Portlethen

Portlethen is a relative newcomer on the Scottish golfing scene, with the club’s course only opening for play in the early 1980s, a decade before the 1990s golf boom. It’s a very modern parkland design, with fairways routed in two returning nines, and it makes good use of the natural landscape, bringing the Findon Burn into play on several of the holes.

Additional features have been incorporated over time, including the planting of more than twenty thousand trees, the restoration of drystone dyke walls and the construction of a pond at “Cockburn’s Creek,” the 146-yard 5th hole, where the tee shot now has to carry this water hazard. This is the shortest, and best, of the four par threes on the card.

“The Doctor” is another notable hole on the front nine, with this attractive 460-yard par five at the 4th played from an elevated tee position. The aforementioned burn cuts across the fairway in front of the green so extra care needs to be taken to avoid this water hazard with the approach shot.

On the back nine, “The Isle” is another formidable hole, a left doglegged par four at the 15th, measuring 402 yards, where the second shot to the green is invariably played from a downhill lie. The burn again protects the putting surface in a moat-like manner, running right across the front of the green.