BRORA RANKED NO 9 IN BRITAIN'S VALUE FOR MONEY COURSES

                                The rural charm of Brora's 13th hole (image by Robin Wilson)

By ROBIN WILSON
Still despondent at not regaining their place in Golf World's Top 100 UK golf course rankings Brora Golf Club can look forward to a 2012 year of bounteous till receipts after gaining a top ten place by National Club Golfer magazine in their recent review of 100 best value for money golf courses charging a visitor's green fee of under £50.
Brora's James Braid-designed links golf course skirts Kintradwell Bay in the inner Moray Firth of Sutherland's East Coast and has changed very little from 1924 when the five times Open Champion visited and returned to the his plans for simplistic use of the natural links dissected by two wee Scottish burns flowing into the bay.
The course received a ninth place in the review which is published in their February issue available now in clubhouses. Brora is one of only three courses in Scotland to appear in the top ten, the two others rated on value are Boat of Garten in fourth position and Montrose number seven.
Yet even better news for the golfers who choose Brora is that last season's green fee of £45 which brought the club a record income of £120,000 has been retained for 2012. The Boat of Garten green fee is £37 and Montrose £40.
On completion of the rankings which placed the Welsh club of Royal St. Davids at No 1 with a green fee of £48, National Club Golfer's deputy editor, Mark Townsend raised Brora's profile even higher when he selected it as his favourite pick of the 100 featured courses.
He wrote “Picking just one course from the list was a genuine headache but if the criterion was to take away a group for a great day then you would struggle to beat Brora.
"The Highlands is special for plenty of reasons but if we are concentrating on golf courses this Highland beauty has plenty to boast about. It has a gentle start, generous fairways throughout and is as soothing as anywhere you rarely make it look even slightly silly. Whatever the case a visit here is looked back upon as the day of days.”
The Magazine's Editor, Dan Murphy as his favourite pick went for Tenby in Pembrokeshire which is ranked at number five.
Two season's ago Brora linked up with Golspie, Royal Dornoch and Tain to launch a Dornoch Firth Golf Pass which proved very successful. The four clubs were nominated for a 2011 Highland's Tourism award.
The Golspie and Tain courses have also features in the value for money rankings, Tain at Number 15 with a £44 green fee and Golspie number 56 for £40.
Royal Dornoch was omitted from this latest survey as it's championship course green fee has for some years exceeded the £50 upper limit but in a previous National Club Golfer survey carried out on courses with green fees under £80 the Dornoch championship links was rated first.
Other courses in the North who have been listed in the under £50 category include Fortrose and Rosemarkie (35) fee £38, Nairn Dunbar (39) fee £40 and Inverness (91) at £35 per round.
The magazine lists Shiskine as best value for money at number twenty nine and a green fee of just £20. It might just cost you that little bit more to get to Arran for the twelve holes on offer, but then if you have just come off the Wentworth course where you would have stumped out £360 last summer then the flight to Arran should not be too much of a worry.