Secondly, our location a mile from Junction 6 on the M90 means that we’re just 30 minutes from Edinburgh and 60 minutes from Glasgow. Groups and societies will always find it easy to make their way to Kinross. We also provide the flexibility to come for the day or stay overnight at our on-site resort, the Green Hotel Golf & Leisure Club.  We think that you will be hard pushed to find better value Stay & Play golf break packages anywhere in Scotland particularly when you take into account that, in addition to great golf, the Resort has two hotels, the 4* Green Hotel and 3* Windlestrae Hotel, and offers a fully equipped gymnasium & leisure club with 20m pool, a health & beauty suite where you can have your post round aches and pains massaged away, 5 different dining options and various bars, our very own intimate live music venue and much, much more.

But enough of the general background – what are we offering to golf groups and societies in 2012?

1. The 2012 green fees are being held unchanged from 2011 levels – ok, in the current tricky economic climate, I do not suspect that we will not be alone in holding green fees at last year’s levels but it all helps.

2. This year, for the first time, we are introducing a special Golf Groups & Societies incentive whereby you get one FREE green fee for every 8 players in your party which is a discount of up to 12.5% on what are already very reasonable green fees (we think!).  So if you have a party of 16, you only pay for 14 green fees, parties of 24 pay 21 green fees…and so on.

3. In addition, for parties of 12 or more, we will provide an engraved trophy for your party to play for during your day at Kinross.  Before you leave, we will take the winner’s details, have his / her name engraved on it and then forward it to them to retain.  Furthermore, it is not just any engraving service. Garry Harvey is a PGA Professional playing on the European Seniors Tour and we are delighted to say that he is attached to Kinross Golf Courses.  Some of you may recognise the name because Garry is also the man who you see on TV starting to engrave the famous Claret Jug as the final pair come up the 72nd hole of The Open!  He has agreed to provide us with the trophies and do the engraving as well, which makes it just a little bit extra special.

4. If all that was not enough, we will also provide a complimentary bottle of whisky from the local Tullibardine Distillery as an extra prize to be awarded to parties numbering over 20.

As an extra bit of fun this coming season, we are proposing to run a number of Society Leagues.  Actually there will be 4 different leagues in total covering Men’s & Ladies’ leagues on both The Montgomery & Bruce Courses.  The are no entry costs – any golf group or society with 8 or more players can enter and all they need to do is to submit the cards of the 8 best stableford scores from within their party for any single round played. The team score will be the aggregate of those 8 stableford scores and we will maintain the league leaderboards on our website throughout the season.  Groups can submit as many entries as they wish (well, actually as many entries as the number of rounds played at Kinross) and their league position will reflect their best effort on that particular course. There will be various League rules but we will not bore you with those just at the moment.

The winners of the various leagues on 31st October 2012 will all receive prizes (yet to be decided but they will be very worthwhile!).  In addition, the name of the Group Organiser for every single entry over the season will be included in a Prize Draw at the end of October with the first name out of the hat winning a FREE golf outing at Kinross in 2013 for up to 24 people and the runner up getting a similar FREE outing for up to 12 people.

All in all, there are a whole host of reasons for hosting a golf outing at Kinross this coming season.

Despite the ground being saturated for what seems like months, the courses had been holding up reasonably well without too much damage from the elements – until last Tuesday, that is!  On January 3rd, Central Scotland was hit by ferocious winds gusting to hurricane force (90 mph+), leaving many parts of the country without electricity for days.  The storm was at its peak over Kinross from about 8am – 10am in the morning and, after it had sunsequently abated, we went out with a certain amount of trepidation to assess the damage.

4th hole on The Bruce looking back towards the clubhouse

At a guess, we have probably lost about 100 trees in total on the golf courses but, in reality, it could have been so much worse.  Most of the fallen trees are conifers rather than hard wood and were in plantations.  Yes, those plantations now have some gaps in them but, once the fallen trees have been chopped up and removed, the lasting visual impact in most cases is thankfully going to be minimal.  Yes, there are 2 or 3 trees down which we are very sad to have lost, such as the lovely tree at the junction of the 2nd & 18th holes on the Bruce (see below) - although I suspect some members may be quietly glad it has gone as it regularly impeded tee shots on both holes!

