With 300 years of history, Dalmahoy is the ancestral home of the Earls of Morton and today is a 4-star hotel and country club set in an impressive 1000 acre estate in the shadow of the Pentland Hills. It’s difficult to believe that Dalmahoy is within the capital’s urban area. It never feels like it is. Yet the city centre is only about 25 mins away
With 215 rooms and suites, a range of restaurants and bars, the historic resort also features luxurious leisure facilities and a state-of-the-art fitness centre.
Dalmahoy is just 3 miles (12 mins) from Edinburgh airport, and just 7 miles (25 mins) from Edinburgh’s city centre.
The Golf courses themselves would be described as ‘walk onto’ from the hotel
If anyone wanted to try and snatch some St Andrews time, then the ‘home of golf’ is about 50 miles (75 mins)
Image by Kevin Murray
Designed by the legendry James Braid, the East course is an old European tour venue but Dalmahoy’s recent heritage lies in having hosted the 1992 Solheim Cup which marked Europe’s first win over the United States. The course is a predominantly parkland layout, although it’s traditionally tee-lined. There’s width in the fairways to forgive lack of accuracy but they do undulate enough to leave some challenging lies to overcome that can throw you off-balance if launching a long second. The principal feature is the length. Not for no reason is it called ‘the beast’. This is a course where the ‘big stick’ is your primary weapon.
Now back in independent ownership the course has benefited from recent investment with some holes and the overall condition much improved. The thirteenth in particular has earned plaudits and might regarded the courses signature assignment now
The west course is often referred to as the ‘resort course’ and if we honest, for members’ competitions and corporate events, it’s a much more manageable assignment at 6,684 yards, but is still a formidable challenge. The West Course is still a good test of golf. There is a good mix of shorter par 4’s and par 3’s, alongside some very tough par 4’s and a par 5 which is the longest on either course. It features tight fairways, deep, thick rough and a number of hard greens that players have to fight for control of their ball on. The par three sixteenth is probably the pick, a miniscule hole that’s nothing more than a flick with a wedge, but you must clear the river before the green and land firmly on the target as anything overhit runs into a jungle and horrible recovery
There’s probably little point trying to tip-toe around it. We know that golf day corporate hospitality often overflows into the evening, and whereas perhaps people are reluctant to try and ‘sell this’ it remains something of an unspoken consideration. Anyone familiar with Edinburgh knows that it scores well in this area, its one of the UK’s most lively and atmospheric cities.
In addition to entertainment, the non-golfer also has an array of riches to occupy themselves during the day. Shoppers can spend hours in Prince’s Street, culture vultures have the National Gallery and Museum of Scotland, whilst sightseers can explore Edinburgh castle, Greyfriars Bobby, and Calton Hill.
The city of Edinburgh is a massive argument in favour of choosing Dalmahoy
Any corporate golf day within striking distance St Andrews will inevitably run into the Old Course question. Here’s the bottom-line.
The St Andrews Old Course is limited to players who possess a current handicap (24 for gentlemen and 36 for ladies) and they’ll need to pay the green-fee (about £200) independently. Some of your golfers are likely to be qualified and could make private applications to play through ‘the ballot’. Faraway Fairways are happy to do this on their behalf. The draw is made 48 hours before play. If they win, they’ll almost certainly need to leave your corporate group to take up their tee-time and forfeit their other activity. So long as everyone is happy with this, then yes, it can be done. We will need to arrange a short-notice transport to get them there and back, but this isn’t an insurmountable obstacle
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