Oh joyous day! I am SOOOOO happy to see another Terry Armstrong classic
I've played quite a few of his earlier designs on my PGA Tarheel tour, so this course feels like coming home in a way. Terry has created an enormous number of Jack Nicklaus designs in his career and they just keep getting better.
Gleneagles is a real course design, 7297 yards, and as he says, home of the 2014 Ryder Cup. A signature of Mr Armstrongs designs, you will be greeted with music on the first and tenth tees to add to theme. In this case, the bagpipes are challenging you to hit it hard and long because these holes are going to need a recharge on your golf cart.
Visuals are stunning as you will see in some screen shots below. This captures the spirit of the course perfectly when I look on the internet at pics of the real thing. Playing through, I found a nice mix of easy greens if you find them in regulation mixed with a few that bite your ankles even if you do find them. This made for a decent challenge. Even with power drives, I was often coming in with longer irons.
Gentle slopes on most of the fairways were welcome, so I was not asked to perform circus shots on sidehills from the short grass. Accuracy is rewarded for sure.
I played using settings of Medium, Soft and Pin 2...so yes, I bugged out a little bit. Next time, I'm sure to take the dive and play like a true scottish gopher and take the strong winds and firm greens.
THANK YOU TERRY! This is a stunning course and an absolute keeper.
(PS, its a large download. Over time, we have certainly seen growth of file sizes needed to create such awesome courses. Case in point, take a look at the file sizes over time of Mr. Holden too. Quality does not come cheap!)
My round:
Enjoy some screen caps here:
Hole 11, Par 4, 325 yards from the tee
Hole 17, Par 3, 188 yards looking back from green
Hole 8, par 4, 385 yards, view of fairway and green from forward tee areas
