Western Gailes Golf Club

Western Gailes Golf Club is a superb course that would get the plaudits it deserves far more often, were it not for its proximity to some of Scotland’s best golf courses.

You often hear about under-rated courses; in fact, it is a description added to courses so frequently that it suggests there are firstly no modest courses and secondly, few that are over-rated.

Well, Western Gailes truly deserves the under-rated tag. It’s not that it is disregarded by rankings or commentators – note its position at in our Top 100 Links – but simply that it is suffers from being overshadowed more than it ought to be by the big names elsewhere in Ayrshire.

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In fact, some will travel to Ayrshire and prefer Western Gailes to those celebrated names.

Don’t take our word for it though, instead read the thoughts of one of the game’s most erudite Tour pros.

“I had heard so much praise about Western Gailes over the years that it was high on my list of must play courses. It didn’t disappoint. Beautiful holes, on great land make it endlessly interesting and challenging… I look forward to my next chance to play,” says 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy.

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This connoisseur’s course is a natural links of undulating fairways, a line of dunes running along the coastal stretch from the 5th to 13th, meandering burns and greens tucked between sand hills.

As so many on this coast are, it is laid out between the railway and the sea, but differs in having the clubhouse sat fairly central (seven holes to the north , 11 to the south) with the links laid out on a slender strip of land never more than two holes deep.

You can assume you will take in views of the Firth of Clyde and also deal with a breeze off it. And you can assume you will be tested on the back nine. There is an out of bounds wall from the 14th onwards and the bunkers are predictably penal.

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The pars 4s on this half measure 477, 470, 428, 470 and 407 yards and these are holes that have challenged the best, from the 1972 Curtis Cup to Open Qualifying to the 2007 European Men’s Amateur Team Championship won by an Ireland team including Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry.

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