Three Leading Highland Links Courses Ranked In Top 13 In Scotland
Three of the Highlands’ most prestigious golf courses have been rated among the 13 best venues to play in Scotland.
Royal Dornoch Golf Club is placed 5th, The Nairn Golf Club 12th and Castle Stuart Golf Links 13th in the list of 100 leading Scottish courses compiled by the prestigious Golf World magazine.
All three are part of the Highland Golf Links (HGL) partnership which promotes Play and Stay destination breaks in the area.
The Kingsmills Hotel and Culloden House Hotel, in Inverness; the Royal Golf Hotel at Royal Dornoch; and the Golf View Hotel and Spa in Nairn are also part of the group.
The Golf World list, which is updated every two years, was drawn up by a 19-strong panel of its readers which looked at factors including strategic merit, presentation, memorable holes, playability, consistency of test and visual appeal in making their decisions.
The only other Highland course to feature in the list’s top 30 is Skibo Castle, which was placed 10th.
Fraser Cromarty, chairman of HGL and CEO at The Nairn Golf Club, said: “Having all three HGL courses inside the top 13 of Golf World’s list is fantastic news for the organisation and the Highlands.
“Our three courses are internationally renowned and help draw golfers from around the world to the Highlands. We work hard together to market the Highlands as a leading golfing destination and this kind of recognition from a respected publication further helps promote the area.
“The three courses are accessible for visitors and can be played over the course of a weekend, making golfing breaks in this part of the world easy to manage and very rewarding.”
Royal Dornoch’s Championship Course, a favourite of Major winners such as Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Craig Stadler and Greg Norman, is described in the Golf World list as a course that “combines challenge and beauty in one magnificent package. Golfing heaven, especially for the purist”.
The Nairn Golf Club, which hosted the Walker Cup in 1999 and the Curtis Cup in 2012, is said to begin with “a terrific stretch along the shore and is complemented by excellent inland holes. A worthy Walker Cup venue with ludicrously smooth greens”.
Castle Stuart Golf Links, which opened just six years ago, hosted the Scottish Open for three successive years from 2011 and will host the tournament again next year, is said to boast “great holes, great scenery and lots of fun – very forgiving too, especially off the tee; around the greens less so”.
Castle Stuart also recently announced a partnership with the Arnold Palmer Group to build a second course and the golfing legend’s first course in Scotland. It is due to be completed in 2019.
The three HGL courses host the 54-hole Tomatin Single Malt Pro-Am which will be held from 28-30 September this year and features a field of nearly 300 golfers.
Fraser Cromarty added: “The Highlands is an established golfing destination with fabulous courses and wonderful accommodation. I hope this new list will encourage even more visitors to play and stay in the area.”