Is This The Best Golf In Scotland? – Dumbarnie Links Review

Nish: 0:00

Every story has an ending. Does our quest to play the top 100 courses in 10 years have a good ending? I’m Nish and I’m here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 110 Golf Podcast. I want to go and play it again. Probably the best experience that Scottish golf has to offer. A lot of people maybe wonderful rusty on the first team floor. They had some music playing in the clubhouse. A soup at the halfway hook is my new half-time drink of choice. That it was almost visually better than Trump. Episode 50. Is this the best golf in Scotland? Dumbarnie Golf Links Review. This is a special episode of the podcast for a very special place. We’re breaking away from the norm for our 50th episode, which feels crazy if I’m honest. Back when we started this journey, we could only imagine where it would take us, and this latest installment took us somewhere we think is worthy of a special format. Now you may have noticed I’m without my regular co-hosts Chris and Jim. Sadly they’re both unavailable. But it’s down to me to take you through this amazing wild ride that we’ve been on at Dumbarnie. So I’m going to attempt to guide you through this whole experience. And it is an experience that on the way back got us wondering: is this the best that golf in Scotland has got to offer? So we’ll as I mentioned before, we’re going to take a slightly different format to the norm. Now, if you don’t know, we have an audio and we have a video version of our podcast. You can get the video version on YouTube. The audio is wherever you get your podcasts. Now, this one is definitely worth, if you’re listening to this, it’s definitely worth jumping onto YouTube and watching because we’re going to be sprinkling in some footage from our chat with Blair, who was the head professional, and we were very fortunate to speak to him. He was a great ambassador for the club, full of lots of great information and you know, real character. So we we we love speaking to him. We’re also going to be sprinkling in some of uh the tea shots from some of the magnificent teas that they have at Dumbarnie, and we’ve got full shot traces and things like that on them, so you can see how we’re playing, but also the view that you can experience if you go and are lucky enough to go and play Dumbarnie. So definitely worth having a listen and having a watch. Now, while you’re at it, uh please do hit the subscribe button because it gives us the opportunity to do things like we’ve done this time around. We’ve interviewed Blair and we’ve also been able to get shot tracers on our on our uh videos. So it gives us a little bit extra good, uh extra better content uh that we can present to you. Now we’ll also be leaning, as I said, very heavily on our chat with Blair. Uh he was a font of all knowledge, and we certainly could do an episode just for our from our chat with him, uh, but we’ll be sprinkling that in the episode as we go along. So let’s start with how our day went. Now, uh Dumbarnie is very much a place that is about the two things that is your welcome and your arrival and your experience, and then there’s the golf. So we are gonna try and cover, or I am gonna try and cover both of those things, hopefully in equal measure, because I think there it is merited, but hopefully, I’m gonna cover it in such a way that it’s not just one block of one thing and one block of another, but we must start with how our day went. So we woke up at five o’clock, or sorry, before five, we set off at five o’clock, and there’s only two reasons that we do that and actually to go on holiday and to play golf. So we had about two, two and a half hours in the darkness driving up, and we used that as an excuse to reacquaint ourselves with our preview episode. And if you haven’t, get on it. Uh, it really got us excited for the for the round ahead. But we also just wanted to, yeah, just really get ourselves up for what we thought was going to be a great day. So we arrived and uh Chris has got an electric car, so uh we made a beeline straight for the car park to go and find one of the the EV spaces and they do have those there. Now, I missed out and we were expecting this when we did arrive, but we sort of didn’t maybe didn’t research it well enough because we were doing the the electric chart car charging. But I would recommend if you’re arriving at Dumbarnie, don’t head for the car park, head up for the signs for the clubhouse because you can actually drive up to the clubhouse and you can drop your bags off. And the guys who were there to welcome you in are absolutely brilliant. They were so friendly, they ask you for your tea time, sort of check you in, get your bags out, they’ll set you up on trolleys. Now, if you don’t have a trolley yourself and you carry, they do actually have uh push trolleys and pull trolleys that are complementary and part of your green fee. Uh, you can hire electric ones, of course, if you wanted to. Uh, but they will get all those loaded up and they will move, they’ll put your little tag on, and your tag comes with your name printed on it and your tea time, which is a really nice touch. And they will then wheel them round to the back of the clubhouse, which faces out to where all the golf is. Now, once you then go and arrive and you checked in, you walk into the clubhouse, and the first thing you’re struck with is you see this lovely sofa, and it’s actually where we had the chat with with Blair with a roaring fire. You’ve got a window that just shows you the first Tee. And honestly, that first Tee is absolutely spectacular. You’ve got the further forth in the distance, you’ve got this fairway that tumbles down away from you, it’s an elevated Tee, and it just puts you in a great frame of mind straight away. So, I said to you about Dumbarnie having this whole customer service ethos, and you know, it comes through straight away. Every single member of staff was brilliant, they were on point, they were friendly, not over-friendly. They were happy to engage with you and have a bit of a laugh with you, and everybody acknowledged you. You know, you didn’t sort of feel like you were interrupting anybody or or you were getting in the way or anything like that. So, real focus on customer service. So, once we’d gone in and we we went and introduced ourselves to Blair, and he said, you know, have a have a seat, we’ll we’ll grab a coffee. We had a little walk around the clubhouse, and my goodness, what an amazing clubhouse it is. So we gathered last year, 2024, it picked up the Clubhouse of the Year award. I can totally see why. It’s not massive, it’s not overwhelming, but it’s it had something that just put you at ease about your round. Now, one of the things that you get sometimes is you walk into a clubhouse and it’s a bit quiet, people turn around and look at you, you know, who are you, what’s going on. Because it’s not a member club, it’s uh it’s a paid guests club. I think you already know that everybody’s in the same boat. So everybody was really friendly, like, hi, hello, how are you, or looking forward to the round, and because of the atmosphere that they create at the the club and the the course from the staff, you just felt really comfortable. And they had one thing going that I’ve never noticed before, and I only noticed it when we listened back to the interviews with Blair. They had some music playing in the clubhouse, which was fantastic. Why do more places not do that? It sort of meant that you could speak freely because there wasn’t it wasn’t too quiet. It meant that you felt you were in a place that was designed for your comfort, and they’ve done that so so so well. So, in the clubhouse, they’ve got an absolutely fantastic bar and restaurant. We had some food afterwards, it was absolutely bloody lovely, and you’ve got these massive windows again overlooking the golf. So when you head to the golf, it’s one of the things that Dumbarnie is famous for its welcome on the first tea with a wee dram of whisky. So we asked Blair about that welcome and how they came about it and what the benefits they see from that.

