[Marty Bonnar]

It’s been briefly mentioned here before, but the Luddite is incapable of posting photos, so I felt it incumbent upon me to drive the four hours there just to take a few snaps - and play a little golf, obvs. This is Traigh (pronounced ‘try’) on Scotland’s far West Coast between Arisaig and Mallaig.


Once you’ve got the accommodations organised:


And you’re tired of soaking up the awe-inspiring environment:



It’s time to throw the bag over your shoulder and take the five-minute walk from your caravan site to the golf course:





The splendour and magnificence of the Clubhouse is quite breathtaking:

[Adam Lawrence]

I saw Traigh from the window of a Fort William to Mallaig train more than twenty years ago and have wanted to go back and play it ever since

[Joe Hancock]

That’s what I’m talking about…..why do I feel this was specifically targeted based on a recent discussion? Thank you…..

[Marty Bonnar]

The delightful simplicity continues with a beautiful cartoonish course map. What it fails to illustrate, however, is the incredible amount of, eh, 'ground movement' you're about to experience:

[Marty Bonnar]

Then the scorecard might lull you into thinking this will be an easy day:

[Tony_Muldoon]

I saw Traigh from the window of a Fort William to Mallaig train more than twenty years ago and have wanted to go back and play it ever since

Damn, damn and double damn.  Took my Daughter and her Cousins on that train last summer and let them have the best window views of the (as featured in Harry Potter) stunning Glenfinnan Viaduct.  Which of course meant we were on the wrong side of the train to see a Links Course!


I will indeed Traigh again.




(Thanks for the lovely photos M.)

[James Reader]

Even in cartoon form you can tell that the 2nd is going to be interesting!

[Thomas Dai]

Cool -https://www.instantstreetview.com/@56.939835,-5.855687,94.72h,-1.87p,0.22z,Xr8Ymmf0oGPEv7X0A5ly5A - but nah sheep!
atb

[Peter Sayegh]

Even in cartoon form you can tell that the 2nd is going to be interesting!

The club website entices even more. What a weird prospect from the tee.Martin, please describe that one in detail if it suits you.
My first thought upon seeing the "cartoonish" map was that some young lad/lass won a year's worth of milk for the drawing. Brilliant.

[David_Tepper]

Plenty of pics here:

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALiCzsYbYuJZS4P2OXt1UkVMmp_CI9KO0w:1652188196368&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=traigh+golf+club&client=firefox-b-1-d&fir=ldQ10ubkyImPaM%252CzzfvVi2fBsYKOM%252C_%253B7AH_ejCKuOyaHM%252CyCaq8KwY0hgd1M%252C_%253B1aFo1NduJ05MVM%252CuDr1ng_SzRWOYM%252C_%253BN10zKyWwYERAgM%252CWUAOJkB708TF2M%252C_%253B8lUYSAioJ8DEdM%252CfVLVtHYaB5fYaM%252C_%253B8s4MqAteOyrPEM%252C_Z_uu--SMK7NGM%252C_%253Bhm3bOxNGCjRFJM%252CYIT_F-Ccltfo2M%252C_%253Bv-FYJQxL6JcCGM%252C6tZHnSaH8HZ6uM%252C_%253BznwP5b-c21CkVM%252Cws9dotzBsG3ywM%252C_%253B2foI20Ej0BxBHM%252Cps974Xl2wQ5kVM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kTv-DKEC3j0XAOtcmXh12uSJFuG2Q&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwuq_UgNX3AhVMC0QIHYBBAiUQjJkEegQIAxAC&biw=1366&bih=643&dpr=1

[Marty Bonnar]

To the first tee! Not an easy handshake, by any means. It must be only 100yds as the crow flies, but the carry is over all of that rough ground and the green is maybe 30 or 40 feet above you. There’s a bail-out area to the right where our friends are standing. They’re maybe twenty yards right of the green. A dog-leg par 3! Can it get any madder?:





The 1st green - perched atop the hill. Damn good cardio workout within five minutes of teeing off. Note Gordon carrying - trolleys or carts would be a total liability here as Nancy can attest:

[Marty Bonnar]

As James and Peter spotted, the 2nd hole is a total belter (that’s a really good thing in our parlance!). Easily the best hole on the course, there’s that marvellous risk-reward option to either play safe, but longer down the lower left fairway or trying to reach the upper level, over the gorse to the right, where you have a straighter line to the green. Either way requires a decent carry. Left over that saddle or do-or-die right maybe 200 yards on the fly in the wind! The green, btw, isn’t that one you can see in the distance - it’s back up the hill well to the right to a glorious little dell/bathtub hollow:

[Marty Bonnar]

And then the third. A fairly straightforward - blind! - par 3 back down the hill. The green is just over the mid-horizon in the direction of the nearest rocky island:





3rd Green (with the ‘lower’ 2nd fairway in the background). Oh, and you can just make out three guys on the 2nd tee!:



Bored yet?
 
