For
those who are addicted to the game of golf, Gleneagles offers
the chance to play on the world's finest courses.
As well as the challenge of the King's, the secluded charms
of the Queen's, or the nine hole Wee Course, there is now
the exceptional PGA Centenary Course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
This plays between 5,065 and 7,081 yards, due to five optional
tees at each hole and is a course of baffling ingenuity.
Golf at Gleneagles is a blend of natural experience and
golfing adventure on three championship courses set in the
splendor of the Perthshire hills. The courses were the inspiration
of two of the world's most famous golfers, James Braid,
five times winner of the Open championship who designed
the King's and Queen's, and Jack Nicklaus, Golfer of the
Century.
The King's Course, opened in 1919, is a masterpiece of design
which has tested the aristocracy of golf, both professional
and amateur. When Lee Trevino first played the King's he
memorably remarked: "If Heaven is as good as this,
I sure hope they have some tee times left."
James
Braid's plan for the King's Course was to test even the
best players' shot-making skills all the way. The world's
greatest golfers when they play this course almost universally
admire the cunning and craft with which he achieved that
goal. 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 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.
All the holes have evocative and pithy Scots names. For
example, the fifth, "Het Girdle" (Hot Pan), is
a challenging par 3 with trouble every-where except on the
green, while l7th's moniker, "Warslin' Lea" (Wrestling
Ground), reflects the difficulty so many golfers have had
with this long, sweeping par 4.