Blair: 8:24

Probably our most photogram is slash community. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s quite a nice little bit. Whiskey’s on the starting like two and a half. Okay, we introduced it originally just for um trial. Yeah, it’s so popular. You’ve got to go to the way you put one every tea. Maybe for the tea whiskey is that it’s funny because a lot of people maybe obviously want to find a whiskey on the first scene before. Yeah, but if they haven’t been finding like a lot of fun in our starters podium, it was actually a whiskey bar. Okay. So we’re kind of leaning into that kind of uh it’s really popular. Yeah, yeah. When I started to budgeting, I thought how many golfers is it gonna take a simple scenario. There’d be quite a lot of international golfers who like life whiskey. So I maybe naive and thought the uptake would be like 50% half two out of every four bottles. And it’s a lot higher than this. It’s over three quarters, is it? Wow. Yeah, um, so yeah, a lot of people in the party with us. So we now make our own signature limited edition whisky through through he Dumbarnie whisky, which is quite nice. And you can purchase a bottle of it as well, it’s limited to 250 bottles every year.

Nish: 9:48

So now you may have noticed on that that the audio was a little bit louder. Now, I’ve left it in there because I wanted to give everyone a bit of an idea as to the kind of atmosphere you do have in that clubhouse. It was buzzing. People were coming in the door, and you’ll see this on the video version. We’re coming in the door and they were just saying hello to anybody straight away. They were welcomed at the door straight away, and there was a buzz about the place, and it wasn’t a buzz of busyness, it was a buzz of excitement, it was a buzz of you’re gonna have a good time, it was a buzz of fun, and I think it was really important to get that across. You know, it it’s it it just put us in the right frame of mind. So that’s a little aside about the the interview elements that we’ve done with Blair. Now, what he was saying about the whiskey, so we got all of that, we got the welcome, and it was it was lovely. I’m not a whiskey fan, but I really like that whisky. But one of the things the starter gives you is your starter little pouch, little valuables pouch. Now, this is really plush, it’s all fluffy in the inside, it’s like a little mini sleeping bag, and I did actually say you could probably I’d probably just go to sleep in that, it was really good. So they’ve got their own Dumbarnie tartan that they’ve done, and in it you get a couple teas to go and play, you get pencil, and then you also get a scorecard uh which goes sort of sideways, and you also you then get a uh course map. So the course maps, I’m really signing on to these now, they’re really really helpful because you in it inside a course map, if you’re uninitiated, you get things like um the ideal line, you get little tips from the pro, you can get them in this case. They’ve not done tips from the pro, they’ve done it from Clive Clark, who actually designed the course. So very helpful tool, and we talked about that kind of first tea in and and the spectacular view. So you can watch our tea shots as we’re going off. One of the things you notice is that you’ve got these amazing sea views of the Firth of Forth uh you know sort of laid out in front of you. Now, St Andrews is only 10 miles away Dumbarnie, so it’s in that similar kind of ilk of land, and it’s it’s honestly stunning. Now, one of the other things that they’ve done really, really well, I think, is you’ve got this clubhouse and it’s got this terrace at the back, and what they’ve got is you’ve got the first tea right ahead of you, you’ve got a practice green that’s just to the right, you’ve got the driving range that’s kind of at two o’clock, and it’s a grass driving range, you get complementary uh crates of golf balls to go and hit. Uh, there’s lovely little Rolex watch out there and and all that kind of thing, so you can you can make sure you’re on time for your tea, but you’re never gonna be late because the range, you you just roll off it, you roll off the practice screen, and the first tea’s just there. So it’s really well thought out because it’s compact enough there. Now, we’re gonna hear from Blair later that it’s a massive estate, they’ve got loads of room, but the fact that they’ve kept that compact means that you’re not rushing and you know you’re never gonna run anywhere. It’s just well thought out. And you’ve also then got the 18th green, which is on the left hand side, that’s at probably around about 10 o’clock from the the rear of the clubhouse, and you finish and you can see this amazing clubhouse as you’re finishing, it’s a great finishing hole. So they really have thought about what the experience is like for the golfer when they turn up. So that was our welcome, and then we got off to our first t-shots. So our first tee shots, Chris has got a bit of a habit now, tends to mess it up. Uh, I’ve got myself into a really nice habit, and that is that I managed to get it down the middle somehow. So you’d be unsurprised to hear that’s exactly what happened on our first t-shots this time round. Um, so we finished the first hole, and at this point, you know, the starter gave us a tip, don’t take driver, all that kind of thing. But you know, you you you you you’ve always got those nerves. But I think the way that they’ve set the course up is designed to get rid of all of those nerves straight away. You hit number two, number two is a spectacular par five, it’s got a burn that makes through it, so you’ve got lots of options and strategy options of whether you go for it or you drop short, and then you come to the third. Now, the third is a drivable par four. So if you heard the preview, our side bet for this golf course was to see who could drive the most greens on the drivable par fours. Now, this one is at probably one of the most highest points of the golf course, so you’ve got a great view, quite a challenging t-shot. There’s a lot going on visually in front of you, but you know that you’ve got a decent carry. I think you’re only looking at around about a carry of, we played off the white tees, probably looking at a carry of about 250, or probably actually 220 to get over any kind of danger. But you know, you have to be straight and you have to be accurate. So gotta be worth a go. Now, talking of our starts and how we got underway, Dumbarnie had a bit of a strange baptism, I suppose you’d call it, in that it was due to open just before lockdown happened. So, in then in the end, it opened just after. It was the 29th of May. My birthday is the 28th of May, so I feel I’ve got some affinity with Dumbarnie golf links. Uh, but it opened just after lockdown. So there were a lot of challenges at that point for many golf clubs, established golf clubs, let alone a new kid on the block. So we asked Blair how they managed that awkward opening and how it all played out.

