All the best for the holidays from us here at OntGolf.ca.

We’ll be adding some new features to the site over the holidays so we hope you come back in the new year to check it out.

Enjoy and see you in 2009!

T&L Golf published an interesting review of the new Castle Course – the 7th course owned by the links trust in St. Andrews.

David McLay Kidd won the coveted design commission to build a seventh course at St. Andrews and was soon beset by fears that the links he produced would bore people. “I hammered that point into my mind,” the Scotsman recently admitted. “Lived by it, and repeated the sentiment like an army drill to my team.” They got the message. Kidd’s shapers transformed every inch of a derelict 220-acre potato farm on the outskirts of town into the Castle Course, a faux links with features so wild they seem to move before your eyes. Tumbling, hazard-studded fairways make every tee shot an adventure. The greens have to be seen—make that played—to be believed.

Sounds like golfers won’t be disappointed. Though it is described to be quite difficult, the stunning piece of land on the Fife coast and the great routing seem to make up for the difficulty.

The UK’s Today’s Golfer had a great sneak peak of the Castle Course with a video tour and photos. Check it out.

One of the most revered courses in Scotland is none other than the Championship Course at Carnoustie. Memories of Hogan’s Alley, Jean Van de Velde and horrific weather have become the hallmark of this place. We had the opportunity to pay a visit on our first day after leaving St. Andrews.

All in all we had a great day at Carnoustie with relatively benign weather (up until we hit 16th hole at least). It was easy to see how this course would be uber difficult on a bad weather day, but with its straight-forward approach it was easy to see how some golfers come away slightly disappointed with this one, expecially given its lofty reputation.

A wonderful day (I shot a good score too which helped) – I felt it was a great course and I enjoyed it immensely. Here is a look:

Ahhh, the mother of them all – the Old Course at St. Andrews.

We were fortunate to play the Old Course at St. Andrews twice on our trip – and it was well worth the wait. It was even more fun the second time once we knew some of the nuances of the course (left is safe). The weather that we got was pretty good. A little breezy and a touch of rain, but all in all it was quite acceptable.

Here is a quick look:

Upon arriving in St. Andrews the first thing we did was make a turn to have a quick peak over the St. Andrews links. This truly felt like higher ground and we could feel the aura eminating from all corners.

A fabulous seaside links, Western Gailes was one of our favourites from the entire rotation of courses we played. Hard and fast fairways winding around fabulous dune complexes and tricky greens surrounded by a myriad of sod-walled bunkers. Plus a great view looking out at the Isle of Arran (with Troon in the distance as well). Wonderful course.

The old course at Prestwick was one of the original Scottish courses and hosted the very first Open Championships in 1860. A very interesting, wonderfully quirky course.

We didn’t play any of the Turnberry courses while on our trip but we did take the opportunity to drive down and check out the clubhouse and the surroundings. Very cute little town and we came away especially impressed with the historical artifacts and photos displayed in the clubhouse, some wonderful stuff from Open Championships gone by (Greg Norman, Nick Price, dual in the sun with Tom Watson/Jack Nicklaus).

Here are some photos:

The town of Prestwick proved to be a great place to use a base as we explored the Southern Ayrshire coast of Scotland, with easy access to the Gailes courses, Troon, Turnberry and Prestwick. The old course at Prestwick has a number of great hotels right across the street including the North Beach Hotel (see photos below from our room at the North Beach) and the Old Course Hotel.

One thing we found very surprising was how late the sun set in June in Scotland. These photos were taken at around 11pm.

A lovely club just across the road from Western Gailes, Glasgow Gailes was a challenging course with any extra generous helping of pot bunkers and heather. A great place for us to get started after an exhausting flight over earlier in the day.

Glasgow Gailes was a relatively flat course but was a quick to punish a wayward drive with generous helpings of heather in rough lining the fairways…welcome to Scotland!