Review of the Month May 2017 - The Machrie

Review of the Month May 2017 - The Machrie

A couple of disclaimers in writing this review: 1. Quite a few years ago, one of my daughters attended a wedding on Islay and brought home some souvenirs from the Machrie course for me; I’ve been marking my ball and fixing my ball marks with Machrie logo items ever since, so it’s had a warm place in my heart way before I ever set foot there. And 2. I’ve never played on the pre-renovation Machrie so I had nothing with which to compare my recent golf experience there. We let a 3-ball of locals play through, and they gently groused about the new course, saying they were ‘still getting used to it’.

The course itself is starkly beautiful: close by the sea, treeless, undulating, scrubbed by the wind; and the layout is imaginative, with many memorable holes. Very few bunkers; the lay of the land presents enough of a challenge. As newcomers, there were many places where we’d have to climb up on dunes or on bluffs to see where the heck we were supposed to go. It’s a course I’d be happy playing again and again, and I would highly recommend a trip there.

Many details are still works in progress: the hotel is still being built, the scorecard was a piece of paper, the clubhouse is a little cabin on the edge of the construction zone, and a course guide would prove a useful tool. But these details are minor ones: the course itself is terrific. Go there; it’s wonderful links golf.