Brora Golf Club Review: One of the Scottish Highlands' true gems

Brora Golf Club Fact File

• Location: Brora, Scottish Highlands
• Year Established: 1891
• Par: 70
• Length (yards): 6156
• Green Fees (weekdays): £160
• Signature Hole:  The par-3 9th at the end of the property is pretty special
• Pros:
• Cons: Need to go off peak to get the value
• Website: broragolfclub.co.uk

Brora was established in 1891 – it looks and feels a lot older than that – as initially a nine-hole course. Six years later that would become 18 and in 1910 there was the first redesign. But the course that we know now is the layout that James Braid put together in 1924. It would set the club back £25, plus his travelling expenses. 

Braid is one of the Great Triumvirate, along with Harry Vardon and JH Taylor, and, despite winning five Claret Jugs, it is his magnificent course design work that lives on the longest. Both the Kings and Queens courses at Gleneagles bear Braid's name and Brora is right up there with some of his finest work. For the record Braid designed over 100 courses in Scotland and seven in the Highlands. 

Another five-time Open champion is also associated with Brora. In 1995 Peter Thomson and his wife arrived at the Braid links and paid their green fee in the pro shop. Word spread and a small gathering watched them finish off on the closing par 3. Since that visit Thomson has often returned, donating various photos and memorabilia. 

"When James Braid first set eyes on the land that is now Brora he must have felt the same elation I did, many years later, when I first saw what he had designed on this precious piece of links land," explained the Australian.

He would describe Brora as 'the most natural links course in the world,' adding 'One of my favourite links is Brora. I pray it will continue and last as long as the world.'

Brora Golf Club Course Review

If you've already made it to Brora, well done. If you haven't yet, then please try and rectify that. It takes a lot of getting to, sitting 20 miles north of Royal Dornoch, but there's plenty of brilliant golf in the area to make it highly worthwhile. Dornoch is the obvious attraction, and the most pricey, but you can very feasibly make Brora the highlight of any visit and add in others.

This is a GB&I Top 100 course in its own right and there is a lot of love for Brora in the golfing world. As well as Thomson the club have had a wealth of visitors which, considering its location, is a very impressive return. The club's website lists Tom Watson, Craig Stadler, Sandy Lyle, Paul Lawrie, Bill Rogers, Hale Irwin and Ian Woosnam as having played the links and all of them will likely share a similar opinion.

Brora is hard not to fall in love with. The location helps, there are other great courses above it but this almost feels like the end of the line and is the most northern of the Top 100 layouts. It is often mentioned how 'raw' Brora is which is true in the sense that it as natural as they come – you will see plenty of grazing cattle and sheep about the course – but that is almost to undersell the conditioning and quality of the greens. Electric fences surround the putting surfaces to stop the sheep getting at them and are another nice quirk of the place but there's so much more to love about Brora.

Right from the off you know you are in for something special. The 1st tee is a beauty and truly whets the appetite with a par 4 of just 280 yards from the yellows. But if you are to find the green, which slopes from front to back and features a fall-off at the front – 'Pin placement can be arranged to ensure three putts,' reads the planner. 

The elevated 2nd tee gives more of an idea of what's to come and then you are into it. A front nine that follows the contour of Kintradwell Bay and only the short 6th comes inland. The first five holes are all par 4s and the par 3s will remain with you, with the 9th at the far end of the property a fantastic place to play golf. To give you an idea of where this sits it has been known to have been covered in seaweed after a storm.

Coming home the course follows the fence line of the bordering croft land, with out of bounds lurking right, but there is always a path up the left-hand side. Again the short 13th is the only hole to point towards the sea and, again, we have a succession of par 4s that possibly peak with the penultimate hole.

This is a particularly strong driving hole, it was designed by Braid for two drawn shots with a bunker short left that is perfectly placed for the golfer who hits the wrong type of approach.

The 18th is another short hole, and the longest of the quartet, that will always draw some sort of crowd and often a need to get up and down from an awkward spot.

Final Verdict

Brora is the type of course which you'll name as the type of place that you would happily play every day for the rest of your life. It's not long at 6,200 yards off the back tees, and there's been no push to look for any significant addition of yardage, but there is more than enough to keep your interest and test you. The front nine is the easier of the two, as you look to fade yourself into position, while there is more undulation on the back side. All of this fits into less than 200 acres.

Pretty much everything about the place is cool. For example, you can now book on to next year's Golf Week which features a variety of competitions for just £400. To be a full playing member it will cost you just £483. Can you imagine this if it was located anywhere else in the UK? You can be a member of a Top 100 course for less than £500. An under-15 junior will pay £10 for their year's golf.

This is somewhere that I've made my way to a couple of times over the years and it really is a magnificent accompaniment to whatever you are doing in the Highlands. This would be ranked inside the top-30 courses in Scotland and is 9th in the Highlands & Islands, a stat which should encourage you to expand your golfing CV.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For more information, please visit the club's website here