old Gordon (who incidentally taught at Geelong Grammar outside of Melbourne many years ago) walked a few holes with us and gave us history and where to hit the ball (not that we always followed his advice).

Driving well is the key to Royal Dornoch and can set up a good round or destroy one. We played the course twice – rounds of complete contrast with accurate long driving in the first round helping our score immeasurably (Gary – 38 points, Dave – 33 points) followed by very average driving in our second round (Gary – 26 points, Dave – 26 points). Admittedly the second round was in summery conditions of 6 degrees and more wind.

The highlands of Scotland are located a long way north and as we approach the longest day you have almost 18 hours of sunshine. The sun rises at 4:24am and sets at 10:24pm.

We really enjoyed Royal Dornoch and combined with the very friendly staff (Neil Hampton the club secretary was fantastic as were all the other staff including starter Liam who put up the Australian and Canadian flags for our arrival), the lovely scenery and the quaint town we would strongly recommend you make the journey up to the Scottish Highlands. Now that Castle Stuart is open and Nairn around the corner it is truly a good golfing destination.

Shot of the Day

The 7th hole is the number one index hole – a par 4 of 432 metres. Dave was in the rough on the left hand side and hit a “rescue” club 225 metres onto the green. A fantastic shot!

Overall Tally

Gary (2 birdies, cumulative 28)
David (0 birdies, cumulative 10)

Tomorrow we head to Castle Stuart, home of the Scottish Open and a new course located close to Inverness Airport. In fact as we flew into Inverness we saw the course laid out before us. Should help us get to the first tee at least! Stay tuned….