Erskine Golf Club played on 18 and 19 September 2020

After our stay in the south of Kintyre it was time to go towards Glasgow.

It  was our plan to stay in Glasgow for 2 or 3 days, play 1 or 2 of the local courses and visit Glasgow city.

Below a map of the drive from the Machrihanish courses to Glasgow.

From Southend it is a drive of about 140 miles. Long but through very interesting landscape. There are so many scenic and beautiful places to stop and enjoy.

We stayed 3 days in Glasgow and played the Erskine golf course twice. The club is situated about 6 miles north west of the airport.

And I can tell you that is a very different course from most of the courses we have played so far on our Scotland trip.

Erskine is a parkland course, most of the other courses we have played are links, dunes and / or heathland courses.

Here is a bit of the history of Erskine

The following is a short description of the history of Erskine as it is presented at their web page.

Erskine was the name (guess it still is) of a big estate that, in 1890 was passed on by the Lord Blantyre to his grandson W.A. Baird who had a string of golf interested people in his family.

Baird took up his inheritance in 1901 and very quickly by the end of that year, with the help of three golf friends he laid out his own personal golf course at Erskine Park.

In 1903/04, Baird engaged Willie Fernie (Open Champion 1883) to develop his 1901 Erskine Course into a full 18-hole golf course. The new course at Erskine Park was opened in March 1904 and in 1905, the clubhouse was completed.

After the Great War the club engaged Dr Alister MacKenzie, to re-design the 12th and 13th holes. The present 13th hole is named after him. And finally, in 1937 James Braid, yes him again, arrived. Here is what they are writing on the web about his visit:

“Spending one day at Erskine, he walked the course in the morning saying little but seeing everything. After lunch, he paced out each hole marking the position and shape of many additional bunkers, new holes and improvements in the design of the greens to produce the fine course we play today.”

You can still feel this historic heritage when talking to members and staff. Walking the course and visiting the clubhouse. Something to be proud of and to keep alive.

Also, I would like to add the very nice welcome we got from all the members and staff that we met.

The day before our first round we went to the club to look around, book tee times and trolleys. In the restaurant we got in talk to some of the members, talked about golf and whisky and our round the world golf tour. I was even offered one of the more local whisky’s to taste.

The same ambience of openness and curiosity we met when we finished our round number 2. Things and people one will remember. That is what golf and our golf tour around the globe is also about.

Meet the champion

On the first day of our visit, the second round of a Scottish senior tournament was played. Which gave us the chance to meet the local hero and multiple time club champion.

He played the second round of the tournament that day in 64 (par is 71). And he holds the course record in 63 strokes, made in 2013. Fantastic!

I didn’t get to talk a lot to R. A Clark, but I like him anyway.

Why? Because he got the same kind of swing trainer (the orange thing in his bag, you can see on the picture) that I have and he plays the same PXG irons as I do. Only difference between Mr Clark and me is the handicap. His is in +4.

A course very different from a links

The picture of hole 1 is a screen dump from the website. It is not the best method to present the hole, but for whatever reason we didn’t get a picture of this opening hole.

I don’t usually like blind shots and surely not on an opening hole.

On the other hand, this is a very fascinating hole. From the yellow tee you need a stroke of a little more than 150 meters beyond the hill then the ball will roll to a flat part of the fairway with a dogleg to the right.

Depending on how far to the right you put the ball you will have between about 120 to less than 60 meter to the green.

If you get too far to the right you will be caught by the trees or end up in stream running across in front of the green.

It can be everything from an easy birdie to an irritating double bogey.   

There are many great holes on the course.

A few of the par 4 holes – like hole 16 – is a bit too long to my taste. 476 y.

Then you get compensated on hole 8. The picture above.

Hit a drive on the left hand side of the fairway and the ball will roll down towards the path and the flat area on the right. Ready for an easy approach shot to the green.

Course record

Gents
The current course record at Erskine Golf Club is 63, set by R.A. Clark in the Fleming Cup on 6th of August 2013.

Ladies
The current Ladies course record at Erskine Golf Club is 71, set by Mrs P. Davidson in the Ladies IMF competition on 17th of June 2015.

Junior
The current Junior Course Record holder at Erskine Golf Club is 65, set by M. Daily in the Monday Medal on 7th of September 2009.

Facts about the course

My game

Evaluation of Erskine golf course

Your comments, questions and recommendations are welcome !