the_paulo
Euro target practice
On Friday, I got the chance to make the trip over to play the Torrance course, at the Fairmont in St Andrews.
Got quite a few pics, so they'll tell most of the story for me.
A short review -
The Fairmont is on a lovely piece of land in St Andrews bay. The views over the 'auld grey toon' are nice on a clear day, and we certainly got one of the better days at this time of year.
The course itself can be a bit of a monster from the blue tees, and it certainly proved a bit of a test to us off the whites!
Overall, the layout is very nice, with a few really notable holes, especially on the back 9. The 16th is a par 4 which almost hangs off the edge of a cliff with a sheer drop into the sea below!
The greens are large and very quick. The rough can be penal and some of the fairway bunkers were definitely hazards!
Took us about 4 and a half hours to get round, which I guess is about standard for a tourist-filled location.
I liked this course, but it really did stand out as a links course that was built for purpose. For me, there were too many raised greens for it to play like I imagine a links should. That said, it's a beautiful part of the world, and if you don't enjoy playing golf here, you won't enjoy playing golf anywhere!
I'll put my pics in the next couple of posts, and I'll spoiler them since there's a few.
Here are a couple of pages which give you an idea of the course - the strokesaver layout and a great fly-by site -
http://www.fairmont.com/NR/rdonlyres/65FE5359-33F1-4463-BF4E-495C26764DBC/0/SAB_Torrance_Nov09.pdf
[URL="http://www.bestapproachflyovers.com/SABT_standrewstorrance/"]http://www.bestapproachflyovers.com/SABT_standrewstorrance/
[/URL]
Got quite a few pics, so they'll tell most of the story for me.
A short review -
The Fairmont is on a lovely piece of land in St Andrews bay. The views over the 'auld grey toon' are nice on a clear day, and we certainly got one of the better days at this time of year.
The course itself can be a bit of a monster from the blue tees, and it certainly proved a bit of a test to us off the whites!
Overall, the layout is very nice, with a few really notable holes, especially on the back 9. The 16th is a par 4 which almost hangs off the edge of a cliff with a sheer drop into the sea below!
The greens are large and very quick. The rough can be penal and some of the fairway bunkers were definitely hazards!
Took us about 4 and a half hours to get round, which I guess is about standard for a tourist-filled location.
I liked this course, but it really did stand out as a links course that was built for purpose. For me, there were too many raised greens for it to play like I imagine a links should. That said, it's a beautiful part of the world, and if you don't enjoy playing golf here, you won't enjoy playing golf anywhere!
I'll put my pics in the next couple of posts, and I'll spoiler them since there's a few.
Here are a couple of pages which give you an idea of the course - the strokesaver layout and a great fly-by site -
http://www.fairmont.com/NR/rdonlyres/65FE5359-33F1-4463-BF4E-495C26764DBC/0/SAB_Torrance_Nov09.pdf
[URL="http://www.bestapproachflyovers.com/SABT_standrewstorrance/"]http://www.bestapproachflyovers.com/SABT_standrewstorrance/
[/URL]