Earl of Mar Golf Course, Mar Hall, Erskine, Scotland

[gillesam]

I'm going to be playing The Earl of Mar Golf Course at Mar Hall near Erskine a couple of times before the end of the summer, well what is supposedly summer in Scotand :rain:. The Renfrewshire Golf Union had 6 fourballs for £120 that they asked members to put their name in for and they would draw them at random. So my Dad & I both put our names in thinking we might get lucky and one of us would get drawn. Wouldn't you know it, we both got our names drawn out!!

Just wondered if anyone had played here and if so what they thought of it?

 

[gillesam]

I played here last Sunday and enjoyed it although I'm not sure I would want to play it every week. It is a par 70, 6507 yards from the white tees, it is about 250 yards shorter from the yellows, with 4 par 3s and 2 par 5s. The first 3 holes take you towards the Erskine bridge before a run of 3 holes along the River Clyde. You then turn back on yourself and for 7 & 8 before heading back towards the hotel for the 9th. The back nine has a slightly different feel to the front nine, it feels more mature than the front nine. The 14th takes you back down to the river before the 15th plays right along side it again. The final few holes take you back inland and uphill to the hotel. You get some great views on this course down the Rive Clyde and across to the Kilpatrick Hills, although not quite as good from my course.

The fairways are pretty generous although you have to think about position due to some large trees that block you out. it is a course you have to play a few times to know where you are going, we stood on the 18th tee and even with course guides & GPS devices could not work out where the hole went which made working the tee shot a bit tricky. The greens where pretty big with some huge slopes in them although they were a bit on the slow side. The first and last of the par 3s are both long tough holes and usually at least one of these will play into the wind making scoring on them difficult. The bunkers actually had sand in them which made playing bunker shots a bit easier than on my course where theu constantly seem to get washed out with the rain.

I would recommend playing here if you are in the area, especially if you can get a decent deal on green fees.

 

[thedue]

Sounds like you had a great time, congrats. Did you took a few pictures to post up for us?

 

[gillesam]

We had a great time and even got some sunshine which this summer in Scotland is a miracle!! I didn't have my phone or camera with me so don't have any pictures unfortunately.

 

[gillesam]

I played here again yesterday and my thoughts are still the same as after the first time. It is a nice course but not one I would want to be playing every week as it is a long course. I'm not a short hitter but I can't remember the last time I played a course and hit so many 2nd shots on par 4s and tee shots on par 3s, 3 out of 4, with 3W and hybrids. The greens were in decent shape for this time of year over here but were painfully slow.