Torwoodlee - Borders - Scotland

I have been blessed with fine weather on my visits to Torwoodlee and it is a lovely place to be in the sunshine with a wonderfully bucolic ambience and stunning views of the surrounding hills. After a fine opening hole there is a dull stretch as the course makes its way uphill before plummeting straight back down at the glorious 6th hole. The middle section of the course lacks sparkle but there are three terrific holes in the last five. 13 is a fine downhiill dogleg and 15 is described on the course video as "one of the best par five holes you will play anywhere", an opinion I wholeheartedly endorse. Torwoodlee's closing hole, running right alongside the river Gala, is one of my favourite 18th holes anywhere in Scotland. Having played the Roxburghe, Cardrona and Torwoodlee several times each I know where I would choose to go on my next 'border raid'. And I have every confidence the sun will still be shining!

I have played Torwood Lee on several occasions. The course is divided into two parts between an unused railway line which can viewed when crossing between the two. Although the course is divided into two the front and back nine holes span the two. The first half in which borders the river gala sets a stunning picture. Furthermore the views provided from the steep hills of the other side of the course set a great scene. Unfortunately the golf is mediocre to average at best. There are several holes that stand out for myself. The 6th and 14th offer a good opportunity to 'risk it' and hit over the trees. The 6th being a par 4 downhill at 337 yards is drivable for a big hitter. However, I find that holes 7 - 13 have been squashed together to make up the 18 holes and are actually quite mentally draining to play. The 15th and 18th follow the river and also make for a spectacular setting.

I would like to add that Torwood Lee's greatest asset by far is the welcoming members.

I’ve been meaning to play here for some time (especially after visiting the Hirsel course three years ago) and got the chance to do so when I competed in the club’s annual Gents Seniors Open the day before yesterday. The opening and closing holes are played out on flatter ground, close to the clubhouse by the River Gala, with the other ten holes located on very undulating terrain on the other side of the railway line that cuts through the course.

There’s a few uphill holes to negotiate during a round here, most notably at the stroke index 1 5th and 420-yard 16th, but, to counter balance the climbs, there are several glorious downhill fairways to cut loose on from the tee, especially at the (spectacular) 6th and, on the inward half, the 13th and 14th.

I wasn’t impressed with the short par four 4th, where trees block out the approach to a two-tiered green, but this, thankfully, was the only two-shotter to induce a bout of head scratching on my part.

I’m a big advocate of sensibly-sized par threes and four of Torwoodlee’s five short holes are just that, measuring between 124 and 176 yards. They’re all decent holes, especially the two on the front nine that play uphill because it’s always difficult to make that sort of hole attractive and interesting. It comes as something of a shock to the system to find the final one-shotter at the 17th is all of 234 yards from the back tees – I wonder what the original course architect, Willie Park Jnr, would make of this hole nowadays, even with the use of modern equipment?

Having now played six of the top seven ranked courses in the Borders, I think Torwoodlee is probably positioned a couple of places too high in its regional chart at present so it’ll be interesting to see where it ends up when the next re-ranking exercise is carried out at the end of 2015.

Jim McCann