Gleneagles is located in a gorgeous part of Scotland, right about where the highlands begin and around an hour from Edinburgh, ninety minutes from Glasgow. An easy ride on the motorway from the airports.
The place sports a luxury hotel, houses for rent, magnificent sports club, the Jackie Stewart School of shooting, and equestrian sports as well. All set in 850 acres in really lovely countryside. And of course, there are three really cool golf courses, excellent proshop and practice areas.!
Here’s a link to the main home page: https://www.gleneagles.com/hotel/.
I was raised in a town not more than 20 minutes away. Now in those days, the hotel was owned by British Rail, a very different proposition compared to today’s luxurious building. In fact, I am pretty sure they closed for most of the year. The history goes back to around the end of the first great war, and ownership changed hands a couple of times in recent years.
The PGA Centenary Course hosted the 2014 Ryder Cup. It was built under Jack’s supervision. Here’s the blurb from the website: Even for a champion and acclaimed golf architect like Nicklaus, The PGA Centenary Course was a challenge. It had to be a truly great golf course, set as it is in the heart of Scotland, the country that gave the world golf. Thankfully Nicklaus described 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 golf 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". The tees are graded at each hole in five stages, including a challenging 6,815 yards from the white markers down to 5,322 from the red. Fittingly, The PGA Centenary Course begins by playing southeast towards the glen, 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.
What you will find is that everyone who plays it describes it as a “real American Course” as opposed to a Scottish Golf Course. It’s still pretty good! The other two courses are the Par 3 Queens and the main attraction, The Kings Course:
The King's Course, opened in 1919, is a masterpiece of golf course 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. 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. Readers of Celebrated Living, the luxury magazine for American Airlines, voted the King's Course 6th in their Platinum list of International Golf Courses.
All the holes have evocative and pithy Scots names. For example, the fifth, "Het Girdle" (Hot Pan), is a challenging par 3 with trouble everywhere 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.
You have to play Gleneagles if you are coming to play Golf in Scotland.
I first went there on business, playing with two partners and friends who advised the Fund I was working at at that time. Tony F, the mad keen Evertonian remains a close friend to this day. Many years later I returned to another conference to speak about emerging markets. One of my first speaking engagements was both exhilarating and terrifying. We met several really great people at that conference, including Jim M ex Pfizer. here’s a pic of my wife as we were heading out to an evening ball:
Pretty cute huh?
The group enjoyed some fun social events, as you could do back then. The highlight was Scone Palace where we all dressed in traditional attire and had a Burns Supper. Not sure it was quite seasonal, but who cares? At the end of the evening our Party was encouraged to line up on the steps of the Palace, and on a very misty evening a mass Pipe Band emerged playing right up in front of us. Sensational. So atmospheric.
I played again in 2022, in a match between Renaissance and Gleneagles. Such a nice group of guys from both clubs. I had forgotten what a nice ride it is from Edinburgh to Auchterarder if you go through Glendevon. Takes about 90 minutes, but you go through little towns like The Yett’s o’ Muckhart, and you can stop and see The Rumbling Bridge.
We played The King’s Course and it took a bit of time to get the measure of the course; lots of slopes to navigate and tough greens to read. Fortunately my game picked up and I think I ended up shooting 44-35, respectable enough I guess, and as my playing partner played well on the front side, so we won our match.
Kings course. Match 1. 12.00. Phil Mancini Captain (9) Iain McMillan (10.8) V Mike Wood Captain (12.4) Richard Watt (5.9)
Some pictures from the day:
Right from the get go this course is tough! It’s very easy to shoot double on hole one due to its elevation and severe roughs around the green. There seemed to be a lot of dog legs and semi blind shots too. Maybe a trademark of James Braid. Overall I would say this is a fantastic venue to add to any tour of golf in Scotland. A total contrast to the more famous links. The hotel is superb, and priced as such. The surrounding countryside is just glorious and an easy drive also to places like Str Andrews.