St. Andrews Castle Course Reviews
By Jeff Lancaster
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 seenâ€â€make that playedâ€â€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.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:06 am
I have now played this course three times; once out of curiosity, a second time to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming and a third time to see if they changed it much after its first winter.
The answer to the last question is, sadly, no.
I reviewed this course on another site – and I have never reviewed any other course ever, at least not unless I was being paid to do so in a magazine.
Yet this course annoys me so much that I feel compelled to write again.
The Links Trust claimed that the course was for locals to enjoy when the Old Course was clogged up – to escape the tourists. However, the only people that I have ever come across on the Castle are bemused American tourists who, generally, wonder why they are there and why they paid a ludicrous amount of money to be humiliated.
The tragedy is that, from tee to green the Castle is fantastic – the 100% (near enough) uneven lies can be lived with as an homage to pseudo links golf. However the greens are the result of designer ego running amok.
I noted that this year – despite much drier weather – the speed of the greens has been much reduced. This, at least, means that some putts can remain on the dancefloor…
Look at any of the great courses in Scotland and the greens will be challenging but relatively flat in the mai. The tricksy novelties of a Biarritz green, for example, are in stark contrast to the rest of the greens at North Berwick.
One mental green on a course is a talking point, 18 of them is a crime. At the Old Course the sweeping swales and hummocks are reduced by the sheer size of putting surface – just one double green has massive variations (7th and 11th), the rest offer subtle breaks that are tricky and enjoyable to combat.
At the Castle the greens are just plain stupid – impossible to putt sensibly on, hardly ever is an approach shot worth worrying about – wherever you go will leave you with a ‘Himalayas’ putt that is difficult (and oftentimes impossible) to stop within five feet. Following the ‘architect’s tips’ in the strokesaver was a laughable waste of time – it became a bit of fun as we were the only people on the course we were hitting four, five, sometimes six shots into greens and even the prescribed ‘architect’s tip’ resulted in the ball running right off the green or, at best, rolling some thirty feet past and leaving an impossible putt back.
Several key people on the project were ‘allegedly’ warned that the greens were too severe and would need rebuilding within a year or two but no notice was taken. It appears that arrogance ruled throughout the entire design and build at the Castle…
So if you want to go and have some amazingly silly and impossible putts in St Andrews, go play the Himalayas in town. It costs a pound fifty and is much more fun than the ridiculous Castle.
The Links Trust ought to take note that their course for locals is currently being played only by tourists and they will only play it once – so either dig this over to community allotments (there is a growing food crisis after all) or get a proper golf course architect to redesign the greens. Better yet get a good greenkeeper in to do the job for a fraction of the cost – such people built the Old Course greens after all.