Kirkcudbright

The golf club at Kirkcudbright celebrated its centenary in 1993 so golfers in this part of Dumfries & Galloway have been enjoying the royal and ancient game here for well over a century. The club’s original 9-hole course was extended to a full 18-hole layout in the late 1970s when additional land was acquired for development and a new clubhouse followed a decade later.

Laid out on rather hilly terrain overlooking the Dee estuary, the course measures a modest 5,717 yards from the back markers with only two par fives on the card – one on each nine – and five par threes. The modern day layout still embraces old-fashioned design traits such as crossing fairways on the 2nd and 15th and wickedly undulating greens, epitomised by the seriously contoured 16th.

Club stalwart Edward Shamash was the man who led an enthusiastic team of members when the course was doubled in size more than thirty-five years ago and they did a fabulous job on a shoestring budget to redesign the old holes and install a new set of fairways across some challenging terrain.

Holes 5 and 7 are formidable par fours on the outward nine and “Pond,” the wonderful downhill par three 9th, ends the outward half in fine style. On the inward half, back-to-back par threes at the 15th and 16th transition golfers away from the upper reaches of the course back down to clubhouse level, where the final two holes are played out.