The Irvine Golf Club

 

Hello and Welcome to my first blog post of what will be a thrilling series following an extremely average golfer around some iconic courses in Scottish golfing history. Throughout this blog series I will discuss my personal experience at several Scottish golf courses. I hope to inform and entertain you about my rounds of golf, both good and bad (Mostly bad).

The first golf club on the list is The Irvine Golf Club . A traditional links golf course set in a seaside location at Bogside, albeit mostly on higher ground away from the coast and without any real views of the sea, there are a variety of holes at Irvine that will ensure a memorable round. The sandy fairways are mainly divided by gorse and heather; this frames each hole beautifully but also draws out the excellent bunkering on many of the holes too. 

On October 8th myself accompanied by 3 friends made a last minute decision to play a round at Irvine Bogside off the back of numerous recommendations. The weather was perfect, blue skies with little wind which made the golf slightly more enjoyable, no matter how many balls that were lost. it’s not the longest course in the world but it’s certainly a fair test for the average golfer, myself included. 

As a true links course, many of the holes are lined with gorse bush or OOB meaning you need to hit the ball fairly straight to score well, and that’s not just off the tee. What was apparent to me at Irvine was the number of par 4s where you would have to have a good drive and a precise approach shot (didn't happen very often) , but each hole posed a different challenge. As a man currently battling the chipping 'yips' there was an episode on the par 3, 8th hole where I continuously 'thinned' my chips to either side of the green, much to the amusement of my friends. 

An interesting design of Irvine is that when playing off the yellows, there are only two par 3s and the rest par 4s. However don't let this put you off as Irvine shows very well that you can add variety without the use of Par 5s. 

Price:

The cost of the green fee was £30 per player as we took advantage of a great offer on the website Golfnow.co.uk which offers one discounted tee time per day. This price seemed a bit of a steal considering the standard and condition of the course.

Irvine also features in the National Club Golfer Top 100 under £100 Golf Courses of Great Britain so you are certainly getting value for money when you play here.

History:

Founded in 1887 Irvine is a course that often goes under the radar when people discuss golf in this part of the country and it can therefore rightly claim to be one of Scotland’s hidden gems. Much of the courses present day character is thanks to the work of famous golf course designer James Braid. 

The course hosts the final qualifying rounds for the British open qualifying so that tells you all you need to know about the quality of the course. The club itself is famous for having reared three Scottish Champions who all grew up a stone’s throw from the course. 

Was it worth it?

Overall, Irvine was an absolute pleasure to play. This was perhaps aided by the fact I played slightly better than usual but nevertheless, Irvine has an excellent mix of holes, provides a superb challenge all year round and i would seriously recommend if you want a quality golf course at a fraction of the cost of some of its popular neighbours such as Dundonald, Turnberry and Royal Troon.

Overall rating - 8/10

Thanks for reading,

Lewis