Carrick - Dunbartonshire - Scotland

Based on a few rounds a little while ago, and reading more recent reviews, the Carrick is an enjoyable game once you've got the boggy, slow early holes out of the way. The back nine is lots of fun Portugal style threading between large hooses and the loch before finishing under the gaze of health club members in their hot tubs. Certainly the only converted boat halfway house I've had the pleasure to visit ! Until its illustrious neighbour realises in which country it resides and offers respectful visitors a game, this is the best golf before the Highlands or Islands, depending on your itinerary.

Played here in June 2017. I have to say that the course set up was not good enough, specially on holes 2 to 4 & the 18th.

Loch Lomond area is absolutely stunning so of course the track offers some very nice panorama. However the Carrick is not as brilliant as its club house or the hotel it belongs to, Cameron House.

How good is golf in Scotland if this is ranked number 82?!?

Slightly Jack Nicklaus start but very soon each hole is better than the next one ...and so on.

We played this on the way to Machrihanish...well worth stopping off.

Loch Lomond is an outstanding area of natural beauty and well deserving of a visit with or without the golf bag, and whilst I’d loved to have taken myself to the “real” Loch Lomond golf club, the Carrick makes a suitable deputy.

Make no mistake, the Carrick is set up for visitor golf. Opened in 2007, it has more than a whiff of “resort course” about it, particularly the clubhouse which doubles as a multi-floor spa (highly recommended though) with balcony level hot tub views over the 18th green.

If it’s resort course golf you’re expecting, that’s exactly what you get for the opening stretch. The first four holes are played around an inland lake, complete with fountain, to greens that were heavily indented with pitch marks at my time of playing. Played across lower ground where the course architecture is far from my own personal tastes, the holes are at least well bunkered, a theme that continues across the rest of the course.

Following this, the layout starts to take up some of the more prime land with the 5th hole being the first that’s played alongside the loch, but it’s not until the 8th hole, as you edge away from the loch and move towards higher ground, that the genuine reason to come and play the Carrick becomes more apparent. This stretch from 8 through to 14 offer a real contrast to what came before. The 8th, probably the best bunkered hole on the course returns you towards those wonderful rolling hills that frame much of the course. A draw off the tee is the play here or you’ll no doubt have to play from the sand for your next shot. A short walk then takes you to the uphill 9th. This and the wonderful 10th are the holes that really stole the show for me. The views from the 10th green are magnificent and must be amongst the best in Scotland. Be sure to also stop by the half-way house, created from a boat sunken into the ground next to the 10th tee. This boat used to belong to the Cameron House Hotel for day trips around Loch Lomond and they retired it to this fine spot.

Whilst 9 and 10 are pure theatre, I don’t have quite the same love for 11 and 12 which are a little bland in comparison, but the 13th right to left dogleg par 4 with a green nestled amongst the firs is a beautiful hole. Following this comes the signature hole, a par 3 with a dramatic drop towards Loch Lomond. Signature hole it may be, but I don’t feel that the angle of this hole, playing towards the trees rather than the water, makes the most of its surroundings. The 15th, the second par 5 to take you right along the loch-side is a lovely hole, but again, there seems to have been an opportunity missed by not adding an infinity green over the loch. The remaining few holes return back to the less interesting lakeside land as you head back to the clubhouse and the Florida-esque lake holes.

One aspect I must point out after playing the course is that this place is far from easy. My scorecard showed that I was well above handicap and I usually pride myself in scoring pretty well when playing courses away from my own. Play off the whites, or further back even, and your game will be severely tested. In summary, this is a course that’s made up of three parts; the unremarkable inland lake holes, the handful of holes by the loch side and the finer section that climbs across the higher ground all make for an interesting and varied day’s play. The course conditioning is never going to be up to the level of a top private members’ club, but it’s well worth playing if you’re in this neck of the woods for those holes that are routed away from the clubhouse.

