Royal Aberdeen (Silverburn)
Also on site at Royal Aberdeen is the Silverburn course, home of Aberdeen Ladies Golf Club, and offers a great deal but sadly doesn’t quite live up to its excellent early billing.
The first five holes are played on the opposite side of the clubhouse to the Balgownie and the rest of the Silverburn. I’d be quite happy to put these first few holes on loop and just keep going round and round. They are effectively a miniature version of the main course and are an absolute joy to play.
The sixth and seventh aren’t bad either, in fact the latter is a fine par-four to a lovely raised green.
But then disaster strikes! We cross an access road and play parkland holes 8 to 16 which are a significant drop in quality to what has come before (the short 8th is actually ok) before we return to the side of the 7th green where the 17th tee is located and we play the final two holes where we find ourselves back on better ground and are excellent.
It would be hard to recommend playing all 18 of the Silverburn but would highly advise you play the first seven and then jump on the 17th tee for the last two.
Commercially it may make sense for the Silverburn course to have 18 holes but there’s no denying it would have been much more satisfying if it had remained as the original six-hole ‘ladies course' and is a prime example of where quality is better than quantity.
