St Medan Golf Course

Play around at St Medan Golf Course

The picture above was taken last September when we were still having the incredible 2018 heatwave and I think my phone's camera denies it justice. Anyway, this links 9 hole golf course (play the back nine differently) is so well looked after, it's beautifully kept fairways and snooker table baize greens are a windswept treat. And I have been treated to millionaires golf on all the occasions I've played it, sometimes with only crashing waves and the gulls for company. And the views over Luce Bay and the beaches are totally dramatic. Playing this course first thing fills your lungs with fresh sea air and your heart with hope.

The last time I was there a club official said, 'Hope ya enjoy it, lad (I'm 57), n' tell ya pals', so this is what I'm doing. Pal. Okay, I like open, often vertical golf courses like this, the ones I play in Cumbria are on the same lines, take me to a flat golf course with a par 5 dog leg and a fairway edged with lines of small trees and I'm a lost ball. Give me a par 4, 230 yds, drive up a hill and a chip upwards on to the green and I'll bogey, or I'll double bogey, on a good day I might even par... You see the thing is with hilly, quirky golf courses is that 'hubris' will join in and play at any moment, and you know he will. He'll turn your lovely shot into a stroke that sees the ball just and so, 'oh, it's almost at the top of the crest looking like its heading to the green', falter, come to a rest, then seemingly think about it, hesistate and change it's mind, only to wander slowly, retractably, enexorably backwards and almost seemingly effortlessly to rejoin you exactly were you played it from. And that's why we play against him, I wouldn't be fun if we didn't.

And this is what you get here, a great but difficult course, that will reward you just as it it will fine you, I'm not going to describe the individual holes, come and play. Pal.

If you look at the picture, at the top ridge, you'll see there's a white boarded structure - this is so you can take your shot in even the the strongest winds, towards a pin much to the left and below, by the beach guarded by a row of wooden sleepers, and rock slabs. So I reckon this course must be intense when it's blowing a 'hooley'. You can almost hear an old sage mutter, 'Aye a three wood for a par three there should be about right that, 'bout now, aye.'

If you are coming on holiday and have room, pack your clubs, even a small set. You see St Medan also has these wonderful beaches so whilst the family could relax, walk the coast, visit the lovely church and the Maxwell sulpture or even enjoy building sandcastles you can have a wee 'knock'.

Honesty box by clubhouse.

Also there is a golf course at Wigtown, which I'll add when I've played it. Both do inexpensive visitor rates for 9/18 holes.

St Medan Golf Course
Website click here

St Medan Golf Club
Port William
DG8 8NJ

Tel: 01988 700 358

Email: mail@stmedangolfclub.com