Two courses beneath the munros
A championship course in the lee of the mountains and a nine-hole loch course at the water's edge.
Highland turf running fast from the loch shore into the lee of four munros.
The championship course climbs from the loch shore into the shelter of four munros, the fairways fast over Highland turf and every green framed by stone and water. The wind off the loch and the run of the land make no two rounds alike.
Five holes that stay with you long after the last putt drops — though on a given day the mountain wind is apt to nominate a few of its own.
4th · The Causeway · Par 3
A short iron with nowhere to bail out: the tee sits on one bank of the loch and the green on another, an arm of Loch Mara lying cold and mirror-still between them. Club up when the mountain air hangs heavy, commit to the number, and try not to be undone by four munros standing upside down in the water at your feet.
5th · Corrie's Edge · Par 4
The drive runs along the very lip of a corrie, the ground falling away into blue shadow on the left where a pulled tee shot is gone for good. Hug the high side and the hole opens kindly; flirt with the drop for the shorter way in and you are playing the bravest — or the most foolish — line on the front nine.
7th · Heaven's Tee · Par 5
The photograph everyone carries home. You climb to a tee cut high into the hillside and drive out over nothing at all, the fairway unspooling far below toward the loch with the whole glen stacked in tiers of stone behind the green. Two honest blows down the slope and this reachable three-shotter can give up a birdie — though few players strike the second before they have taken the picture.
13th · Whisky Mile · Par 4
A long, straight-talking par four aimed down the glen at the lodge, its bar windows already glinting in the distance. Every yard is earned into the prevailing Highland breeze, with no shortcut and no shelter — just honest golf and the promise of a dram once the last putt drops. Par along the Whisky Mile is a fair reward for a mile well walked.
17th · Loch Reach · Par 5
The penultimate hole reaches out along the shoreline, Loch Mara pressed hard against your right hand the whole way home. Bite off as much of the bay as your nerve allows from the tee, then thread the second between the water and the silver birches to leave a pitch to a green that seems almost afloat. Get greedy and the loch keeps your ball; play it well and only the eighteenth, and the bar, remain.
Scorecard
| Hole | Par | SI | White | Yellow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Loch Shore | 4 | 7 | 438 | 406 |
| 2. The Long Glen | 5 | 3 | 552 | 520 |
| 3. Heather Brae | 4 | 9 | 421 | 389 |
| 4. The Causeway | 3 | 17 | 196 | 164 |
| 5. Corrie's Edge | 4 | 1 | 455 | 423 |
| 6. Drover's Pass | 4 | 11 | 410 | 378 |
| 7. Heaven's Tee | 5 | 5 | 571 | 539 |
| 8. Munro | 3 | 15 | 184 | 152 |
| 9. Burnside | 4 | 13 | 432 | 400 |
| 10. Eagle's Watch | 4 | 8 | 446 | 414 |
| 11. The Cleft | 3 | 18 | 218 | 186 |
| 12. Stag's Leap | 5 | 2 | 560 | 528 |
| 13. Whisky Mile | 4 | 10 | 428 | 396 |
| 14. Thistle Knowe | 4 | 4 | 462 | 430 |
| 15. The Pines | 3 | 16 | 232 | 200 |
| 16. Granite Fall | 4 | 12 | 418 | 386 |
| 17. Loch Reach | 5 | 6 | 548 | 516 |
| 18. Home by the Loch | 4 | 14 | 451 | 419 |
Around the glen