Blair: 15:40

And yes, this is our sixth season. Have you been here for all the time? Yes, so I started in the March before we opened, so March 2020. And I handed my notes in of my previous draw, and then about a day later, Boris Johnson went on TV and said, Right, you must stay at home, you can’t. Right in the middle of um, obviously a terrible COVID uh was very unusual. So instead of instead of what I had thought I’d be doing would be stocking a photoshop, setting up about operation, uh setting up Photoshop, T sheet, uh till system, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, none of that because the clubhouse wasn’t finished because it worked. So we had to then obviously change the plan. So then we got some kind of being quite creative, I guess, and we got some temporary cabins. So that was 2021, that was very unusual. To be honest with you, my first month at work was worked as an empty pen. And then 2021 we got into the clubhouse, which was nice. Clubhouse everyone enjoying us now. Uh but still not a lot of overseas travel. Okay, yeah, because of course like Dumbarnie was in other eyes on overseas, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so still an unusual year, it wasn’t so um still restrictions on on dining and areas and still wearing masks and stuff like that. Yeah, but we did get into the clubhouse. I would say Dumbarnie almost started for real in 2022. Okay, because the open championship was over at uh the Oak Horse, yeah, cool. And so with us, we’d so close to that in July. Yeah, that obviously made us very busy, but it was also perfect to like get us on the map. Yeah, yeah, with that kind of tourism.

Nish: 17:19

Now, at this stage, we were right in the grips of the golf course, and you know, the weather was lovely. I got I took a big Pringle sweater out with me because I thought it was going to be really, really hot. Uh cold, sorry, and I just ended up getting absolutely boiling. So I’d managed to take that off at three, and you know, that for that third hole is a is a wild ride, it really is. Uh, so we managed to then get ourselves onto the fifth hole. Now, the fifth hole is the first of two, I’d say three holes anyway, but officially two, that have a split fairway. So it gives you a strategy choice, and you know, my goodness, it was a fantastic feature, and it was kind of like you we were playing off the white T, so we didn’t really have that much of an option because we could carry a lot of the a lot of the danger. If you’re a bit further back, then I can imagine it does give you a real a real quandary as to what to do, but just to visually have that, and again it’s an elevated T, well, it was absolutely lovely, like really nice thing to do, and you know, I think that there were a lot of highlights in the visual element of this golf course, but then also the playability, like you know, we didn’t really struggle with finding our golf ball or anything like that. So that was the that was the the split fairway par five, uh, and that then led us on to a quite spectacular par three, and that was the sixth. So you tee off. I think this one’s again a little bit elevated, and what they’ve done with the par threes, and I thought was really clever. I think they’ve got three of them in total. They are visually they’re absolutely stunning, they’ve been put in amazingly strategic places, they’ve got a degree of danger about them because they have some bunkers, but you’re not they’re not the greens aren’t surrounded by bunkers, and there is bailout, you know, and even if you’re a bit short, you’re gonna find your ball and you’re gonna be able to play. And I think that’s a theme that kind of came out through this whole round for me that they weren’t trying to beat you up, they weren’t trying to give you the opportunity to say I’m never coming back again. So fantastically thought out and laid out golf holes, and you’ll be able to see just a little reminder, you’ll be able to see our t-shots that we hit on all of these holes on the YouTube version of the podcast. Now we’ve been talking to this gentleman, Blair, and we said we had a fantastic time with him, but I thought it’d be interesting to get a bit of background, you know, where he’s come from and how can Dumbarnie compares to a very, very famous neighbour just 10 miles up the road, and that is the Saint the old course at St Andrews, everybody knows about, and he’s on everybody’s bucket list. So these are Blair’s thoughts on uh Dumbarnie itself and its features and how it compares.

