Largs Golf Club

Largs Golf Club was established in 1891, with Willie Campbell setting out a 9-hole course for the founding members. This layout lasted only a very short time however. Within two years of its formation, the club moved to its present home within the Kelburn Estate, the ancestral home of the Earls of Glasgow.

The original 9-hole layout lasted exactly sixty years until Viscount Kelburn officially opened an expanded 18-hole course in 1953. It’s thought that green staff, under the direction of people like John McKeller and Bob Torrance, laid out the new holes close to Kelburn Castle.

Today, the opening four holes and closing three holes now occupy a narrow corridor running alongside the main road (where the original 9-hole course was set out), with holes 5 to 15 routed around the more expansive portion of the property.

The modern day course measures a respectable 6,150 yards from the medal tees and, with only two par fives on the card (at “Killincraig,” the 466-yard 3rd and “Pencil,” the 490-yard 12th), it plays to a par of 70.

Notable holes include the par four 6th (“Castle”) which doglegs left to the green, and the par three 8th (“Spittleflat”) - the third short hole on the front nine - where a small green is surrounded by five bunkers.

On the inward half, the 468-yard 15th (“Cockleshells”) starts the run for home and it’s a beast of a long par four. It’s followed by another three stout par fours, all of which head in the same direction towards the clubhouse, so pray that the prevailing headwind is not up if you have a good score going.