In the late 1980s farmer Ken Smith had a vision to create a beautiful golf course in among the Scots pines and on the rolling countryside of his Angus farmland.

Asked what his inspiration had been he cited television images of Augusta National home of The Masters Tournament. From that moment it became almost inevitable that Letham Grange, near Arbroath, would become known as "The Augusta of the North".

The course
While the layout was undoubtedly influenced by Alister MacKenzie’s famous Georgia masterpiece it would do this splendid Angus course a marked disservice by classifying it in musical parlance as some sort of tribute band. The Old Course at Letham Grange, opened by Sir Henry Cotton in 1987 only a year before his death, is worthy of much more accolade than that.

It has earned a reputation as one of the toughest inland courses in Scotland and was considered a very serious challenge by the competitors in the Scottish Stroke Play Championship when it was played there in Millennium year. It has also hosted the BBC "Play Better Golf" series when the voice of golf himself, Peter Alliss, paid welldeserved tribute its quality.

The course is laid out in the grounds of a Victorian estate and is classic inland golf with little run in the fairways for most of the year making it a long and demanding 6,632 yards. From the back tees at almost 7000 yards it is a place best left to those with a golf game to match their egos.

The holes meander through a combination of rolling parkland and through great stands of ancient Scottish pines where red squirrel and a host of wild bird life reflect the tranquillity of the setting. There is water in play on 13 of the 18 holes.

In keeping with its “Augusta” reputation the Old Course at Letham Grange has its own version of “Amen Corner” in a stretch of three holes from the 8th to the 10th.




Continue >>>