Blair: 20:16

Yeah, 2010, 2020. Um, yeah, he was there for the Amateur Championship, was there for obviously the Dunhill every year, yeah, we’re there for the Women’s Open one year, yeah. Um and just St. Andrews, it’s just yeah, it’s just magic, isn’t it? First job involved was done in the Belfry, so we lived down there, which is amazing because I was just a trainee, yeah. So I learned about stuff. So three courses down there, bedroad cells, big things. It was amazing. So I learned so much and made some great benches. Yeah, um so we’re only about 20 minutes from St. Andrews in the course. Yeah, so it wasn’t it wasn’t a big move, but I really fancied the challenge of um opening a course, yeah, building a team, building an experience and whatnot. Yeah, and I’ve loved it. Yeah. So this is us coming towards the end of our sixth season now. Okay. Um so Dumbarnie’s gone from uh he’s gone through a lot of changes in a short space of time. Yeah, and the Halfway House was an addition after we opened. I guess what it was I mean, you’ve literally got one of the newest courses in Scotland and then you know the most historic course in Scotland, right? You kind of see both what are the what are the big differences between us today. I think I think yeah, there is quite a lot. I mean, St Andrews is seven courses, you know, sixth in the town and the seventh at Castles just outside of town. Yeah, and I think probably even down to the pace of play as well. Like you can play a traditional links course because it’s so close together. Like the idea was that when you put out on the green, you shouldn’t have to walk too far to the next team. Yeah. But you know, in the old design style. So even pace of play, you can get around there quite quick because the courses are there, a lot of double fairways and that kind of thing. Yeah, of course, like Dumbarnie, Clive Clark’s the course architect, and he really likes people to enjoy his courses and it likes them to visually look impressive. Yeah, and one of the features that’s been really popular with Dumbarnie is how private it feels. Yeah. So usually our old courses now we’re in year year six, quite busy. Yeah, there’s usually quite a lot of offers, but none of the holes share any church with any of the other holes. Okay, yeah, so you’ve got a double breever that you got to send on those. So even if you are out there with another 120 people in the same time, yeah, it doesn’t feel like because you really only see the building you’re playing. Yeah. So I think that’s a big difference. I think having having a chance to build a course, a modern course with logistics in mind, but we’ve got our grass range, it’s about 20 years from the first. We could say it but you have to range right next to the firm. Even a putting cuts on our on our championship tea. So again, from a logistics point of view, it’s very different. Like the old courses, they weren’t designed with necessarily those things in mind, and space and practice facilities. Um, a lot of the traditional courses don’t really have a dedicated practice facility. And do you think that’s kind of that sets Dumbarnie apart in terms of working up? So, yeah, I think so. I think I think we get a lot of golf courts who might play um some of the traditional courses and some of the modern courses. Yeah. And I think there’s a place for both of them, because if you play the traditional ones, particularly in Scotland, like a Carnoustie, they’re difficult, you know, mirror field, they’re difficult golf courts. Yeah, they built the bunker for very penal, yeah. Full for Berry Pino, it’s a difficult golf course. Yeah. Whereas if you play Dumbarnie, obviously it can be big in Scotland on any given day. Yeah. But it is probably a little bit more open, certainly not the Tee. And it’s probably a little bit in slopes tend to maybe help the ball a little bit more than punish it. Yeah. Again, going back to Clive Clark, who’s the course architect, his philosophy is he likes people to enjoy his hotlows. Yeah. So the best feedback that you give him at the end is wow, what fun you had today. It’s so much fun. You’re talking more about like birdies than the lost bottles. Hopefully, that’s what we’re talking about later today. Sure, you will. And yeah, the feedback so far has been really kind. People seem to enjoy the design of the course. We’ve got three power fours that given the right weather conditions, which is a big factor, uh kind of um risk reward type holes. Yeah. So the third, the 11th, and the 17th. All three power fours. Like I say, given the right wind conditions, can you can maybe take on the green FLT, but there is a little bit of risk involved. Yeah. But if you can hit the shot, then you’ve got a good chance that maybe we have to our challenge today, they’ve got to take on a lot of our balls. We’ve got to take it on. So we’ll see how that goes. Well, it’s the wind. The reason I say weather dependent is that if obviously it’s 30 miles an hour into the wind, yeah, then a hole that was driver was not. But but as you can see, it’s nice and calm today. Yeah, so you will have the option, and I think I think I think that does make it feel fun. People enjoy that style, and you don’t get that at all the courses. And another another really nice feature of Dumbarnie is there’s three holes out there that have got two fairways. Yeah. So you can choose which one to go down. Okay. So you can choose to go down the middle and then hope for the best. And then you give yourself a double chance. Yeah. But you can go down one side and it’s it’s a shorter distance to the fairway because fairway’s wider. Okay. It’s just easier to hit the fairway. But then your second shot’s probably a bit longer and a bit more difficult. Yeah. Whereas you can take on maybe the more aggressive line. Yeah. So slightly longer carry to reach that fairway and that fairway smaller. Okay. But it’s going to give you a much easier, such a shorter set than those than shots. I think if that’s your philosophy, if you go for all the parts, I think you’ll have to go for go for the go for everything. So yeah, and then that’s the fun thing about Dumbarnie, is that um it does encourage you to do that, have a bit of fun with it. And like I say, with the slows on Dumbarnie, a lot of them are designed to help your ball rather than hinder it. And quite a few of the greens, it’s got a bit of a bunch more effect. Yeah. Where if he goes to the right or left or long, the screen’s going to gather and bring the ball back.

