Spey Bay Golf Club

GF 85,00 GBP, no driving range, tee offs 7, fairways 7, roughs 7, bunkers 8, greens 9, walking difficulty 6, course design 7, course difficulty 8, no locker rooms, no pro shop

The course was recently converted to a reversible layout. It isn’t played that way yet, but it will be in the future. From the first tee, you’ll play to the 17th green, and so on. It’s a long stretch along the beach where 2 to 4 holes are arranged side by side. The greens are good, as are the surrounding bunkers. The fairways still need some time to improve. Hole 15 is a nice par 3 played toward the beach. In front of the green is a large bunker with a high lip.

I was thoroughly looking forward to this having heard great things about the recent investment and improvements but sadly I was a bit disappointed. At £80 for a midweek green fee you expect good things, sadly the bunkers were unplayable due to so many rocks literally piled in all of them and the greens appeared that they hadn’t been cut for 2 weeks. The clubhouse is lacklustre, the sign-in was done at the till behind the bar. There are no signposts for next tees, no yardage markers, and still playing par 3 tee’s from mats in summer. This was a real shame as the layout is fantastic, the fairways were in excellent condition and the views are exquisite. This course has such great potential to be another amazing links course in Moray but until the greens and bunkers are improved it is unbelievable to be charging £80 per round when there are many better conditioned courses in the local area charging almost half of that. I still had a great day and enjoyed my round, but I certainly won’t rush back or recommend it to others at that price. £40 would have been a much fairer green fee for the condition of the course and would be better spent at other nearby courses.

Soy socio del club “Links” y Spey Bay es el campo del club, con lo cual me debía de jugar allí durante mi visita a Escocia.

Es un campo puro de links sin ningún tipo de “extras”: golf en estado puro, pegado al mar y con un diseño dibujado por la naturaleza.

Había poca gente pero aquí estaba el director para recibirnos antes y después de la partida. Están rediseñando el campo para hacerlo reversible, y en pocos meses estarán ya los 18 hoyos listos para jugar en una dirección u otra, una brillante idea para sacarle el mayor provecho al espacio. No son hoyos muy largos y se defienden los hoyos desde el tee, o ya directamente con los greenes ondulados. Las calles suelen recoger bien las bolas, pero incluso en el rough es bastante jugable ya que han hecho limpieza para abrir el juego. Los hoyos 8 y 15 son mis favoritos, ambos pares 3 con muchas opciones en función del viento. El primero es de espalda al mar, a un green muy complicado (el par es un muy buen resultado). El segundo es mirando el mar, más corto, con buenas opciones de dejar la bola cerca.

Después nos tomamos una hamburguesa, acompañada de la cerveza del club, una lager muy rica.

This course is in the midst of a renovation, as it was bought by Links DAO and will eventually be evolving into a reversible golf course, based on input from CD&P architecture. At the time I played, there are relatively mild modifications being (or have been made), such as clearing gorse, and widening playing areas and tees. I think it will be very interesting to play again in a few years after more of these modifications come into reality. Right now, the course is mostly out and back with a few angles. It looks great with the gorse in bloom. My favourite holes were numbers 6,8,10 and 16. The clubhouse is very simple, but the staff that I met were friendly and welcoming, and told me (the day prior)... when was a good time to come play, as I was travelling on my own. That was great advice, as I was able to walk the course in under 3 hours. A very pleasant day out. Assuming the plans for the future come to pass, I see this course rising up the rankings in the years to come.