Windyhill

Windyhill Golf Club started out as Canniesburn Golf Club in 1908, moving to its present location in 1924 when a hospital was earmarked for the land that its course occupied. James Braid, who laid out the club’s first course in 1910, was contracted to design the new layout, with the new eighteen holes opening for play in February 1925.

According to the book James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses by John F Moreton and Iain Cumming, “Braid’s first visit was late in 1922. He staked off a course of almost 6000 yards in length. Local labour built the course but in 1928 John Stutt was there ‘remodelling’, using Braid’s ‘further suggestions’.”

The course extends to 6,154 yards nowadays, with only three par fives on the scorecard at the 8th, 13th and 15th holes. It’s a hilly track, with several fairways routed across sloping terrain (such as at holes 5, 8 and 15) and it’s been known for first time golfers at Windyhill to complain “you need one leg shorter than the other to play here!”

On the front nine, “Perfection” at the 414-yard 9th certainly requires golfing excellence in the shape of a long drive to an up sloping fairway followed by a lengthy second shot to a green that’s benched into the hillside. On the inward half, the signature hole at “Rocky Gait” is another very testing par four that makes similar demands on length and accuracy with both the tee shot and the approach.