Nish: 25:42

Now I have to say, Blair is absolutely spot on with that main feature of Dumbarnie. I only lost one golf ball, and that’s because I already sent it out wide right. And A, that feels really good because you’re not in this negative mindset, and B, it gives you an indication of how that course has laid out. So you’ve got these punch bowl greens, and a lot of them are, and even in the par three, they’ve got backstops. So if you’re going long, it’s going to gather back up towards the hole. And the fairways, you know, if you if you’re a little bit off target, they’re not designed to roll off the fairway, they’re designed to roll you back in towards the fairway. So it’s been very cleverly thought out this golf course. Uh I think they just don’t want you to be struggling. You know, they want you to have birdie shots, they want you to have nice shots that you’re gonna remember and you’re gonna talk about and you’re gonna want to come back. And I think nothing is epitomizes that more than the eighth. You know, it’s a stunning par three, it’s really elevated, and I’m gonna just play a little clip before we talk about these two holes, just from Blair about his favourite stretch of holes at Dunbarnie.

Blair: 26:58

Have you got any favourite holes or favourite stretches of holes? My favourite stretch without a doubt is eight and nine. When I was talking about the hues on the plane the eighth and plane the nine, the view from the halfway house probably on bow court. Yeah. Because we’ve got quite a bit of elevation looking right down towards the scene.

Nish: 27:16

So we’re obviously in what Blair thinks is the best part of the course here. So the eighth, like I said, it’s absolutely stunning. You’ve got to see our T-shots, and it’s a bowl green, it’s got a couple of bunkers left and right, but it’s a really wide approach to the bunker. So you’re not thinking about hazards, and that’s the important thing here. You there’s very rare, very rarely are you actually thinking in your head, you know, don’t go there, don’t go there, don’t go there. Must, you know, you’ve always got a bit of bailout. And this honestly, this was an absolutely fantastic hole. We came around as you come through the seventh, the green complex of the seventh, you sort of just you come out and then you look right, and then this hole just appears, and it’s amazing. Um, so what a stunning golf hole that was. And then you uh walk back up to back up the hill slightly towards the halfway hut. Now, the halfway hut is so plush, it’s probably better than some clubhouses I’ve been to. And it was you know great hospitality in there, we were looked after really well, uh just very well kitted out. Again, a nice big window overlooking the ninth tea. Now, at the halfway hut, I have to say uh we go in. I’m gluten-free, so I usually struggle at halfway huts, but they had this curried carrot soup, and I have to say, if you go there and you play, please get the soup. Because if that soup was anything to go by, it was absolutely delicious. And now a soup at the halfway hut is my new halftime drink of choice. Now, I must say I’ve got a bit of a taste for the whiskey, so I did have another whiskey at the halfway hut as well, but I thought, you know, I’m not driving, went in Scotland, all that kind of thing. So I’ve kind of got carried away with it. But that ninth tee is spectacular. It’s again an elevated t-shirt. I think this is actually probably the highest point of the course. It’s an elevated t-shirt. You see the birth of fourth again, and you see this hole laid out in front of you. Now, this hole in particular reminded me of I think it was the fifth at Portrush, where they had the open this year, where they were trying to drive the green. It was a drivable par four for the for the big guys. Uh, it reminded me of that. It kind of dog legs right a little bit, very mild, but it’s all laid out in front of you, and you’ve got a risk and reward element to it. Now, the other thing that this course reminded me of, and it’s been our favourite course so far, and that was Trump in Aberdeen, where everything’s laid out. Now, I don’t know if it was the time of year, but the contrast between that green and that brown of the fescue, the green of the fairway, was so stark. That it was almost visually better than Trump for that in that respect. And the fairways were just like carpets. You know, you can see that somebody goes out there, does all the divoting, uh, and it was just a beautiful, beautiful place to play golf. And like I say, you’re struggling to lose a golf ball there. You know, the rough isn’t it because it’s now been bedded in now, it’s five years old. Uh and this is the sixth season, I think. Uh, the the rough is bedded in, so it’s cut down, it’s not too penal. Uh, you know, you’re gonna have to work to find your board a little bit, but it’s not ridiculous. And then we sort of headed up towards uh, you know, the kind of the next turn. 10’s an interesting hole uh with a with an interesting T-shot, but again, not intimidating. You see this big stretch of wide fairway. I chose to hit my a mixture of driver and three hybrid, and I was getting good success with that, you know, where it was a big wide open one, I knew I needed a bit of distance, the driver came out. Otherwise, a nice three hybrid, you know, somewhere down the middle, and you’re gonna get good run on it. You know, I was hitting my three-hybrid about 250 with the run. So you don’t have to get your driver out, you know, you could play it with confidence, and it was lovely to see the ball just kind of soaring out intowards out towards sea and then landing somewhere safely. And then we hit the 11th, so the 11th was the second of our uh par fours that we could drive, and we uh had an interesting moment here. So we there was a guy who was playing behind us uh and they were doing a pro am and his name was John Henry. Now, John Henry is the actual course record holder, so we’d seen the bag and we’d seen the name, and we were like, oh okay, kind of hadn’t joined the dots, and then Blair told us about him, and then we actually ended up playing with him. So he watched our t-shots, and you’ll be able to see them as well. Uh, he actually watched our t-shots, so I think Chris went for no, I went first, I went first, and I absolutely nailed it, probably as well as I can hit my three hybrid, didn’t quite have the distance, just rolled up to the front edge of the green, so I was made up, especially with the course where I got older watching, right? Chris steps up, five wood in hand, absolutely mulers it. Now I am pretty bad at seeing my ball down, so I didn’t see where it ended up. And we didn’t know, but he was watching, John Henry was watching, and he said, Oh, yeah, yeah, that’ll be on, that’ll be on. And we were like, Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure? And he went, Yeah, yeah, that’ll be on. And then I sort of went and introduced myself and uh sort of explained what we’re doing, and he was like, Are you doing a bit of content? You know, that kind of thing. So yeah, it was quite an interesting little moment there to see the course record holder seeing you going for the for the green on these par on these par fours. Uh now that then got us uh reminded us because we’d met the course record holder of the chat we’d had with Blair about course records, and here’s what he had to say.

