Stu, Alan and I played Papay (as the locals call it) as our second course of the Orkney’s after a short flight we arrive and upon asking the attendant at the airstrip we find that a, we cannot get a taxi as the driver is engaged doing another job and wont be available for another hour or so and b that the woman’s son actually cuts the golf course although she did not think he had done it for a while!

All that was left to do was walk it with out overnight bags and golf clubs.  The island is only 3.5 miles however we had to walk from one side to the other to the course, as luck would have it as we got nearer the course a local (who had been working at the airfield) gave us a lift the last few hundred yards to the course and had also drawn a map to allow us to navigate around the course (and boy did we need it!)

The course turned out to be worse than North Ronaldsay due to the lack of cut grass essential to play golf.  The first two holes were fine however without the aid of the map we would have struggled to find the 3rd green and the 4th, 5th and 6th holes.  The 7th, 8th and 9th were clearly marked however the lack of a cut fairway made these almost impossible to play.  It was clear that the greens had been cut a few weeks ago but the rest of the course you would have to say a couple of months ago.  It was a shame really as there is a really good course under the foliage on Papa Westray and coupled with the views could be a really good golf course.

The signature hole especially would have been the 4th over the edge of the beach a par 3 which we measured at approximately 172 yards.  The only hole we found unplayable was the par 3 5th over the road to the sort of bowl green.  The green turned out to be under about a foot of rough and therefore we conceded pars to each of us.

From measuring out the course ourselves due to a lack of scorecard we played the following course on the day measuring 1854 yards with a par of 30:

Hole 1 - 275 yards - par 4
Hole 2 - 167 yards - par 3
Hole 3 - 181 yards - par 3
Hole 4 - 172 yards - par 3
Hole 5 - 105 yards - par 3
Hole 6 - 115 yards - par 3
Hole 7 - 205 yards - par 3
Hole 8 - 304 yards - par 4
Hole 9 - 330 yards - par 4

The course proved really difficult to play and we had to enforce rules such as no penalty for lost balls and scoring ended up 32 for Craig and 43 for Stu and 37 for Alan.  Craig managed to get s 2 at the 4th over the beach hitting a great 6 iron to a few feet and actually holed the putt without a concession.  A birdie 3 at the last also helped keep the score down.  Stu also managed to get a dongo on his card albeit a concession due to the foliage on the green.

Papa Westray is still pretty remote but is more accessible than other islands, so we hope its little course has a future. But for that to happen, someone needs to have time to tend to its needs.

Click here to view the full Scorecard