Gullane (No.3)

The conditioning is every bit as good as you will find on the No.1 and No.2 courses so don’t think that playing No.3 course will mean you are golfing at an inferior venue – far from it. It is plain and simply a tighter, scaled down version of all that exists on its bigger golfing siblings next door.

The first and last three holes are played on the flat around the visitor’s clubhouse with the 4th to the 15th holes set out over and around Gullane Hill. And what a vista awaits after the steep climb up the 4th hole to the 5th tee at the top of the hill!

The full splendour of the Gullane courses spreads out before you as you look down to the southern shores of the Firth of Forth, with the other two Gullane courses to the right and Luffness New on the flatter ground to the left. Beyond Luffness, on the other side of Aberlady Bay, you can just make out the Kilspindie and Craigielaw courses.

And, as if that were not enough, there is the tantalizing distant view of those other great golfing destinations, Leven, Lundin and Elie on the other side of the Firth. Is it any wonder that many seasoned Scottish golfers believe this to be one of the most inspiring vantage points on any golf course?

Only one of the twelve par fours on the card is over 400 yards, indeed two of them – the 3rd and 4th – are under 300 yards in length. All are comfortably in range after the tee shot is played so scoring well on Gullane No.3 is all about approach play and putting.

There is only one par five on the card – even that is only 443 yards long – and of the five par threes, the pick of these is the 176-yard 15th hole which plays back down Gullane Hill to a green way below tee level near one of the opening holes on No.2 course. It is a genuinely thrilling way to finish an excursion up, over and around the hill that began a couple of hours earlier.