Blair: 32:57

We’ve had a few programs here, right? Um, and um we’ve actually got one this afternoon. It’s it’s like a it’s like a pro or very good amateur got a final today, right? And one of the guys playing his his name’s John, John Henry. He’d actually got the course record on the wall there. 63 of the wax. Right. So I’ve definitely not shot 63. I’ll say that. It’s fair and it’s playable, but it’s not it’s not easy by any means. Definitely not. And getting back to the conditions, really, least courses in general. Like you saw this on the Dunhill a couple weeks ago, like on the first day of the Dunhill, um, there was no wind. And I think somebody shot somebody shot 29 on one of the one of the nines. Yeah. So you get a you get Dumbarnie on a day like that, scoring all be good. Yeah. And then as soon as the wind gets up, um, and we can tuck the pins as well. Like we had a professional event back in 2021, we had the women’s Scotch Open, yeah, which was great. So so that was in an Olympic year because of COVID. So you had the Olympics in Japan, yeah. You had Scotch Olympic year, and you had the open championship at Carnoustie for the women. It was brilliant. Yeah, but you saw you saw it on the Thursday, Friday scoring was low because the wind was low. Saturday the wind blew probably to I don’t know, 25-30 miles an hour, and the scoring went straight up. So it is it is a defense all that, but today, if we’re just talking today, it’s quite calm today. So you guys should choose it to be so you should be you should play well, and and you should get a chance to enjoy it without having to you know battle too much and then yeah.

