Scotland's off-beaten-track courses worth visiting: Grantown-on-Spey
Grantown-on-Spey
is a small town on the Spey River, near the northern edge of Cairngorms
National Park, in Scottish whisky country. It was the birthplace of
Bobby Cruikshank, a Scottish golf pro whose principal claim to fame was
that he twice lost (1922 and 1923) to Gene Sarazen in the semi-finals of the US PGA championship when it was a match-play event.
The
town of Grantown-on-Spey was founded in 1765 and was named after a local rich guy, James
Grant, who is at the far left in the foursome pictured below. I don't know why
the golf clubs these guys are holding don't have heads!
The Grantown-on-Spey course
isn't one I would plan a trip to Scotland around, but I did enjoy playing it. It
was designed by Willie Park and James Braid in 1890, during the second
Scottish golf boom, which accompanied the rise of the railroads.
The
first American golf boom took place at the same time. In those days,
just about the only thing you needed to be a golf-course architect in
the United States was a Scottish accent.
There's a practice area in a field next to the course. A member with a tube of shag balls was working on his short game.
Ladies' Daywas about to begin, but the pro said I could tee off ahead of the
crowd. A member of another club had told me that Grantown is really
three distinct six-hole golf courses -- and he was right.
The first six
holes are flat; Nos. 2-5 work around the corners of a big triangular
field, at upper right in the aerial shot below. They were more fun to
play than you might think.
To get to the To play the second six holes, I went through a gate and across a road, into much more dramatic terrain.
I liked those six holes the best.
The
final six holes are quirky, and are squeezed into a sort of open valley
bordered by two schools. I surprised myself, after my round, when I
realised that I could mentally walk through all 18 holes and recall the characteristics of each, something I'm
usually terrible at unless I've played a course four or five times.
As
I finished, I saw the last of the women's groups heading out -- the
grans of Grantown. There were several foursomes, and then the last group
was a sixsome:
Two
guys were drinking beer on a bench in front of the golf shop when I
finished. A carnival had been set up in a field next door, but I didn't
stick around for that.
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