Played the Carrick in early October. This was my third round, the first two shortly after it opened. It has matured nicely yet still has a way to go. Boggy in parts and conditioning could be better, even allowing for the wet months before. The greens were slow and a little bumpy. Main problem was too many players on the course, far too slow, and lack of proper marshalling. A five hour round mid week disheartening. With regards ranking just about right. Some of the other reviews were of a course and set up I didn't recognise!

Played the Carrick golf course in early October as part of a small golf party and I must say it exceeded my expectations. Soon as we arrived the service provided from the golf shop guys were 2nd to none. (Including Gleneagles!) We hadn’t paid that much to be there but the staff were treating us like royalty. Soon as we arrived our bags were taken and put on buggies and trolleys while we had breakfast in the restaurant. I then got shown to my locker by the professional which had a tag with my name on it. Great touch!Then the starter gave us all complimentary tees, ball marker and pitchfork repairer so it was a great start before even hitting a ball.The Course started pretty tough and makes for a challenging front 9 with the 3rd and 4th hole both involve hitting your shot over water. The back 9 is definitely the more scenic and when we got to the 10th green the view of Loch Lomond was just stunning. This can also be seen from the Par 3 14th hole which you play your shot to the green about 50 feet below!! I played 2 clubs less than usual and was still over the green.The greens at the Carrick are big and quick, I really was surprised by how fast the greens were at that time of year. The course was soft in places which made it easier to hold the greens; I even managed to get a bit of backspin!Overall I can’t rate the Carrick highly enough and look forward to doing battle on the course again.

having played this course yearly since 2012 I have seen it come on leaps and bounds year on year! towards the end of the 2015 season me and 3 friends played the course and we could not believe the condition that the course was in, the greens rolled true and fast!moving away from the course the staff are also a huge credit to the carrick I have not been to a golf course anywhere in Scotland that has better service.overall I would recommend this course to anyone!!first class experience!! :)

I believe this course is much further down on this list than it should be. Having played it for a few years now, the condition of the course has improved markedly. The greens have been excellent all summer, as have the fairways. I agree that playing here after a spell of heavy rain can be a bit of a slog, however the same could be said of most inland courses. The layout of the holes, the views and general all round experience of playing here make it a very enjoyable (although exceptionally tough off the whites) golf course. I agree that it falls short of the truly exceptional championship courses I have played, however it deserves a top 20/30 position in this list.

As a member I rate this course highly in terms of design, challenge and condition. It has improved a lot since I joined 18 months ago and does not appear so overplayed as it was. The staff are friendly, as the other members are and the facilities excellent. The main downside is the slow play which I think is a problem at most courses now, so nothing to do with the course or the club! It is worsened by the number of 4 balls palying and the fact that they all seem to think they are playing in the Masters. Taking 10 minutes on the green to miss putts for a 7 is not really what the game is about. I do rate the course highly though but would enjoy a 3.5 hour round instead of 4.5 or 5 hours!

The Carrick’s come in for some recent criticism regarding underfoot conditions on the course and there’s no doubt that the club still has some way to go before it resolves all outstanding drainage issues. Sorting out the soggy fairways will take some time but the damp conditions certainly didn’t appear to deter the large numbers from playing here when I revisited the Carrick a couple of days ago.

Perhaps the members are prepared to put up with less than perfect tee to green conditioning when they know they are putting on eighteen fantastic USGA-standard greens (that were in absolutely tip-top shape when I played) or maybe they´re just willing to give the maintenance team the chance to implement a raft of improvement proposals?

I was also very pleased to see that all bunkers on the course have undergone an extensive makeover, with aesthetically pleasing grass banks now covering the ugly old faces of the old sand traps. It’s obvious that a lot of recent work has gone in to upgrade the infrastructure at the Carrick but the course is still very much a work in progress.

Having opened only a few years ago in a blaze of local golfing publicity, it’s now settling into the harsh reality of normal operations and it’ll take a little more time and effort to get things right, especially on a site that seems to endure more than its fair share of inclement weather. Once current course improvement programs are completed, there’s a fair chance the Carrick will be able to fulfil its true potential.

Jim McCann