131 - Ballater Golf Club

Location: Ballater, Scotland

Rating: 7.8

Ballater is a beautiful little course tucked away in the Scottish Cairngorms. It is an 18 hole par 67 course so on a good day you should be able to get round quite quickly but I’d certainly encourage taking your time to take in the beautiful surrounding mountainy scenery.

I’ve played a few golf courses in the Cairngorms now and it is just the most relaxing, serene, peaceful place to play. The course is relatively flat, there’s not too much in the way of elevated tees or greens but that doesn’t detract from the course as it is a very nice design. It is the kind of course that if you’re having a bad day it can swallow you hole but if you play smart, sensible golf you can put together a nice round especially with a couple of driveable par 4’s which I always love to see. High risk, high reward.

The condition of the course was pretty good, the fairways were in good condition and the greens ran pretty well. Unless you’re having a really bad day here it is not overly difficult as quite a few of the holes run alongside the next hole allowing you to potentially have a miss.

Sadly like a lot of the courses in the area there is no driving range but there’s a decent size chipping area and a pitching area you can use with your own balls.