Royal Tarlair Golf Club

Played here first Sunday in October with the local pub society. This is an ideal course for our standard of golf. Pretty difficult to lose a ball, unless you hook one into the sea or pick out one of the scattered gorse bushes around and about the course. That said, this is a hugely enjoyable course, where you can score well and enjoy some pretty impressive coastal scenery at the same time. The day we played was damp, a real harr rolling along the coast and some persistent showers to ensure you got really wet and cold. Nevertheles, this is golf in the north east of Scotland in the Autumn....play to handicap here and you'll do well in sunnier climes! The course is very well kept, immaculate fairways, true-running greens that are the main defence of the course, with plenty of slopes and borrows to hold the concentration. Stray off the fairway into rough, just an inch or so long, and watch the ball disappear to the bottom of it.....it's not such an easy course from there in the wet. The par 3 13th hole, is, of course, worth a mention...definitely a contender if putting together a fantasy course for this area. I think the 12th at Hopeman just shades it as the best par 3 that I have seen on the Moray Firth, but these are both terrific golf holes. Off course, we were looked after like royalty all day....by far the best hospitality we have received this year. Food was straightforward enough fare, but it was all freshly prepared to coincide with groups coming in, a good choice was offered and there was plenty of it. All in all, a cracking day out and, believe me, 36 holes in those conditions were as taxing as anything I have played!

This is a very friendly club that will make you welcome. The food is very good. The location on the cliff top is picturesque. The course is pretty straightforward other than the spectacular 13th. The greens were exceptionally good - fast and true. I very much enjoyed playing and it's a bargain at £15

Don't believe what anybody tells you about the 13th - you just have to see it to believe it. I don't think there could be a more dramatic short hole in golf anywhere. Having said that I found the rest of the course a bit unexciting (especially after that 13th) and the greens were not the best I've played on. The clubhouse however was one of the nicest I've been in with an impressive array of trophies/cups etc. Worth a tenner any day.

Definitely worth £5.00 (with open fairways of Scotalnd Card) just to play the 13th. You can keep the rest but Clivet is an awesome hole. I would not fancy it in the wind!!

Royal Tarlair presents an interesting question -- is it worth it to play an entire course for just one hole? The course has a series of average holes, a few above-average holes, and what must be one of the great holes in all of Scotland (No. 13, Clivet). The scenery is wonderful, with sea views all around, and the course is in good shape. But with only a few exceptions, the course had a certain sameness to its layout and design. Clivet, however, makes it all worth it. A tee shot from on high, down to a green perched on a clifftop shelf, with dangerous dropoffs all around. On a a recent two-week tour of Scotland, it was the most memorable single hole I played. The green fees are extremely reasonable, so it's probably worth it.

A very friendly golf club with a course which is challenging with magnificent sea views and excellent greens.