Golfing holidays and golf breaks in Scotland.
Southerness Golf Club
Southerness, Dumfries. DG2 8AZ
Over the last ten years Southerness, the Mackenzie Ross designed course, has gained the recognition so long denied it by its youth and the relative lack of accessibility. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies Golf Association and the Ladies Golf Union have all held a championship here.
Such a curriculum vitae is impressive enough, but there's more. One view of this magnificent links, set beneath the breathtaking Galloway Hills along a particularly beautiful stretch of the Solway Firth coastline, should be enough to satisfy you that this is a course deserving your best attention. And for further confirmation, take a glance at the card. The par of the course may be 'only` 69, but the standard scratch score is three shots higher. But equally, don't get the wrong impression, Southerness is no assault course. This is links golf at its best. From the crisp, sandy turf to the rolling fairways and greens, Southerness is a joy to play. The abundant heather and gorse is nice to look at too, from the middle of the fairway! Get any closer and its charms will soon pale amidst your effort to excavate your ball back to the short cut grass.
The course runs along the Solway Firth and is renowned for its tough par-4s, eight of which measure in excess of 400 yards. Perhaps the strength of the course is that, like all true championship tests, Southerness demands that you drive the ball well. Straight is good; straight and long is better. No where is that truer than at the 12th hole, a 421 yard left to right dogleg, running away from the Clubhouse, towards the sea and into the prevailing wind. The drive is tough, calling for both the aforementioned length and accuracy but it is nothing compared with the approach that follows. A long iron or fairway wood is usually placed to a semi-blind green sitting atop what appears to be a small shelf set amidst some decidedly uninviting humps and bunkers. Hit it well and you will have a reasonable chance of securing your par, a bogey at worst. But strike it poorly and all sorts of horrors await.
The scenario is typical of Southerness - your bad shots are punished; your good shots get their reward. What could be better?
No. of holes: 18
Length: 6566 yards
Par: 69
Course Type: Links
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