Highly-rated Scottish course to stage first professional tournament in 2026

In the final piece of the jigsaw for the 2026 schedule, it has been added to the list of courses for this year’s Tartan Pro Tour, the circuit set up by Paul Lawrie and now a feeder tour for the HotelPlanner Tour.

The Southerness Classic, to be held on 25-27 May, will come after events at Royal Dornoch and Montrose before the circuit also heads to Portlethen, Newmachar, Cardrona, Blairgowrie, Downfield, Leven Links, Fairmont St Andrews, Spey Valley, St Andrews, Duddingston and Gleneagles.

In addition, the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre stages the Scottish Par 3 Championship, with two cards for the HotelPlanner Tour once again going to the leading players in the order of merit at the end of the season.

“It is the only professional event we have ever staged,” Ronnie MacNeillie, the club’s general manager, confirmed to The Scotsman. “Dumfries & Galloway have hosted a (PGA in Scotland Tartan Tour) pro-am for years and years and years, but we have never staged a professional tournament.”

It had been due to host a Tartan Tour event, the Southern Open, in the mid-1990s, but it was a casualty of local government re-organisation and the financial backing disappeared.

The Tartan Pro Tour event will come straight after the Scottish Women’s Amateur Championship, which starts on May 22 and also runs for three days. Shirley Lawson landed the title when it was first held at Southerness in 1988 before Megan Briggs was crowned as champion in 2009.

Three Scottish Men’s Amateur Championships have also been staged on the course, with David Carrick, Simon Mackenzie and Glenn Campbell claiming the prize in 1985, 1995 and 2005 respectively. In addition, it has also hosted the Scottish Boys’ Championship on two occasions, with Scott Henry landing that coveted title in 2004 before Michael Stewart followed in his footsteps four years later.

Course is ‘just classic’

“It’s exciting that we are also hosting the Scottish Women’s Championship this year,” added MacNeillie. “Scottish Golf asked us to do the Scottish Boys last year, but we were getting some renovations done and I just felt the course might not have been in good enough condition. But they came back straight away and asked if we wanted to host the Scottish Ladies’ Championship this year. So we are still on the rota.

“Golfers appreciate the course. I’ve played a lot of courses and quirk always seems to win the majority of the vote. Whereas Southerness is just classic; there is no quirk to it. Everything is in front of you and, even with the course changes that we have put in place, we have made sure there are no blind shots or nothing that isn’t in keeping with the rest of the course. We were quite adamant about that.”

Philip Mackenzie-Ross designed Southerness in 1947 and, though strategic bunker renovations and slight tweaks have been made over the years, some significant changes are now being made by Sam Cooper, who formerly worked for global firm Clayton, DeVries & Pont but now has his own business with Joe McDonnell.

“The 13th, 14th and 15th are being changed,” reported MacNeillie, who is clearly passionate about his workplace. “The 13th is going from a long par 4 down to the lighthouse to a shortened par 4 with a new green right on the waterfront. It will be a risk-and-reward hole at about 280 yards from the yellow and white tees.

“The 14th hole is completely new. It’s a 570-yard par 5 and is in a completely different direction to the existing par 5. At the 15th, we have moved the tee and it will play at a completely different angle into the green.

“There is excitement among the members - we have just over 620 at the moment, though, like many golf clubs, we have an ageing membership and Dumfries & Galloway doesn’t have a growing population - about the new holes.”

It ‘lacked variety on back nine’

It was widely felt by those who with the knowledge to say so that Southerness had the best collection of testing par 4s at around 400-450 yards on any course in Scotland. “They still do think that,” acknowledged MacNeillie, “However, each of the architects we got in to have a look at the course all felt the same - that there were too many similar holes and it was lacking variety on the back nine. Most members play off the yellow tees.”

The official opening of the new holes is pencilled in for 2028, though it is hoped that the members might get to try them out first next year. “It’s maybe a wee shame that the Tartan Pro Tour players won’t get to play the new holes in this event, but they might see them when they are here and feel they want to come back and play them one day,” said MacNeillie.