Pitreavie

Myself and my son had originally booked in to play a Pairs Open Competition at Leven Links but when that was cancelled at short notice the only other event we could find on the same day was at Pitreavie.

I hadn't really heard much about the course, located close to Dunfermline, and a quick glance at the club website suggested nothing more than a bog-standard parkland golf course. And to a certain extend that is exactly what it is but, oh my, some of the greens at this course are something else and pretty much elevate it to a must play!

There are several greens which are multi-levelled to the extreme and this makes playing into them and chipping around them very exciting and exacting. But the entire complexes fit into the landscape exceptionally well.

The first inkling of something extraordinary comes at the opening hole with a severely tilted green whilst the second unusually falls away from play but this is nothing of what is about to follow. The par-three third notches it up a gear with a bold two-tiered green and then over the next dozen or so holes we are hit with some amazing contours and movement in the greens. Whoever said putting was a game within a game was correct.

It perhaps comes as no surprise that the course was originally designed by Dr. Alister MacKenzie - of Augusta National fame - back in the 1920s and he was certainly noted for his wild greens - his legacy still lives on at Pitreavie.