Nish: 34:27

And I have to say, Blair is absolutely right, it’s a highly playable course. It was described to us as fun, and I think fun downplays it a little bit, it makes it feel like it’s not a serious golf course. This is a serious golf course, it’s just that they’ve not put a premium on punishing you for misplaced golf shots or slightly errant golf shots. And let’s be honest, we don’t all put it on a sixpence where we want it to land. You know, we are uh spray it a little bit left and right. You could even hit the green, but you hit the wrong part of the green, and it it just doesn’t punish you for that. And I can’t tell you how good that felt going round. It kind of felt like it married up really well with the experience element that they were going for with the customer service. So I must bring out uh a couple of really interesting holes. 12 and 13 were really interesting holes. 13 had a split fairway, but kind of the other way. There was like a bailout area, and again, it’s just the thought that they’ve given to because the hole kind of cambered right to left. So they’re giving a bit of thought that actually don’t run out of fairway just because you might have caught it not quite right. Um, but anyway, we finished 13, and then we hit 14, which is a par three, and again, a stunning par three, bit longer this one. It was around about 170 yards from from our white tease. There’s a burn that runs in front of you, so that could catch you out if you’re short. And a very rare thing happened, and I’m so glad I got it on video, and that is Chris, our par three expert, chunked his t-shot about 20 yards ahead of him. So I’m very glad I got that on video, and I was very happy about it. It’s just a shame we weren’t doing a par three challenge here. Um, now talking about the tease, we’re talking about our tease. So they’ve got five T’s at Dunbarnie, they’ve got the gold, which is the kind of championship one, that actually plays like 7,600 yards, and it’s not really in use. It’s just that they can extend it if they need to. You’ve got the blacks, which would be your normal kind of tournament tees, I think, and that’s around about 7,000 yards. You’ve then got the blue tease, that would be what your normal white tease would be. They’ve got the which I think is again about 7,000, 6,900, I think. 6,400, I think is the blue. And then they’ve got the white tees, that’s what we played off, and that’s just under 6,000. So we went with that because the starter told us, based on our handicaps, that would be the best option for uh for having a good round. And actually, do you know what he was spot on? We did. It’s probably a touch shorter than we would have liked, but I don’t think we it was any worse for it. And then you’ve got the forward tease, which is the the the red T, which I think is around about five and a half thousand. So you’ve got plenty of choice there according to ability, and I would thoroughly recommend that you do think about that. We we did the whites, we just you know, we knew we were playing Carnoustie the next day, we didn’t want to get beaten up, we just wanted a nice fun round, and we certainly got that. So that then led us up to uh the 15th, which again has a split fairway. Now, this has a split fairway that is a little bit slightly different. You’ve got three options here. You can either really lay up on the right, you can either you could, or then you can go for it with the driver down the middle, and you’ve got about a 270 carry to carry some bunkers, or you could play a bit safer on the left, uh, where you can actually lay up or you can go big. So I chose the kind of left option, which with with my three hybrid, absolutely crackerjack of a t-shot, right down the middle. They have the way they’ve done the mode the fairways, it’s there’s like a it’s two-toned, so you’ve got this line that goes right down the middle. So it’s great visual aid for aiming, you know, you just know where you’re going from, where the middle of the fairway is. Chris took the more sort of tiger line, uh, and then you know, with with mixed results. But we as we were kind of walking around and and and just looking at the uh the terrain, it reminded us of something Blair said when we when we talked to him, and that was about the man-madeness of this whole golf course. So I can’t describe it as well as Blair did. So here’s Blair talking about how they actually logistically managed to do this.

Blair: 38:46

Obviously, it’s it’s completely man-made. Like there’s over 600 dunes out there, and all all but those two big ones on ET, all man made. Yeah, yeah. So it’s completely matt sculpted. But if you look, see when you’re playing out in the furthest corner, 13 and 14, if you just look beyond the boundary into the fields, farmer’s fields, that’s what it used to look like. Yeah, so it’s very flat, yeah, farmer. Um what’s what so they’ve scooped it out and removed hundreds of thousands of tons of stuff. Um but um what’s interesting is it didn’t bring any material in. Right. Okay, so no one’s talking to Elm. That’s where you get all existing material that’s just been used to the side or built up here and built up there. I mean that’s a feat of engineering in itself, isn’t it? That’s incredible. I don’t know how you come, how you arrive on day one. Yeah. Where do you start? But Clive, it’s the first course he’s done in Scotland. So Clive was a writer cup player, and then he went on to quite a successful media career for the BBC. Um, and so then but then he moved into course architecture, and uh he’s done he’s done over 50 courses around the world, but this was his first one in Scotland. So one of his best friends, Malcolm Campbell, lives in a little village called London Lights, which you probably just do. Yeah, yeah. So he lives in London Lights and he used to walk his dog along the beach and and on and on this on this land. And he always thought, well, there should there should be a golf course there, like location-wise, like view, like the ground. Yeah, really, really shoot. And um, anyways, over the course of a few years, he said to Clive, you should do it. And I think initially, from what I understand, it was a little bit like, oh yeah, that would be fun, wouldn’t it? And then eventually it was like, actually, it’s not a bad idea. And then they got to know, so it’s part of the Balcares estate, which is 5,000 acres around here. As I say, the golf course is built in season 45.

Nish: 40:36

So Clive Clark, I’d have to say, doffer the cap to him because he’s designed an absolutely fantastic golf course, and like I say, it’s described as fun. I think that does make it seem like it’s not a serious golf course. I loved this place, and I I would defy anybody to go there and not have a good day of golf and enjoy themselves. So, as we’re hitting our closing stretch, you know, the sun came out at this point, we’re getting some lovely desk dusk settling in, and uh, we hit the last drivable par four. So, this was the last of our signature hole chat of our side bet, sorry, with that Jim set us, and that was you’d get one point if you drove the green. So, Chris is one-nil up at the minute because he drove the green on the 11th, and this 17 one is is tough, it really does dog leg. Um, there is a an old wall there uh that’s a bit short. It this is this is a tough driving hole, and obviously everything points you out towards the left where the dot where the hole then turns, whereas you’re going more right, so visually, when you sit on the T-box and you’re aiming so far right, it’s a little bit tough. I think for amateurs that is that is difficult. And we’d actually bumped into a couple of guys because they were a two-ball, we were a two-ball. So we started chatting to them on the 17 team, so we joined them up with them, and I must mention they were lovely guys, John and Sam. Uh, they were from down south. I think before I give you some kind of idea, and actually, this was our signature hole challenge, sorry, the 17, which Chris comfortably won, I’m afraid. I didn’t have a great I think no, I think we drew this one. I think we drew this one. Uh we were on, we were both net five, so we didn’t play it particularly well, but we didn’t lose a ball, and that was that was a great thing about it, you know. It gave you a chance. Uh, but before I kind of give you my final thoughts and closing thoughts on Dumbarnie, I think it’s really important to hear from Blair again, great representative of the club, but he said something that really stuck in my mind, and it was about the day that the golf course opened.

