Strathaven Golf Club

Strathaven Golf Club — to be distinguished from the South Lanarkshire Leisure pay-and-play park course also bearing the town's name — is a private members' club on the hillside above Strathaven, designed by Willie Fernie of Royal Troon and revised over the years by James Braid and Joe Anderson. The course has a quietly excellent reputation in west-central Scottish golf circles.

Par is 71 across 6,250 yards. The layout uses the hillside intelligently, with most holes either climbing or descending the contour, and only the closing two playing genuinely flat. The 6th, a long par 4 with a blind tee shot to a fairway dropping into a valley, is the standout. The 12th and 17th are the others worth mentioning.

Visitor fees of £55–£75 are reasonable for a course of this quality, conditioning and pedigree. The clubhouse is solid stone, fire-warmed in winter, with a kitchen serving lunch until mid-afternoon. Strathaven is 25 minutes south of Glasgow on the M74; for visitors who want a serious parkland test without driving to Perthshire or Ayrshire, it's the obvious answer.