We arrived at the hotel with plenty of time to spare as we knew we had to make use of the practice facilities. Clubhouse is top notch - although a cup of tea may set you back a £5. A few balls smacked around on the driving range with our complimentary range balls and a few practice putts to get a read of the greens and we were ready to make our way to the starters box. The starter was great, gave us our Gleneagles gift bag of tees, pencil, yardage book, scorecard and pitch mark repairer. He showed us the line to take and explained that there were very few people out after us - for a hacker like me that was great news. Time for the tee off.

The first hole should be a fairly gentle opening but I managed to find a bunker. It was a feature of my day that I spent most of it in the lovely bunkers of the Queen's course. The day in question was over a year ago from this blog and this was not something that I was considering doing when I played the Queen's course. Therefore I won't be giving a blow by blow account of my round but more my general thoughts on the day.  The course itself is exceptional - not long but certainly tricky. It is so secluded and due to the small numbers on the course when I played it seemed like our own. I particularly enjoyed the 4th, 5th & 9th on the front 9. The 10th was special as it was the first time I had the privilege of a halfway house! The burgers truly are a joy!!

The 13th & 14th playing alongside the lake are very picturesque. However my favourite hole was the 18th, teeing off from an elevated tee across the lake and then playing back to the clubhouse. A few drinks afterwards in the clubhouse reminiscing on the course and our game ended the perfect day.