The Impressive Gleneagles Golf Course
Three championship golf courses and more await you at Gleneagles in Perthshire, Scotland. They are part of the Gleneagles Golf Resort, the brainchild of Donald Matheson, General Manager of the Caledonian Railway Company over seventy-five years ago. He visualized a luxury hotel accessed by their trains with golf as a vacation attraction.
Even before the hotel was ready, the King’s and Queen’s, designed by the legendary James Braid were. Created out of a wilderness in idyllic mountain setting, they had made a name in golfing circles by the 1920s. Both King’s and Queen’s resemble the older links courses in Scotland, being built on sand and gravel.
The summer of 1928 saw the opening of the third Wee Course of nine holes. The latest addition is the PGA Centenary Course, created by Jack Nicklaus in 2001 to commemorate the centenary of The Professional Golfer’s Association. It has five different tees at each hole in this 7,088 yard course which is the venue for the 40th Ryder Cup matches in 2014.
The 6,741 yard King’s golf course is a test for a golfer’s shot-making skills. This moorland course set in Ochil Hills overlooks the majestic mountains Ben Vorlich and Trossachs on the west, and green hills to the south. The springy moorland turf is easy to play on and the fairways are surrounded by mature pines and silver birch. The course is a challenge with a mix of long and short holes that blend in the landscape. Careless shots can land in the rough, strewn with gorse and heather.
The holes are isolated from each other by gravel ridges giving you the privacy of playing in your own course! The holes have pithy Scot names like the par 4 third hole, Silver Tassie, Bonnie Blink and Wee Bogle. The fifth known as Het Girdle is a challenging par 3 and the 17th is called Warslin, reflecting the difficulty of playing this long, sweeping par 4.
The 5,965 yard Queen’s course is set in scenic surroundings with high ridges on the north and west sides and woodlands around. Featuring lochans and ditches as water hazards, the seductive first nine holes are a challenge, particularly in the south westerly breeze.
