Drumoig “golfing village” is the creation of Alan Torbet and Douglas Smith, founders of Torith, a Dundee based company specializing in civil engineering, construction and property development projects in the Tayside and Fife area.
Built on a Greenfield site in 1996, Drumoig consists of, apart from a championship 18-hole golf course, a hotel, luxury housing and a driving range that was once the Scottish National Golf Centre. The Scottish Golf Union still has its headquarters here but they plan to move to the nearby St Andrews Duke’s course in 2007.
The SNGC, with state-of-the-art teaching, coaching and practice facilities, including an indoor practice area and a gymnasium plus fitness room was built at a cost of over ₤4 million in 1999 but closed just four years later when it failed as a business and, under the lease terms, reverted to the landowner, Torith. Much has been written about that situation but this is not the time or the place – suffice to say the Scottish Golf Union did not exactly cover itself in glory over the project!
Drumoig is located in attractive, rolling countryside in the north east corner of Fife and is probably best accessed via the Tay Bridge, four miles to the north. St Andrews, the “home of golf” is only 15 minutes away by car to the south.
Like the St Andrews Bay courses on the other side of “the auld grey toon” some may have questioned the wisdom of locating yet another golf course in the vicinity when it seemed well enough endowed with such facilities. However, like the Torrance and Devlin courses, Drumoig has proved to be a more than worthy addition to the golfing scene in Fife.
The course is laid out in two hundred acres that stretches to 6,835 yards from the back tees. Water is a hazard on three of the holes, with two greens located in old whinstone quarries. Drumoig is maturing very nicely after more than ten years in operation and its reputation as a well-manicured layout continues to grow with every passing season.
The scorecard is rather lop sided with the front nine containing a string of punishing, long par fours and par fives, taking the total yardage to 3,809 yards with a par of 37. The inward half is nearly 800 yards shorter – at 3,026 yards with a par of 35 – and has a rather unique configuration of alternating par threes and par fives over the last five holes, ending with the 220-yard, par three 18th hole, named “Tussocks.”