St. Andrews Links - The Castle Course Review

Course Review and Comments

Play it whilst you can! This course will have to be drastically redesigned if it is to be a viable moneyspinner for the St Andrews Links Trust, because it is just too damn hard - a bit like the Jubilee course was ten years ago, which was eased considerably because no-one local would play it.

This course is an example of golf architecture beyond the limits of what is fair. Consider this - you have a blind tee shot, to a tight fairway and you blast a perfect drive, 270 yards down the middle, into an unplayable lie! Some idiot thinks that it is reasonable to have patches of long grass as features in the centre of the fairway, so you get penalised for hitting the ball straight down the middle.

The only thing missing is a laughing clown's head and a windmill on the putting greens. This really is crazy golf on a full length course.

There comes a point where a course is so brutal that the game ceases to be fun, and this course goes way beyond that point. Any ball hit into the rough is a GUARANTEED lost ball. The rough is all thigh-length thick, long grass. Penal doesn't even describe it.

I played with a group of friends who all play off single-figure handicaps and the best score was a 90, and this was on a calm day.

The positives - greens, whilst overcontoured, did putt true and the driving range was excellent. Otherwise you're better off spending less money playing the New Course in St Andrews, the best course there by far.