Tree fallen on the 2nd / 18th on The Bruce course

The golf course staff start back at work on Monday following a well -earned festive break and will be hard at work I suspect for several weeks chopping up the fallen trees and clearing away the debris to be ready for the forthcoming season.  We are lucky that none of the fallen trees have damaged any greens or indeed really affected play on the courses.  Probably the worst area is beside the 4th green on the Bruce where a number of conifers have fallen, creating a sizable gap in what was previously a good windbreak / screen between it and the neighbouring King George V playing fields (see below).

Considerable damage to the woodland screen alongside the temporary (winter) 4th green on The Bruce course

Anyway, it does not seem to have unduly inconvenienced golfers who have been out getting early season practice in unusually mild conditions.

Playing on regardless!

Road down to the practice ground is completely blocked

No more wind and rain please – we have had quite enough now, thank you!!

The gray, wet conditions did not seem to dampen the enthusiasm of everyone who took part and everyone agreed that this new, shortened version of golf with the added element of strategy was enormous fun.  With every green having two flags / pin positions with the easy white flag and the difficult black flag.  Whoever decided on some of the black flag positions on the day undoubtedly has sadistic tendencies with that at the 8th hole in particular proving a huge challenge, set up as it was on a small raised plateau at the back of the green.

The scoring essentially uses the stableford points scoring system with double points being scored if you elect to play to the more difficult black flag and score a net par or better on that hole.  Every golfer has to elect to play 3 PowerPlays to the black flags within the first 8 holes and you have to declare it before you tee off on that particular hole.  The 9th & final hole poses a further risk / reward decision for golfers because anyone can opt for an additional (optional) 4th PowerPlay but on this occasion, if you then fail to get a net bogey or better, you actually lose 3 points – and yes, yours truly played it like a muppet and lost 3 points!

One of the main highlights of the day was the extremely generous sponsorship of Western Saab of Perth who offered 4 different unbelievable prizes for a hole-in-one at each of the white & black flags at the two par 3 short holes, the 3rd & the 7th.  The star attraction however was a Saab Convertible sitting on a plinth beside the 3rd green waiting for someone to  get a hole-in-one to the black flag for someone who had nominated that they were playing a PowerPlay.  It is a tricky hole at the best of times and the black flag position was pretty tough so under normal circumstances few of us would have selected that hole for one of our 3 PowerPlay holes – but most of us did anyway because we wanted to win the car!  Sadly nobody managed it although one group of 3 players unbelievably all played their balls to within 4 feet of the hole with the closest rolling gently past the hole and ending up a mere 15 inches away – so unlucky!  Me? I didn’t even trouble the green (even with my 2nd shot!).

Despite the wet conditions, there was some extremely high quality golf played.  At least 2 golfers managed to record a net albatross on a nominated PowerPlay hole to notch up 10 points on that hole alone.  One of those players, Ronnie McHale (9 handicap) actually went on to take overall honours on the day which I dare say should not come as a major surprise, particularly as he notched up a further 10 points on the following 2 holes (ie 20 points in total on the 4th, 5th & 6th holes).

The final results were as follows:

Men                                               Handicap                Strokes Received                  Points

1. Ronnie McHale                             9                                    5                                     31
2. Andrew Lockhart                         6                                    3                                     30
3. Jim Wardrope                               4                                    2                                     30
4. Roy Houston                                12                                   6                                      30
5. Tom Deacon                                 18                                   9                                      29

Ladies

1. Deborah Rettie                             22                                 11                                     27
2. Trish Anderson                            27                                  14                                    25
3. Audrey Thomson                         21                                  11                                    23

Juniors

1. Ogilvie Robertson                        11                                   6                                     26
2. Cameron Donaldson                    10                                   5                                     25
3. Matthew Smith                             8                                    4                                     23

Team Event

1. Aly McGregor, Steven Hind & Scott Cook

All in all, and despite the inclement weather, both the event and the novel golfing format were deemed a great success and we are already planning to hold a bigger and better event next year over 18 holes, split into 2 separate 9 hole circuits.  If you did not play in our event last week, you ought to make certain you do so next year because it is a really fun way for golfers of all standards to play and enjoy themselves.

