Gleneagles Golf Course

Kings Course, Gleneagles

6741 Yards, Par 70
Architect: James Braid

The King's Course, opened in 1919, is a masterpiece of design, which has tested the aristocracy of golf, both professional and amateur.

James Braid's plan for the King's Course was to test even the best players' shot-making skills over the eighteen holes. When they play the King's the world's greatest golfers admire the cunning and craft with which he achieved that goal.

You find out all about it with your first approach shot. If you have driven straight and long from the tee, you will have what looks like a simple pitch to the elevated green. But you must be sure to select the correct club, because the shot is always a little longer than you think, with the wind over the putting surface often stronger than you can feel it from the fairway. And if you do not make the severely sloping green, a bunker yawns twenty feet below.

Selecting the right club for each approach shot is the secret on the King's. It is certainly one of the most beautiful and exhilarating places to play golf in the world, with the springy moorland turf underfoot, the sweeping views from the tees all around, the rock-faced mountains to the north, the green hills to the south, and the peaks of the Trossachs and Ben Vorlich on the western horizon.

All the holes have evocative and pithy Scots names. For example, the fifth, "Het Girdle" (Hot Pan), is a challenging par 3 with trouble every-where except on the green, while 17th's name, "Warslin' Lea" (Wrestling Ground), reflects the difficulty so many golfers have had with this long, sweeping par 4.

Queens Course, Gleneagles

5965 Yards Par 68
Architect: James Braid

The natural beauty of the Queen's Course inspires the world's most experienced players. The Queen's Course, in its long history, has played host to some of the world's golfing greats.

The beautiful settings and the challenge of the golf have attracted such top golfers as Johnny Miller, Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, and Lee Trevino, as well as great names from the entertainment and sports worlds including Sean Connery, Burt Lancaster, Bing Crosby, Jackie Stewart, and astronaut Alan Shepard (the only man to hit a golf shot on the moon).

Threading through high ridges on the north and west sides of the estate, the Queen's offers lovely woodland settings, lochans and ditches as water hazards, as well as many moorland characteristics. At 3,192 yards long, the challenge of the first nine can be deceptive, with even some of the best players finding it a test to make par into a fresh southwesterly breeze.

Do not be lulled into a sense of false security as you stand on the first tee. The "Trystin' Tree," or lover's meeting place, after which the hole is named, is a challenging opener. The ground falls away at your feet, the fairway swings round to the left and slopes towards the trees, and there are a couple of cunningly placed bunkers testing your approach into the miniscule green.

PGA Centenary Course, Gleneagles

6558 Yards Par 72
Architect: Jack Nicklaus

The PGA Centenary Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, is a modern classic. Even for a champion and acclaimed golf architect like Nicklaus, The PGA Centenary Course was a challenge.

It had to be a great course and, set as it is in the heart of Scotland, the country that gave the world golf, Nicklaus describes the course as "The finest parcel of land in the world I have ever been given to work with".

It had to be unique in its challenge, a course in the modern design ethos that at its fullest stretch tests the greatest players, while, in the immortal phrase of Bobby Jones, "offering problems a man may attempt according to his ability... never hopeless for the lesser player nor failing to concern and interest the expert."

From the back tees, the PGA Centenary Course measures 7,088 yards, the longest inland course in Scotland. However, the tees are graded at each hole in five stages, including a challenging 6,558 yards from the white markers down to 5,072 from the red. Fittingly, the PGA Centenary Course begins by playing southeast towards the famed glen of the eagles sweeping up the Ochil Hills to the summit of the pass below Ben Shee which joins it to Glendevon.

A feature of the PGA Centenary Course is the feast of views of the spectacular countryside in which Gleneagles is set. Putting on the two-tier second green, you are distracted by the lush panorama of the rich Perthshire straths. As you move westwards over the next few holes, the rugged Grampians come into view on the right, then distantly purple ahead, Ben Vorlich and the mountains above the Trossachs.

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