Golfing on Shetland’s Mainland
“This is as far north as you can go in the UK! Four hundred miles further and you’re in amongst Polar Bears and Walruses.”
Shetland Golf Club, otherwise known as Dale has seen the same great improvements over recent years as Whalsay. The course looks towards a voe or fiord so the setting is quite outstanding.
The 1st plays toward the voe, its fairways outlined by thick rough with a thin burn dissecting the approach. The greens are impeccable which must be quite a challenge in this wet, wind-swept valley. The 2nd, a nice par 3, carries on the same progress towards the fiord while the 3rd cuts south across the valley, dividing the fairway in three but two burns.
CORBIE HILL
I’ve played Dale a couple of times in the past and on both occasions lost balls, not to the gnarly rough or snaking burns but to a crow!
This was the best shot I could get of the winged ball bandit.
They call them ‘corbies’ here in Shetland. On the 10th, as Ewan and I strolled towards fairly well-struck tee shots, a large ‘corbie’ dropped from on high to pick up my ball. He mockingly flew over us on his way to his ‘personal stash’. Somewhere up on ‘Corbie Hill’ is a giant pile of Pro V1s.
CANADIAN COUPLE
As there was no one at the club for our late afternoon round so we popped in the next day to say hello and chat with the members. Over coffee, the secretary told us a Canadian couple recently flew their private jet into nearby Tingwall Airport to play ‘Scotland’s Most Northerly Golf Course’.
Delighted, they set about the task, played their most northerly course, jumped back in their plane and flew off home to Canada to tell the tale. No one at the club had the guts to tell them they’d visited the wrong golf course!
ASTA GOLF COURSE
It amazes me that there is so much golf on Shetland!
Asta Golf Course is situated 5 minutes away from Lerwick Golf Club next to Asta Loch. It’s a simple 9-hole course but well worth a round because of its lovely location. They do an interesting thing here to ‘spice’ things up. They switch the tees around mid-month to give two quite different nine-hole tracks!
The ‘Classic Course’ is available on the first two weeks of each month, identified by Yellow Flags and they say it offers a tighter, trickier challenge. We played the ‘New Course’ available the last two weeks and identified by Red Flags which gives big hitters the chance to ‘let fly’ with fewer water hazards and a bit more space. It’s a great idea and seems to work.
Similarly, the clubhouse doubles as the local community art centre.
