Cairngorm Gin Summer Scramble

Macdonald Spey Valley Championship Golf Course

Highland, Scotland

Macdonald Spey Valley Championship Golf Course is an 18-hole heathland layout situated at the Macdonald Aviemore Highland Resort within the Cairngorms National Park in Inverness-shire. The course was designed by Dave Thomas and opened in July 2006, set across nearly 300 acres of rolling Highland countryside. It plays to a par of 72 over 7,118 yards from the back tees, with multiple teeing options reducing the course to around 6,600 yards from the middle tees and approximately 5,900 yards from the forward tees. The routing follows an old-fashioned out-and-back structure, with the River Spey running alongside several holes and silver birch woodland framing the majority of fairways. The course sits against a backdrop of the Cairngorm mountains, with heather and gorse lining many fairways and elevated tees used on most holes. Thomas's trademark bunkering is prominent throughout, with hazards positioned to threaten both tee shots and approaches. Water comes into play on several occasions, most notably at the par-three 6th, where the tee shot must carry a lake that has become a nesting site for a bird colony. The par-five 5th is the course's signature hole and its most discussed feature, measuring 635 yards from the back tees and claimed to be the longest hole in Scotland. The 12th begins the inward stretch where the Spey Valley opens into a particularly dramatic Highland landscape, and the closing 18th, played beside the River Spey, requires a tee shot over an out-of-bounds boundary. The course served as host venue for the European Challenge Tour's Scottish Hydro Challenge from 2009 to 2018, establishing it as one of Scotland's more significant inland tournament venues in its relatively short history. During the Challenge Tour events, Brooks Koepka set the course record with a round of 62. The course has also received recognition from Your Golfer Magazine as Scottish Highlands Golf Course of the Year 2018.