Troon (Darley) - Ayrshire & Arran - Scotland

This has to be one of the worst maintained golf courses I’ve seen. Set up on the first tee you think, this looks quite good, after you get out the home stretch you cross a road and things change, badly. Very poorly maintained tees, fairway and greens tell a story of either poor green keeping or a lack of funding, or both.

What was once a gem of a course and tough now has good shots punished with lost balls or needing to take penalty drops.

Gorse, heather and other bushes have been allowed to take hold with no management over a number of years. Bunkers have no sand and almost impossible to get out with downward slopes to high faces.

It’s June and the courses should be in good conditions the greens are inconsistent, 1-4 fairly quick, the rest very slow with a lot of bare patches.

Don’t waste your money on this or any of the other Troon municipal courses. For visitors wanting to play links golf, don’t think this is it. You’ll get far better elsewhere.

The Darley links is one of three courses emanating from the starters office at the Troon Municipal golf complex which is owned, managed and run by South Ayrshire Council.

The words ‘municipal’ and ‘council owned’ would simply deter some people from even considering a round at this course whilst others may head there with some trepidation.

And whilst the course may well indeed find itself down the pecking order of a golfing itinerary in Ayrshire that’s only because the quality of other nearby venues is so high and so deep.

However, the Darley is a very good golf course in its own right and I was extremely impressed with the links on my visit here. The style of course is similar in nature to that of nearby Irvine, Gailes and Kilmarnock – an inland heathland/links hybrid. There’s no view of the sea but the firm and mildly undulating terrain certainly plays like a good old-fashioned links and with deep bunkers, plus an abundance of gorse, the course presents a stern challenge.

Ed is the founder of Golf Empire – click the link to read his full review.

Troon Darley was not full of litter when I played it in 2012. It did have a grumpy group of 4 who did not invite me to play through despite catching up with them on the 3rd tee just as they finished hitting off. I pestered them enough to finally get their reluctant wave and mumbles as I putted out. The course is a beauty for 20 or 30 quid or whatever. I think I did the 3 muni’s for 57pd. When you are on the road bridge at the end of the course looking down on it in the evening sun, honestly you could be on a half dozen great links courses, not a cheap council course. Definintely the pick over Lochgreen with Fullarton obviously a distant 3rd. I reckon Darley has it over a number of other more fancied courses. For me it’s a strong 4 ball that puts it in the same category as Dundonald and Glasgow Gailes

Great layout spoil by the litter. I even wrote to the council and complained about the litter and got a letter with a list of excuses back. Clean it up and there is a great little golf course. I'll make it right down due to the litter and rubbish. I had various German friends with me when I played and I was embarrassed.

A bit of a strange set up - THREE courses start form a VERY municipal set up, and in one field you have 3 x 1st and 3 x 18th holes which are basically holes in a flat field. On Darley you then go to another "linking" field with more holes in and out - and THEN you get to the great bit of course .... pity there are not 18 holes like this - these holes live up to the reports and rankings (in layout anyway) trouble is the locals use the course as park / route to work or the shops / walk dogs etc etc and I have NEVER ever seen as much litter (can bottles, some broken, paper, cartons ) and / or dog excretia on a course (and never want to again ) I have yet to play Royal Troon itself and still want to but will I do not think be tempted to re-visit this or either of the other two attached council courses.

Played a competitive round on Troon Darley this week, we were blessed with good weather, and fantastic greens, very true, some of the best Ive played this year. Course is a bit scruffy in places but all in all I wish England had municipals as good as this, the Scots are spoilt. Some tricky tee shots off the back plates, bring your A game, definitely one to enjoy again and again. I last enjoyed it 20 years ago ! I wont leave it that long again. Favourite stretch is 5, 6, 7 but every hole is interesting. Reminds me of the Hotchkin at Woodhall Spa which is always a seat of the pants experience. Lochgreen, the sister course also has some great holes but is let down in my opinion by the 3 parkland style holes around the turn. I give Darley an excellent rating, for value for money, unstuffiness, interesting and challenging golf with superb greens.

One of the finest municipal links courses in Scotland. The Open may have been played half a mile away at Royal Troon but I’ll bet less than 1% of Glasgow golfers will have played there as opposed to 90% who will have had a day out at the Darley – it’s a well worn track but my how it wears well!

Golf here is without the airs and graces of a members club, but tight fairways and abundant gorse makes this a challenging place to get around in par figures. The greens are slick, even in winter, and there are lots of cracking holes with burns to cross, long carries off some tees and a good few elevated greens to aim for. Talk about value for money – and they even accept half price vouchers at a venue where a round is less than 20 quid!

There are another two courses attached to the same clubhouse so you can make a real day of it here among real, down to earth golfers – it does you good every so often to take a golfing reality check at venues like Troon Darley!

Jim McCann

I booked the Darley course as a warm up to a weekend at Turnberry last weekend and was a little apprehensive reading some of the reviews from other people. I can understamd the criticism about litter, i imagine it gets a lot worse in summer than i witnessed mid April but beyound that i thought the course was excellent. A real surprise having played the Lochgreem twice before which has a very Minicipal feel to it and nothing wrong in that, i think the Darley is much better. A real Scottish Links and in very good condition with all sorts of challenges. Enjoyed it thouroughly and would go back any day. Looks tough of the back tee's as well. Find the negative comments about the 15th a mystery, its a great hole and anyone who doesnt like the layout and charachter of this course, doesnt appreciate golf as it should be in my humble opinion. favorite hole would be 11, 14 or 15.

Made the obligatory winter visit to Darley and was again struck by how underwhelming this course is. It contains very few striking holes - the 5th and par 3 16th are the only standouts. On the other hand the silly 3rd and the ridiculous 15th are memorable for the wrong reasons. The rest are a bland selection indeed.Three further drawbacks to Darley are the amount of litter all over the course, the number of walkers who cross numerous fairways and the pace of play. Four hours is way too long for a round of golf. The Darley's redeeming feature is the £11 per round green fee (using half-price vouchers). I really must remember not to go back next year!

Nothing inspiring about this course at all. Torturously slow with bland hole after bland hole. Two hours through six holes is enough to test the most dedicated of golfers. Hard to understand why this course features in the top 100 list and I took no positive emotions from my time here.