I have never played Scoonie before, although I have played on its illustrious neighbour Leven Links many times. I am, however, looking forward to my first visit when I will compete in a Texas Scramble with my nephew and a friend, should be fun.

Sunday 10th April and here we are at Scoonie Golf Club, me with my sun glasses and sun hat, my nephew Billy Scott, that’s him on the right, and his friend Billy Forsyth prepare to  participate in the club’s Texas Scramble. A nicer day we couldn’t have picked, hot and sunny with a light breeze. Although not the most affluent golf club in the world, Scoonie is a friendly club with all the necessary amenities. Our cups of coffee did not appear to come from a machine, which I personally think is a good thing, and our rolls arrived with the coffee, another box ticked. Soon we were given our card and we set off down the first where we scrambled a bogey five. This I may add was not because of the condition of the course which we each agreed was in remarkable condition with copious amounts of grass on the greens, something we could do with at Stirling just now. The second, third and fourth holes produced solid pars, with our only birdie of the day coming at the short par four fifth. Our inward half was almost a repeat of the front nine except that we had no birdies but made eight straight pars before finishing with a bogey five for 33. Our net score of 59.2 however, never threatened the leaders and we ended our day with a nice meal of home made soup, followed by steak pie and chips, delicious. Overall, this is a golf course worth a visit, some ups and downs but not hilly, three long par fours at four hundred and thirty yards, five par threes, one of which is over two hundred and twenty five yards, you will do well to play to your handicap on your first visit. A good enough golf course but definitely a working man’s clubhouse.