Gods drive me crazy at Cameron Club Golf Course
I am One over after eight holes at the Cameron Club Golf Course. My second to the par four ninth is sitting about three metres from the pin.
Today is THE day I whisper.
Every player hopes _ no prays _ that one day the golfing gods will smile and everything will align for the perfect round.
Well it happened to me at The Cameron Club Golf Course, not far from the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. Well, should I say, it almost happened. Scotland’s unpredictable summer weather intervened.
As I strode, that’s how you walk when you are playing well, along the hole called the Viking’s Grave the already overcast sky cracked and a bolt of lightning shot out like a Tiger Woods two iron.
It was followed rapid fire by another. And another.
I was in the middle of the round of my life at the Cameron Club Golf Course but my playing partners decided to head for the trees as soon as the frozen golf balls started falling from the sky. The round, and my shot at glory, was gone. Play abandoned. All hope lost.
Golf is such a cruel game
Golf is a compelling, and cruel, game at the same time. But if you are going to partake then there is no place better than Scotland _ the birthplace of the sport.
I was in Scotland last year to watch the British Open at Muirfield _ won by American left-hander Phil Mickelson. Muirfield, rated Scotland’s second best course, is also the world’s oldest golf club formed in 1744.
Because The Open was on I didn’t get to play Muirfield, but I did do the next best thing _ I played the course next door, Archerfield Links Golf Club.
I could hear the roar of The Open crowd in the distance. At times I pretended I was part of it and imagined myself going toe-to-toe with Mickelson, Scott, Poulter and co. I lost. The course won.
Archerfield Links, in East Lothian, offers typical links golf. If you hit the ball off the fairway you are in trouble. The bunkers are deep and unforgiving. And when the wind gets up _ and it always does _ then golf really is just a good walk spoiled.
I was keen to sample as many of Scotland’s courses as possible on this trip _ three course in three days.
I’d been lucky enough to play two of Scotland’s best courses Carnoustie and the Old Course at St Andrew’s on previous trips, so I was looking for new challenges.
Course is one of Scotland’s best
The Cameron Club Golf Course, designed by Canadian Doug Carrick, straddles the fault line between the lowlands and the highlands with nine holes in each. It is rated the 60th best course in Scotland. There are few weak holes on the course but it does have a slightly north American design feel to it. Bad shots aren’t punished as much here as at other Scottish courses that grow thicker rough.
It is not much more than a 40-minute drive from Glasgow City Centre and if you want the true feeling of staying in a Scottish baronial mansion, then this is the place to visit.
Set in 100 acres of woodland, the hotel has 103 rooms and 26 suites. The Cameron Grill is the hotel’s signature restaurant but my favorite place to dine was The Boathouse, which was opened in 2008.
The Boathouse sits in Cameron House’s private marina and heartily embraces the best Scottish seafood dining traditions.
I travelled west the next day to tackle the Kyle Phillips designed Dundonald Links which sits in the heart of Ayrshire’s golf coast. Here you will find famous courses like Royal Troon, Prestwick and Turnberry.
Dundonald Links, despite being open for just over a decade, is a throwback to old-school Scottish golf. It sits on the Coast and is playable in both summer and winter.
Dundonald means Fort Donald and it was here that D-Day landings were practiced during World War II.