PowerPlay Golf was launched as an exciting new golf concept in May 2011 at Celtic Manor with a host of professionals including Gary Player, Ian Poulter and John Daly competing over the 9 hole format in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

Played over 9 holes instead of the normal 18, PowerPlay Golf is an exciting, high-pressure form of the sport which gives golfers two flags to aim at on every green. You score extra points if you ‘PowerPlay’ to the Black Flag, which is in an extra-hard position – often close to hazards such as bunkers or ponds.

Click Here to View Video

The Kinross PowerPlay Golf Open is open to everyone to enter. The entry fee (per 9 hole round) is £10 for adults and £5 for Juniors. Players can enter and play the 9 holes as often as they want during the day – in order to improve on their previous best.  First tee time is 7.30am and last tee time is 5pm.

Separate competitions will be run for Men (max h’cap 28), Ladies (max 36), Junior Boys (max 36) and Junior Girls (max 36). In addition to entering individually, there will also be prizes for the best teams (3 players).  There will be a host of wonderful prizes for each of these categories and every entrant will receive a goody bag worth £15.

We are delighted that Western SAAB, SRixon and Tullibardine Distillery will be the official sponsors. Both par 3 holes will have wonderful Hole-in-One prizes – you will be able to win a SAAB convertible on one hole and a fabulous holiday for 4 in Portugal on the other.

The underlying principle behind PowerPlay Golf is that it should be exciting and fun – so come along and join us for a great day out.

To secure your entry, telephone 01577 865125 or email golfpro@green-hotel.com

Pay £170 on application for your new Golf & Leisure Gold Card and you will receive 100 points which will be good enough for between 7 – 20 rounds of golf depending on the day of the week you play and the time of day.

Every time you play, points are deducted from your balance as follows:

When you come towards the end of your 100 points, you can purchase additional points to top up your balance (5 additional points for £8.50, 10 additional points for £17.00 or 40 additional points for £50.00).

Gold Card Holders are entitled to play with up to 3 additional guests either using points or paying half price green fees.  From Monday – Friday, guest green fees are either £17.50 (standard visitor green fee £35.00) or 10 points whilst on Saturday & Sunday guest green fees are either £22.50 (usually £45.00) or 15 points.

There is no time limit on when your Gold Card points have to be used by – they will remain valid until you use them.

Other Gold Card Holder benefits include:

- ability to book tee times up to 7 days in advance with no restrictions (if the tee time is free, you can book it!)

- reduced buggy hire rates

- a voucher for a FREE drink in Rushes Bar at the Windlestrae every time you play

- 2 for 1 on all tickets purchased for gigs at Backstage at the Green, the Resort’s own live music venue

- receive a bonus of 15 points when you persuade a friend to purchase a Gold Card

Only a limited number of these Golf & Leisure Gold Cards will be available, so apply early to avoid disappointment!

For more information on our new Gold Card or to receive an application form, contact Wilma Hegarty on 01577 863407 or email golf@green-hotel.com.

Alternatively, application forms are available from the Pro Shop (01577 865125)

Apart from a heavy downpour mid morning on the first day, conditions were reasonably favourable for players although the course stood up to its reputation as a challenging layout with the CSS coming in at 75 & 74 on the two days against the official SSS 72.  However, there was some very impressive golf played, not least from Phil Dempsey (Tulliallan) who shot a gross 71 and David Imrie (Thornton) a gross 72 – both in their second rounds.

However, we were delighted that local Kinross golfer, Andrew Campbell (4 hcp), emerged the overall winner with a combined gross total of 149 (75, 74).  Runner up was Graham Bell (Downfield) playing off +2 who finished on 150 gross (77, 73) with Phil Dempsey (Tulliallan) adjudged 3rd on countback on 151.

Click on the following link for the full results: Scottish Seniors Golfing Society

Scratch Winners

1st P Sanderson Bamburgh Castle 74

2nd J Marshall Kinross 76

3rd K Paterson Kinross 76

4th J Barrett Muckhart 76

0 – 9 Handicap Section

1st T Wardrope Kinross 70

2nd P Sewell West Linton 71

3rd M Cook Elmwood 71

4th J Scougall Ballingry 71

10 – 18 Handicap Section

1st B Rodgers Craigiehill 64

2nd E Wood Kinross 66

3rd D Sharman Kinross 69

4th T Butter Kinross 69

Click Here to Enter

Become an instant hero with your friends, club mates or work colleagues when you arrange to bring them all here to Kinross for a great day’s golf over our lovely Montgomery & / or  Bruce courses. It is entirely up to you whether you play one round or two rounds during your outing – either way, there will be no green fees payable!  Based on our current Visitor Green Fees, this prize could be worth up to £1,392!!

