Castle Stuart Golf Links is celebrating five remarkable years since opening on the shores of the Moray Firth.
And to mark the milestone – which saw the course host the Scottish Open for the past three years – the management is celebrating with a dram.
It has teamed up with Tomatin Distillery to create a limited edition Castle Stuart Links Highland single malt whisky.
The club is releasing a maximum of 340 uniquely numbered bottles, presented in their own wooden cases, for £95, plus postage and packaging.
As an indication of the growing trend for investment in rare whisky, more than 200 bottles have already been snapped up by collectors and golfing enthusiasts from across the UK and as far afield as the USA, Switzerland, Sweden and Jersey.
Castle Stuart Golf Links sales and marketing director Fraser Cromarty said: “We have had an amazing first five years and thought it would be an ideal way to mark this milestone with a Highland dram.”
The spectacular links course near Inverness, which has commanding views over the Moray Firth and beyond to Ben Wyvis, made an immediate impact with Golf Magazine, which placed it at number 56 in the world list and named it as top new international course.
In 2011, it hosted the first European Tour event in the Highlands when the Scottish Open, then sponsored by Barclays, was brought north.
The spectacular scenery offered the perfect backdrop to showcase the event and the course to a worldwide television audience.
Golf superstars, including major winners Phil Mickelson, Paul Lawrie and Padraig Harrington have spoken in glowing terms about Castle Stuart.
Mickelson played in all three Scottish Open events held at Castle Stuart Links and won the 2013 event, sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management, a week before his victory at The Open at Muirfield.
He said of the course: “It should almost be a pre- requisite to play Castle Stuart before you’re allowed to design golf courses nowadays.”
Castle Stuart Golf Links is part of Highland Golf Links, a partnership body set up to promote premium Stay and Play golf packages in the Highlands.
The group also includes Royal Dornoch Golf Club, the Nairn Golf Club, the Kingsmills Hotel and Culloden House Hotel in Inverness; the Royal Golf Hotel at Royal Dornoch and the Golf View Hotel and Spa in Nairn.