Auchterarder Golf Club Course Review

Auchterarder Golf Club Course Review

GF Round: £50-£55; Day £60-£70
Par 69, 5,800 yards
Slope 120
GM Verdict – A lovely short course right next to Gleneagles with splendid views of the Ochil Hills and a particularly challenging closing trio.
Favourite Hole – The par-5 6th is a short three-shotter up the hill, with a narrow entrance to a green framed beautifully by pines and bunkers.

Perthshire may not be blessed with the higher mountains of Scotland’s northern reaches, but the more subtle grandeur of the Ochil Hills near Auchterarder is equally alluring. This small town is particularly blessed when it comes to golf with the superb Gleneagles Hotel close by, home to two of the best golf courses in Perthshire in its Top 100 beauties, the King’s Course and the Queen’s Course.

There is, of course, a third 18-holer at Gleneagles in the PGA Centenary Course of 2014 Ryder Cup fame. Right next to the 15th hole, where Jamie Donaldson hit his cup-winning wedge, lies the town’s own very pretty little golf course, a fine example of a sub 6,000-yarder that really knows how to look after itself.

The hole that flanks its more celebrated neighbour is the excellent par-5 6th, but several holes stand out before then, among them the par-4 3rd, a short dogleg left to a green backed by a small stand of pines, and the excellent well-bunkered par-3 4th that follows. The 7th then serves up an intriguing two-tier green that’s wide at the front, but narrow up on top, while the 9th is a lovely long hole playing straight towards those majestic distant hills.

The 11th is a cracker that seems to just keep bending further and further right, and just as you’re beginning to relax a little, the finale hits hard in the form of a 235-yard par 3 that must be unreachable some days, a testing 441-yarder and a closing 184-yarder that may also require the removal of a headcover into a strong breeze. Less famous than its neighbour? Indeed. Also worthy of your attention when you’re in this corner of Perthshire? Without doubt.