New golf course opens in Inverness

By Alistair July 29, 2019 10:28 Updated

King’s Golf Course in Inverness, in which two of its 18 holes are on what was Torvean Golf Course, has opened.

Torvean’s 18 holes will be lost to the construction of a new road, so the club’s local council agreed to construct a new golf venue.

Sixteen holes of the course occupy the new land, while the first and 18th are on land that was previously home to three holes of the old course.

A new clubhouse has also been built.

Course manager Stevie McIntosh said: “There has been talk in Inverness for many years about the potential relocation of the Torvean course, so we are thrilled finally to see it come to fruition. We are only moving across the road, but we’re going to a self-contained high quality new facility with clubhouse, maintenance facility and golf course.”

Architect Stuart Rennie added: “The old course was pretty flat, but now we have a nice, undulating site. There is 65 metres (210 feet) of elevation change between the top and bottom of the site. The soil is quite nice – sandy and gravelly, although it had been arable farmland. We were able to build a very lay of the land course – we moved less than 100,000 cubic metres of earth.

“I particularly like the fourth hole, though I have heard different opinions from some others. We tried to make use of existing drainage flows, with open ditches and wetlands, and on the fourth you play towards a ditch at 220 yards off the tee, with a bunker to the left. The green surface is blind, though you can see the top of the pin, and there are no bunkers at greenside, promoting a running approach. We tried very hard to make the par threes both special and individual – they all play in different directions and to different lengths. That’s something that is important to me – I think from growing up playing Royal Dornoch.”