The Gleneagles Hotel (PGA Centenary)
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The PGA Centenary Course, created by Jack Nicklaus, is a modern classic. Even for a champion and acclaimed golf architect like Nicklaus, The PGA Centenary Course was a challenge.
It had to be a great course and, set as it is in the heart of Scotland, the country that gave the world golf, Nicklaus described the course as “The finest parcel of land in the world I have ever been given to work with”.
The tees are graded at each hole in five stages, including a challenging 6,558 yards from the white markers down to 5,072 from the red. Fittingly, the PGA Centenary Course begins by playing southeast towards the glen, sweeping up the Ochil Hills to the summit of the pass below Ben Shee, which joins it to Glendevon.
A feature of the PGA Centenary Course is the feast of views of the spectacular countryside in which Gleneagles is set. Putting on the two-tier second green, you are distracted by the lush panorama of the rich Perthshire straths. As you move westwards over the next few holes, the rugged Grampians come into view on the right, then distantly purple ahead, Ben Vorlich and the mountains above the Trossachs.
1. giotoole | Rated
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26 Aug 2009
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This course definitely fits the established pattern for Ryder Cups. There’s no arguing with the quality, but having played a few Nicklaus courses now, you start to see the same sort of things – he likes to use optical illusions like concealing fairway landing areas or sections of the green behind high-lipped bunkers. It is a spectacular piece of land, with water popping up in unexpected places.