The outing is obviously subject to availability but we will do our best to accommodate the winner’s preferred dates.  The outing must be held before 31st October 2011.

Entries for this Special Prize Draw close at midnight on Thursday 30th June 2011 and the winner be announced the following day on 1st July.

Click Here to Enter the Special Prize Draw to win the Free golf outing

On our website Home Page, we intend always to have at least one prize on offer in the scrolling banner at the top, together with any Special Offers that we have on the go at the time and so make certain that you check out www.golfkinross.com regularly to avoid missing out!

That’s right – all you have to do is pay for dinner, bed & breakfast in one of our two hotels and you can play as much golf as you like during your stay* on our two lovely 18 hole courses, The Montgomery and The Bruce COMPLETELY FREE!!. [* includes your day of arrival and departure].

In theory, you could stay for one night, enjoying dinner, bed & breakfast and play up to 4 rounds of golf (2 rounds on both your day of arrival and departure) for under £100 – and that is including a few drinks at the bar! On our website home page (www.golfkinross.com), we pose the question “Does Kinross offer the best Golfing Value in Scotland”? Surely now there can be no debate when you consider what we are offering!!

The Green Hotel (4*)            The Windlestrae Hotel (3*)
1st Night
Sunday - Friday                               £85                                                £75
*Saturday                                         £99                                                £89

Additional Nights – DB&B              £75                                                £65

Notes
• Prices are per person per night based on 2 people sharing a twin / double bed
• There is a Single Supplement of £20 per night for those wishing single occupancy
• Price includes a dinner allocation of £25 per person per day in any of the 4 restaurants / bars in the two hotels.
• These special Stay & Play Golf Packages must be booked and confirmed by Sunday 15th May 2011 and taken before 31st October 2011.  Subject to availability and valid for new bookings only.  *Saturday night stays have to be part of a minimum 2 night booking.
• This special promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers

You have to admit that this is one truly fantastic offer that you cannot let pass you by. Not only do you get to stay in one of our two lovely hotels with dinner & breakfast included but you also can play as much golf as you want on our two challenging 18 hole golf courses during your stay here in Kinross.  And if you still have energy to spare, you will enjoy complimentary membership of our Gravity Leisure Club, complete with indoor swimming pool and fully equipped gymnasium or enjoy live music at our very own live music venue, Backstage at The Green.

Please hurry because this offer is only available for a limited period and will end on Sunday 15th May – no bookings for this unlimited free golf offer can be accepted after that date.

In order to make your reservation, contact me, Wilma Hegarty, on 01577 863407 or email bookings@golfkinross.com

Alternatively, you can contact the hotels directly:

Telephone 01577 863467 or email reservations@green-hotel.com

Please quote “FACEBOOK PROMOTION” when you make your reservation

I look forward very much to hearing from you

Wilma Hegarty

This current winter however has been far more exciting. Just two days ago, a violent storm caused the old sycamore at the corner of the car park to come crashing down without warning. It smashed one of the gates at the entrance to the golf courses and narrowly missed the Pro Shop. Thankfully it happened at about 10pm so thankfully nobody was around or hurt in any way. We were returning from having supper in Jock’s Bar at the Green Hotel just minutes after it actually happened and found the road completely blocked – a lucky escape!

Round headstone on top of column comes to rest among the golf trollets!

Up until this latest ‘excitement’, this winter has been notable mainly because of the amount of time the two courses, The Montgomery and The Bruce, have lain hidden under a blanket of snow. During the last week of November, about 24″ of snow fell leaving Kinross looking like Narnia. It lasted all over Christmas and into the New Year. In fact it was only a sharp thaw only about a fortnight ago that saw areas of the greens, tees and fairways starting to re-emerge from the snow and ice. Lovely though the snow was, the novelty had definitely worn off by then. Thankfully, the greens look in good condition for this time of year and appear to have been unaffected by the prolongued arctic conditions. Now we just have to look forward to what we hope will be some nice, warm spring weather in the months ahead.

15th Hole on The Montgomery

11th Hole on The Montgomery

10th Hole on the Montgomery

8th Hole on The Montgomery

Over-reaction by the Head Greenkeeper??