Douglas Park

Douglas Park Golf Club was formed in 1897 with Willie Fernie, the Troon professional and recent Open champion, designing the inaugural 9-hole course. Six years later, when the club leased a further fifty-two acres of Boclair Farm, Fernie again advised on the extension of the course to an 18-hole layout. This new course lasted only a few years before another 17.5-acre tract was secured on the other side of the adjoining cemetery, allowing four new holes to be brought into play.

In 1933, after acquiring another small parcel of land, further modifications were made to the course, resulting in the introduction of a new par three 3rd hole and a right doglegged 4th hole. Holes 10 and 11 were combined to form a new par four 11th hole, which then played to the vacated 3rd green. The 12th tee was also moved at this time to the old 3rd tee, creating an intimidating short par four that was played through a chute of trees and bushes.

The most recent significant alterations to the course occurred in 1972 when a number of changes were implemented: the 2nd green was repositioned further away from the railway tracks, the line to the par three 3rd was altered by 90 degrees, the green to the 11th hole was moved back a hundred yards and the 12th hole was changed to a very short, uphill par three. The course measured a shade less than 6,000 yards after all the modifications were made and it’s remained more or less that length right up to the present day.

The Antonine Wall, a stone and turf fortification built by the Romans across the Central Belt of Scotland around AD 142, runs through part of the course, across land that was originally leased from farmer Russell of Boclair Farm in 1906. The route of the wall takes it along the left side of the uphill par three 15th then along the ridge to the 13th green (at the highest point on the property) before continuing on eastwards towards Summerston.