Inverness: Two Days of Intense Golf

I’m packing two days into this post because day 1 had a very late night. We’ve experienced three courses in the Inverness area plus some fun touring of the city.

Golf at Tain

Our first date was with Tain Golf Club, about an hour north of Inverness on the Firth of Dornoch. It is across the firth from Royal Dornoch, possibly the highest rated links course in the UK that doesn’t host the Open Championship. Tain barely touches the firth, brushing up against it as the course makes a turn on the alps hole, but that doesn’t diminish the quality of the course. Having the benefit of playing two more courses in the area, it is growing in stature for me. We’ll see how it holds up as we head to Fife and play more courses closer to St. Andrews.

I mentioned the alps hole, a C.B. Macdonald template hole originally found at Prestwick. In this case there were three giant mounds blocking the green, with a nasty pit bunker discouraging any sort of ground approach between two of the mounds. The top of the mounds gave a great view of the firth and the rest of the course. I would need a drone to share a good photo.

Glenmorangie distillery

After some counter service burgers and fries in Tain, we drove 2 more minutes to the Glenmorangie distillery. The video shown in the museum was this very odd series of advert episodes with Harrison Ford – poorly written and edited. Not very nice. Fortunately the tour and tasting were very nice.

Before our next round of golf we drove out to the end of the peninsula to see the Tarbat Ness lighthouse, just as the heavy rains began to fall.

Rainbow at Portmahomack

So back to the Portmahomack golf club where we sat for a pint and watched the weather. It cleared! Out we rambled for another 9 holes. With rainbows.

The course was surprising and awesome. What looked to be a flat grassland (but still links) golf course turned into a magical maze of hillocks and gullies. Blind tee shots, blind approaches, lots of guessing on where to hit. So much fun.

We had dinner in Inverness and made it home about 10pm. Still very light outside.

Golf at Fortrose

The next morning we teed off at Fortrose Golf Club at 8:50am. This was the first course that felt more like a golf destination rather than a local members course.

Searching in the gorse

It is hard to imagine a more linksy setting as Fortrose travels out to the end of a peninsula on one side and returns mostly on the other. Some weaving around in between. After the third hole we started to feel the wind. Oh my.

Ussie at Fortrose

Our estimation, confirmed by the clubhouse at the end, was steady wind blowing 25-30 with gusts into the 40s. Wind strong enough that when we came back on the windward side of the peninsula we would hit our tee shots out over the firth to get them blown back towards the fairway. Wind strong enough that your ball would not rest still on the green. It was brutal and exhausting but still quite fun. My 87 felt like a 78.

We returned home for a shower and quick lunch then back into Inverness for a walking tour. It was just OK.

Music at Under Canvas in Inverness

Home again for a nap then back into town for music Under Canvas, a great show featuring Hannah Rarity (opening) and Face the West. After listening to Face the Music’s latest album I’ll confess that seeing them live is great, I’ll probably never listen to their recordings again. Too same-same for me. But there was energy and joy in their live performance.