Meldrum House - North East Scotland - Scotland

I’m not 100% convinced about the previous review. I played Meldrum House last May after a cold spring and the course was in good shape. Apparently fairway drainage work has been undertaken recently and perhaps the previous reviewer played there during these works. Now the fairways are in good shape and the greens were speedy on the day we played. Meldrum is a very decent course and one I’d play again.

i have to rate this very poor, played it this year and pictures and reviews were a little misleading, expecting very good greens and perfect condition and quiet being a private course, but it was a 5 hour round behind a outing and fairways were cut too short for the bad condition of them, no grass hardly. but the green were the worst part, fantastic slopes i first noticed and the person who designed course and set out is a smart man but condition was very poor, extremly slow and very bumpy with pitch marks and dead patches and mud ball patches. anyway not what i expect and felt wasted money on something that looked so good but was not. i have heard the course used to be really good in past and taken care of and if it was in future id play it as in good condition the course would be wonderful, just a real pity.

MELDRUM HOUSE Look on line and try and find a review for Meldrum House (apart from the one on this site of course), and you will struggle. Because, as it says on the course’s strokesaver booklet, Meldrum House is “The exclusive golf experience”. That is a shame because, whilst I respect their right to this view, Meldrum House is a great track which should be sampled by more. Set in the grounds of the old Meldrum House, circa 13th century , this is a thinking mans course where plotting your way round is the essence to scoring well. With so much water to negotiate often laying up is the sensible option. The aforementioned water comes in to play as early as the first hole where, hopefully, after hitting a perfect drive down the middle, water guarding the green has to be cleared. Unfortunately, my ball is still swimming with the fishes. Water also comes into play at the 2nd hole before the prosaic, par 3 third hole gives us a break from going aqua crazy. Sorry to say that I found most of the par 3’s a bit on the dull side but it has to be said that the other holes more than make up for this. The 7th hole, which local lad , and ex open champion, Paul Lawrie calls “My kind of hole” is a tough par 4 over water which deserves it’s stroke index 1 status. The 16th is also a very good golf hole. This doglegging par 5 is patrolled by a burn at the front of the green and is as beautiful as it is tough. The course has one of the strangest holes that I have ever played. “The most memorable par 5 in the North East” Mr Lawrie calls it and he is not wrong. It has a plantation of 13 bunkers protecting the green (18 bunkers in total on this hole) and it has to be seen to be believed. This is a golf course and exceptional practice facility that all the people at Meldrum House can be very proud of. A course, which in my view, deserves far more than its gem status. It is such a pity that it appears that they don’t want to share it with the world. MPPJ

My playing companion was worried after we had played the first hole, asking “is that as good as it’s going to get here?” There was slight cause for concern for a few minutes as we felt the next couple of holes were relatively weak but from then onwards, the course improved hole by hole.

“The Lochans” (hole 8) was my favourite on the front nine; dog legging right to a wickedly contoured green with a couple of ponds to the front right of it. Apart from the par five 11th hole (with a fifteen bunker complex short left of the putting surface that was more than a wee bit quirky) I liked all the holes on the back nine, especially the downhill signature hole, “The Kennels” at the 16th where a pond and burn protect the front of the putting surface.

The changes in elevation were very pleasing and architect Graeme Webster must be commended for an imaginative course routing that incorporates the many water features in a very eye catching manner. Greens had just been spiked and dressed the morning we played but they allowed a good putt to be holed nonetheless.

There were lovely touches all over the course like a large granite boulder left in a bunker at the 3rd hole, water fountains at a couple of holes and a brick wall built round the base of a tree trunk on the 16th hole – it’s often the small things that give such character to a course. I must confess that Meldrum House had not been particularly prominent on my golfing radar until very recently because it never seems to get a mention in any golf publications as a place worth playing (probably because it’s a member only facility and the club don’t need to attract casual visitors).

In comparison to a good few ranked inland tracks that I’ve played, I can vouch for the fact that it can more than match the others. My parkland golf pal was defeated in our match play contest when I closed him out on the last green – perhaps if he’d used the fantastic practice facilities here before setting out he might have managed at least a half!

Jim McCann