Blair: 42:40

Oh, I see. For our opening day, it was beautiful sunshine, not a break a wing. Oh, really? It was like a it was like a picture day. But I didn’t have planned that even plant, honestly. And then it was like that all summer in that 2020. Was that the kind of moment you just went, do you know what?

Nish: 42:56

Somebody up there. We look it out for a season.

Blair: 42:59

So many things like that that went in our went in our way. Um, but you just thought, yeah, there’s this there’s a good there’s a good energy here, there’s a good outcome.

Nish: 43:07

Yeah, um, and I think Blair sums it up really well. There is a fantastic energy about that place, there is a wonderful friendly atmosphere there. The golf course absolutely stacks up. 18, which will show you our tea shots, and possibly an approach shot as well. But the 18th is a wonderful closing hole. You play a slightly unsighted tea shot, and then as you come round the corner, the green and the green complex reveals itself, and the clubhouse is sitting proudly behind it, and it’s a great scene. You finish, it’s a very fair hole, it’s a nice, uh, generous green, and it just finished on such a high note that golf course that it was absolutely a treat to play. And if you get a chance, I think this is probably the best experience that Scottish golf has to offer because of the whole package. So there is one thing that I did want to bring up as just a bit of a wider point, and our experience. There are three drivable par fours, and I, by the way, totally encourage everybody to have a go at these. My one criticism, and this is the only thing I can find to say that isn’t effusive about Dumbarnie golf links, and that is that when you’re approaching the par the drivable par fours, you know you are because it just starts to back up a little bit, and it’s probably from one hole before, and that’s because everybody’s waiting to play on that green, right? And it does clear up pretty quickly afterwards, so it isn’t actually a criticism as such, it’s just that’s what you can expect. It didn’t affect our pace of play. We finished in the the requisite time, all that kind of thing. But I do think maybe three might be too many. I’m not sure what people think about that. Uh, you know, we’re not professionals, we’re not there to sort of chew the course up or anything like that. I think when it puts a distance of 260 to 300-ish yards, it gives people who are even mid handicappers, you know, that little incentive to go for it, and particularly depending on what tee you’re playing from. And I think three might be a bit too many. I don’t know. If you’ve played Dumbarnie, drop us a comment, let us know what you thought about those three rival power four. They’re a fantastic challenge, but did they impact your experience of the course in any way? So, look, that’s what we think about Dumbarnie. Ultimately, it was an expensive place to go and play. Uh, the tea uh that we booked was £336. So, you know, you’re going to be saving a little bit to go and play there. Is it worth the money? I would say absolutely yes. And the reason I say that is that you can’t go there and have a bad round of golf, I don’t think. If you’re in any way, shape, or form a reasonably competent golfer, and by that I mean, you know, anything under a 20, 24 handicap, you’re gonna enjoy yourself over there. You’re not gonna lose a ton of balls, you’re not gonna be stuck in a load of bunkers, you’re not gonna be hacking out of really deep rough, you’re gonna get shots at greens, you’re gonna get chances to shoot some pars, maybe some birdies, and I think that’s gonna make you feel really good about your golf. So that’s the golf bit, you know. And and Clive Clark has designed a wonderful golf course for that. I can only pay this compliment, the golf course. I want to go and play it again. And there’s been very few that I’ve done. We’re on this is number 17, and there’s very few that I’ve wanted to go and play again, and I would have loved to have done that the next day. And I scored well, and I think I could have scored better on a second day. Added to that, the welcome that they give you, how amazing they make you feel, the care and attention that’s gone into it, the atmosphere in the clubhouse, you know, you’re in for a treat playing Dunbarnie Links. So I can’t be more effusive in my praise. And he’s not here, I’m going to speak for him, but Chris absolutely agrees with me. This was a wonderful way to start our Scottish golf weekend. And it’s only 10 miles away from St Andrews. Think about that. If you’re going in for the ballot, if you’re looking to play courses like King’s Barnes or anything like that nearby, stick Dumbarnie golf links on your list. You will not regret it in any way, shape, or form. The guys were unbelievable there. And a special shout out to Blair for his time, he was so good. And also David, who’s the general manager, he was the one I was talking to, and it’s a real shame I couldn’t meet him. He was away in official PGA business. So uh he’s he’s obviously uh taking his PGA responsibilities very seriously, but he was an absolute gent to deal with, and all the booking team are great, they’re just gonna make this experience wonderful for you. So uh give it a go. If we can do it, we don’t have any sort of end-of-course ratings or anything like that, but double thumbs up for Dumbarnie Golf Links. Uh, we’re gonna have a little think now about Dream 18. I’m sure there’s a couple of holes that are gonna go in there, but yeah, give it a go. It’s well worth it. Next time on the top 110 golf podcast, we’ll be reviewing the beautifully brutal Carnoustie, the most challenging links course in the world.