Duff House Royal

The verdict

Duff House Royal is a quiet treasure: a parkland course at Banff carrying the design fingerprints of Dr Alister MacKenzie, the architect of Augusta National and Cypress Point. With his brother Major C.A. MacKenzie he redesigned the layout in 1923, and the course remains a fine and accessible example of his thinking, most obviously in the large, boldly contoured two-tier greens that define play here. It is a par 68 of around 6,043 yards on flat coastal ground beside the River Deveron, and it asks far more searching questions than its modest length suggests.

For the traveling golfer this is a smart and rewarding stop on the Aberdeenshire and Moray coast, a chance to play genuine MacKenzie greens at a country club price. The flat terrain makes for an easy walk, but the famous tiered greens demand precise approach play and a deft putting touch, and the Deveron lurks on several holes to punish the wayward. Play it on a northeast coastal trip alongside the great links of the region, and enjoy a course where one of the game's greatest architects left his mark in a beautiful and unhurried setting.

The holes worth the trip

Duff House Royal is all about the greens. MacKenzie laid out large putting surfaces with pronounced two tier shaping, most famously on the second, fourth, twelfth and eighteenth, so that an approach finishing on the wrong level can leave a treacherous putt across a step. The fairways are flat and generous, which lulls the unwary, but the scoring is decided on and around these surfaces, where club selection and distance control matter far more than power.

The other defining feature is the River Deveron, which bounds the course and comes into play as a genuine hazard on the seventh, sixteenth and seventeenth, demanding respect from the tee and on the approach. Between the river and the greens, the course rewards the thoughtful golfer who plays to the correct tier, leaves the ball below the hole and resists the temptation to attack flags tucked behind a step. At a par of 68 the card looks gentle, but a poor day on the greens can run the score away quickly.

What stays with you is the chance to read MacKenzie's mind on a course you can simply turn up and play. The bold green contours that made his championship layouts famous are here in miniature, in a friendly coastal setting at a fraction of the fame and the fee. For the architecture minded traveler it is a real find, and for everyone it is an enjoyable, walkable and characterful round on the Aberdeenshire coast.

Where to stay nearby

Banff and the neighboring town of Macduff offer hotels, inns and guest houses by the coast, and the wider Aberdeenshire and Moray seaboard is rich in fishing villages, distilleries and beaches. It makes a relaxed and scenic base, with Aberdeen and its full range of accommodation around an hour to the southeast for a championship links day.

Duff House Royal is best played as the architecture lover's round of a northeast circuit. The natural pairings are the great links of Aberdeen, the championship test of Royal Aberdeen Balgownie and its neighbor Murcar Links, with the dramatic dunes of Cruden Bay completing a memorable few days on the coast.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around the Aberdeenshire and Moray coast.