Macdonald Cardrona Hotel, Golf & Country Club

What a great chamionship course, Fantastic location to saty over and play other coursers. Carpet fairwys, white fuffy sands, set in the tweed valley, spectacular panaramic veiws.

They have had problems with the greens last year with irregation failure but they are on the mend its only a matter of time now for them to be back to Championship standard.

I will be back later on in the year. Tough test of golf 7,000 yds lots of bunkers. Tough American undulating greens. This course is on the mend.

I returned to play this course to see if the devastation caused to the greens by the failure of the irrigation system was being addressed. The greens are far from perfect having been drilled but they are recovering albeit slowly, at least there is more green than brown now but the ball still has no chance of running true. The ground staff though seem to be putting in the effort to get the course back into the condition it used to be pre-Covid. The bunkers are also being renovated with evidence of recent works. I would give the course another couple of months of spring growth and hopefully with some further care the greens will at least be more grass than moss. The remainder of the course was in good condition. It needs the replacement of the signs at the end of the 8th hole for the directions to the 9th tee for visitors who don't know the course, as I met a threesome who had been wandering around for 10 minutes lost!! The replacement of signage on the tees for distances etc... would be welcome and a guide for the pin position ie. front, middle, back etc... but all in all it is good to be able to see some effort being made to restore the course. Once there is full time golf staff things can only get better.

The course was totally wasted with unplayable greens. All the grass was dead due to green staff incompetence. The areas of greens had been top sanded and seeded in an effort to repair with Hollowtinning also having been carried out. The general surfaces were exceptionally bumpy making it impossible to putt and as a four ball we simply played to the green and then walked to the next tee.

As a minor point the bunkers had not been raked and the area was exceptionally compacted.

Never in all my playing days have I come across greens that consisted of a mixture of rancid earth mould and very little grass more like weeds Bunker surrounds never been strimmed for ages A good stretch of the legs us the only good thing a can say about it Brian

I usually play this course multiple times in a year but less this year. The greens are an absolute disaster. The grass has suffered from severe die back owing a failure of the irrigation system. The surface is probably worse than an artillery firing range. The ball does not run true as it leaps and jumps across the surface. It is an absolute lottery and as putting is half the game, the price should reflect that OR there should be a clear warning that the greens are in extremely poor condition. They are recovering slowly compared with a couple weeks ago but still poor. Some of the bunkers need attention with a crop of weeds in evidence. Overall impression is that still lot of green keeping catchup to be done. The pace of play also extremely slow with corporate groups slowing progress. Just shy of 4.5 hours is ridiculous.

2nd time played this course however it’s the worst greens I’ve ever played on …..no grass just bumps and brown earth no sure what they done to the greens but absolutely terrible

Apart from the greens being bare no good condition at all the golf was ok

WORST GREENS IVE EVER SEEN PUTTING ON THE FAIRWAY WOULD HAVE BEEN AN IMPROVEMENT

The course is well set out, beautiful countryside, challenging

but the whole thing is let down by greens in dreadful condition

The course layout fairways and tees excellent but let down by terrible greens that have not recovered from the bad winter weather.

The bunkers were not raked and no rakes were available.

Having played this course a long time ago and all was good, I was very disappointed to find the condition of the course on this occasion. The greens were in a horrendous condition, it feels like the course has just been forgotten about and that there is not much maintenance goes into it. The bunkers hadn't been rakes and were full of weeds and grass.

I honestly would never play this course again or recommend this course to anyone.

The state of the greens absolutely ruined the days play, brown, dry and with cracks throughout. This really spoiled an otherwise nice course.

We also found it difficult to navigate the course as it was our 1st time playing and there was a real lack of signage showing the way to the next tee.

Unfortunately the greens are in shocking condition now due to lack of water/maintenance. So sad to see how much it has deteriorated.

Advertisement makes the course looks lovely, however anyone who plays this course will be very dissatisfied. The greens were brown and cracking, and felt like putting on concrete. The fairways also looked like they hadn’t been watered ever. All in all a bad experience and waste of money. Only saving grace was the staff were nice. 3/10

Wow Wow wow , If I wanted to putt on concrete , I would of gone to a car park , just wow.

Fantastic course which was let down by the green conditions. Once the greens are back in good order this will be faultless.

Hadn't played Cardrona for a long time but for £15 on a Fri I headed out.

You need to avoid rough here at all costs, if you can't hit it straight, better hitting a five iron than a wood.

Fairways good; greens?....well I'll come back to those.

This is a huge course and as far as I know there are currently only two, possibly three greenkeepers employed. I've experience in this field and would say the guys must be maxxed out. Quite a challenge tending a course this size with so few staff.

However, will cut some slack as every pennies a prisoner for the Hotel industry at the moment. Maybe if MacDonald hotels hadn't let their club membership die a death by a thousand cuts over several years they would be reaping the rewards that most other clubs are during Pandemic Pandemonium currently.

Back to the greens. I coped as I'm a decent putter but oh my, they are in a sorry state. Scorched, cracked, patchy( I'm not talking about my scalp)

The irrigation system is either out of use or in disrepair it seems; funding issues no doubt and the course really does need some rain. And it did lash it down when I was out.

I hadn't played the course for about five years and I must say I did enjoy it but for the pace of play. I was on foot and really taking my time, Playing "two ball better ball" because the groups in front were just sooooo slooooow. Even with buggies.

Hopefully will get back out when the course is a bit greener again

Having read quite a few scathing reviews I was a bit hesitant but never the less we thought we’d give it a go, and for £15 I couldn’t really complain.

Nice welcome from the golf pro, which started the day off nicely.

The greens aren’t in great condition but I believe all the green staff had been either furloughed or paid off so it’s gonna take a bit of work to get them back up to standard, they were perfectly playable though.

Fairways excellent and some stunning views throughout the round.

Held up a couple times but nothing too bad, and had the pleasure of welcoming a lone golfer along with us for the back 9 to save on anymore hold ups.

Make no mistake though, this is a challenging course for shorter hitters but I still enjoyed the challenge of trying to get a decent round going.

All in all, a perfectly nice day out on a decent enough course, with stunning views, I predict in a years time the greens will be fantastic but as it is now, I’d still recommend giving it a go and making the most of it.

Course played great , weather was outstanding, played link a link course with firm fairways and greens

Greens were very patchy and need watered with all the dry weather but overall value was outstanding for £20 , definitely be back