Royal Troon Golf Club ( Portland Course )

The final round of our three day golf outing was a game at The Portland Course, at Royal Troon. Stewart Watt is a member here so much to Decky's delight we got a cheap round ! Turned out to be a lot cheaper than we thought as Stewart wouldn't take any money off us.

Royal Troon normally offers a round on the Portland Course as part of its all day package, which includes a round on the Old and lunch. A lot of visitors tend to overlook the round on The Portland as they don't want to play thirty six holes, I have been guilty of this in the past myself. Having now played the course a few times I can honestly say don't overlook it, if it is on your schedule play it, you will enjoy the visit.

In many ways Royal Troon is like St Andrews, people generally only visit the place because they want to play the Old Course and the package that most of you sign up to will include either the New Course or The Jubilee ( or most recently The Castle Course, more about that thing at a later date), in this case The Portland Course. Once the wish of playing these famous courses is completed most golfers view the add on courses with some disdain, I say underestimate these lovely golf courses at your peril because it will be your loss if you choose not to take up the chance to play them.

The Old Course at Royal Troon will always be in my top five golf courses in Scotland. I really like the gentle start where the first few holes can lead you to believe that the course is not that difficult. However I think the back nine, particularly into the prevailing wind is as difficult a finish as any course I've played. I include Carnoustie in this because regardless of the wind conditions there I have always scored better at Carnoustie than Royal Troon.

The Portland Course on the other hand is very different from The Old Course at Troon. There are some great holes and they are not necessarily too long. Having said that I have been fortunate that every time I've played there the wind has decided to take the day off, but I can imagine that some holes will play long on a windy day, but I'm in no rush to discover that ! Many of the par fours and fives are not necessarily a driver off the tee, particularly you long hitters, I can take driver off them all. The par three's I like my shortest club was a six iron at the tenth.

Anyway lets get down to the nuts and bolts of the day. Stewart and Chip played Decky and myself although we won the first hole by default the way Stewart started we thought we were going to get a spanking. Stewart hits the ball so far for a man of his size and age it's ridiculous. So when he hits it straight as he did this morning he is impossible to beat. Luckily for us he returned to normal on the back nine and was soon fishing for his ball in the rough like he was yesterday. Decky and I scrapped home on the seventeenth with a nice birdie.

After the game Stewart invited us back to The South Beach Hotel, (which is owned by his family) for some lunch, which consisted of homemade soup and some salmon for main course. He was indeed the perfect host for the day and for that we would all like to thank him. On top off that we wish him all the best and a speedy recovery for his Mum. A lovely man with a heart of gold but I wouldn't swap his troubles for mine so I wish him all the best, and thanks again for a great day.