F.

[Kalen Braley]

Bonnar,

I don't believe it could be any better even if you Traighed really really hard. 

PS.  Is that your motorhome on the course in the upper right?  They really rolled out the red carpet and all, prime parking spot..

[jeffwarne]

I saw Traigh from the window of a Fort William to Mallaig train more than twenty years ago and have wanted to go back and play it ever since

Damn, damn and double damn.  Took my Daughter and her Cousins on that train last summer and let them have the best window views of the (as featured in Harry Potter) stunning Glenfinnan Viaduct.  Which of course meant we were on the wrong side of the train to see a Links Course!


I will indeed Traigh again.




(Thanks for the lovely photos M.)

I put my family on the train and took the car myself.(views pretty good there too)
Played 9, ate a late lunch in town with the family, then my son and I played another 9 while the rest of the family took the train back.
What a day/evening.


Great pics and great memories.
#2 is a lot easier the second time round..

[Marty Bonnar]

The 4th hole plays fairly straight back up the hill through a really tight gap in the gorse to the green with the only bunkers on the course:





Then comes the heroic 5th. A par 3 playing over a broad wetland. Target is a decent size, but the carry is quite the sphincter-tightener:





The sixth completes the grand old duke of York holes (marched them up to the top of the hill and marched them down again). A lovely, testing carry of a drive to a steep, tight landing area, before squeezing through another gap in the gorse to the green:

[Thomas Dai]

Splendid Marty. The more I see of Traigh the more I like. There’s a lot of enjoyment to be had at rural and rustic courses and Traigh looks a cracker.
Atb

[James Boon]

Marty,


Thanks for this thread. Its proven 2 things:


1. I need to get back to Traigh!!!
and
2. My memory is getting worse! I would have put money on the fact that I'd done a photo tour of Traigh on here but damned if I can find it now, so clearly I didnt!


The setting is just glorious. I parked the car down by the beach and left Mrs B reading a book on a sunny day while I did a quick 9 in less than an hour before heading for the Skye ferry. The first is perhaps the craziest par 3 opener anywhere. The second will get any sucker that goes for it in two... I hit a glorious drive, then a 5 iron perfectly at the green, but on getting to the punchbowl not a sign so who knows what bounce it must have got... Take the longer route left and its a much clearer approach at the green! In the flesh the fifth feels like the most glorious picturesque par 3 on the planet, to rival anywhere in the top 100 or on instagram, and yet when you look at the photos it doesnt quite do it for some reason, still wonderful though? A couple of flatter holes across the back, then a downhill 3 to finish. I wanted to head straight out again but ferry to catch and wife waiting, only with that beach to explore she was nowhere to be seen! Typical!


If in the area have a look at Camusdarach beach, where the Quickening / Stag scene from Highlander was filmed!


Again Marty, thanks for rekindling the memories.


Cheers,


James

[Marty Bonnar]

After all that ‘grand old duke of yorking’, we arrive at the 7th. Comparatively speaking, a little pedestrian compared to what went before, it plays over much less interesting terrain to what is another blind green:





Then to the eighth, which also begins along the flattish ground below the high second tee, but which finishes more promisingly up and over the ridge to yet another blind green:





And we finish with the ninth. Back down the hill par 3 with a ditch as a cross-hazard and some fun simple mounding and hollows around the green:








And there you have it. Fun, simple, holiday golf around a course which very cleverly exploits every inch of the landscape it occupies. Laugh-a-minute, rollercoaster terrain. Mad blindness everywhere. So happy to have finally played it and hoping to see it again in future years. Twenty quid a round or twenty-five day-ticket. Easy choice.


Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Cheers,
F.

[Mark Kiely]

Thanks for the tour, Marty. Looks delightful!

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