[Marty Bonnar]

Doctor, I find myself becoming massively conflicted by and about Kingsbarns.

Day after day, I accompany golfers of widely differing backgrounds and abilities who, to a man (and woman), are enthused and excited by it's obvious visual, aural and olfactory charms.

They LOVE the green complexes, driveable par 4s, tight lies and sweeping fescue roughs, deep bunkers, double and triple-breaking putts, the location, the constant proximity of the sea, the Par 3 collection, the 12th Hole!, etc, etc, etc (I could go on and on).

Some of them even think it is OLD! When they are informed of its true age they are either dubious, incredulous or dumbstruck!

What causes the cranial discomfort for me is:
Is this course a 'Links Pastiche'?
Is this course a 'Links Homage'?
Is this course even a 'Links'!?

Please don't get me wrong...I LOVE this place, it is MAGNIFICENT, but I GENUINELY don't know WHAT TO MAKE OF IT.

Can you recommend a course (excuse the pun!) of treatment or should I just go Cold Turkey?

Yours hopefully,
The FBD.

[James Edwards]

Martin, sorry to hear about your problem, is it contagious? - hope you get better soon!

Quite simply, it doesnt feel like a links to me... but I love the place all the same.

[Marty Bonnar]

James,
I think(?) I tend to agree with you, but (and this a bootilicious but of J-Loean proportions!) this place looks (mostly) like a Links, it smells (mostly) like a Links and acts (mostly) like a Links. Does this give it membership of the Links brotherhood? Maybe even only an Honorary membership???

My frontal lobes are melting.....

FBD

[John_Cullum]

"Links Pastiche"??

[ForkaB]

Martin

It is a links, even though only recently restored from two centuries of agricultural abuse and neglect.

Now take two aspirin, wash them down with a half-bottle of Macallan, and call me in the morning.

PS--the 12th hole is OK, but it forces the highly mediocre 13th and 14th on us, and all 3 are out of character.  The course would be better off without it, IMHO of course....

[Marty Bonnar]

"Links Pastiche"??

John,
Have you ever walked down the same street a couple of hundred times, but always on the same side? Then one day, for some reason you walk on the other side and see a whole new perspective...

This is how Kingsbarns seems. It has all the requisite ingredients to make a perfectly good 'Links Pie', but there is something I can't quite put my finger on, which is strangely 'unsettling'. There's a certain hyper-reality to the course which is almost theatrical. It's like you're playing a filmset of a Links. Odd, yet compelling.

Martin

It is a links, even though only recently restored from two centuries of agricultural abuse and neglect.

Now take two aspirin, wash them down with a half-bottle of Macallan, and call me in the morning.

PS--the 12th hole is OK, but it forces the highly mediocre 13th and 14th on us, and all 3 are out of character.  The course would be better off without it, IMHO of course....

Once again, Monsewer Ricard,
You cut to the crux with surgical precision. I like the Macallan thought particularly!

Re the 12th though. You are in a minority of one there, I'm afraid. The unversal reaction on the view upon cresting the rise to the 12th tee is: Ooerr, Cor, Lumme, I say!, Ooluvaduck, Greatgoshalmighty (or whichever the vernacular of the tongue may be).

And as for 14. Tell my man yesterday who drove (downwind) the 307 yards to the green to about 8 feet that that hole is 'mediocre' and you'd have a good argument (he was a NY Lawyer!)

Luv
FBD.

[ForkaB]

I know I'm in a minority of one, Martin re: 12, and I like it!

PS--I made the same comment to one of the owners after first playing the course and he has refused to speak to me ever since!

PS--hope your NY lawyer gave you a little something, you know, for the effort, you know and it was more than just total consciousness, since you already have that going for you......

[John_Cullum]

Seriously Martin, if you like the course, the why on earth should it matter if it is a links course by some not so universally accepted definition. I have not played the course, but I played Royal Lytham & St. Annes and I liked it. I have never spent time pondering whether something is odd because it is not a seaside links. Sometimes the architectural elements of golf courses is overdramatized. Just go with it man.

[Tom_Doak]

Martin,

I've always felt the same way about Turnberry.  Excellent course - definitely.  Links - yes, kind of.  Actually, Kingsbarns plays more like a links than the Ailsa, thanks to the cleverly crafted undulations of the fairways.

[Marty Bonnar]

Sometimes the architectural elements of golf courses is overdramatized. Just go with it man.

John,
These words are far too sensible (not to mention a tad Heretical!) for a Group such as this. Please award yourself a gold star and take the rest of the day off work!

Martin,

I've always felt the same way about Turnberry.  Excellent course - definitely.  Links - yes, kind of.  Actually, Kingsbarns plays more like a links than the Ailsa, thanks to the cleverly crafted undulations of the fairways.

Tom,
Couldn't agree more re Turnberry. Those inland-ish holes disappointed me slightly but are more than compensated for by the seaside ones.
Have you noticed, there's also more than a hint of Turnberry's #16 in the design of Kingsbarns #18....

FBD.

[Mike_Sweeney]

Can you recommend a course (excuse the pun!) of treatment or should I just go Cold Turkey?

FBD,

You had no confusion in The States. Get back to having a cold one before the 1st tee  :

[Marty Bonnar]

Mike,
If I remember correctly - and I can't be really conclusive here - too many of those 'cold ones' also makes my Brain hurt.....

One of my golfing buddies is actually heading for a villa on that course this very week.

Happy memories, mate. Get your butt over here soon!

MB.

PS What time do you get up in the morning!?!?!?!?! It's gotta be like 5am there???

[James Edwards]

Martin, your opening two paragraphs in reply #5 was extremely well constructed and I have to agree with your sentiment about the theatre and the walking down the road scenario....  

I know what you are trying to say, and I know it is not a criticism of the course, in fact it may be a compliment, but there is something different about playing the modern day links type course and the old classic links, dont you think?  Yes, I know people will reply with, of course James, theres 100 years of difference and different construction techniques and grass types etc blah blah.....  All the same, I enjoy what it is and what it is trying to be...

The course is an amazing achievement and I have been fortunate enough to see the construction photographs as well as seeing the course in person, so I know what has happened as Richard said, to that neglected piece of land.

I enjoyed the experience greatly and maybe its just a new type of course trying to barge its way into the types of course that can be constructed - My definition would be 'The Modern Day Links'  

[Marty Bonnar]

Thanks James,
Good to know I'm not the only nutter around here

Thought fellow GCAers might be interested to see a pre-construction shot. This is a view back along what is now the 16th. Anyone who has seen the course will quickly realise the AMOUNT of sand that was moved (does Brian remember the amount?) during construction! FLAT, isn't it!?!? (Even the 'natural' dune ridge now on the left is man-made!) I think you can also just make out the change in elevation on the right side which was about the only topographic feature that existed pre-construction.



FBD.

[Brian Phillips]

James and Martin,

What will a person in 50 years time think of Kingsbarns?  Will it still be called a modern day links?

When I take my son or daughter there in 20 years time will they be able to notice that it was a man made golf course?

I doubt it.  I doubt many of us could go on that site and know which dunes Mick McShane shaped and which were left over the winter to shape themselves.

How much of that course is natural weathering and how much of it is shaped by the genius of the team that was there is difficult to tell in some places and very easy in others.

400 000 m3 of earthmoving was involved to create the place.

It is the sort of engineering that I don't like to nit pick.  It is the sort of architecture that if it was my last piece of design, I would retire a happy man.

For me it is an inspiration and it doesn't matter if it is links or not links...it is what it is, a damn fine design.  I will only not pick the day I am confident I could do it better and at present I am not and look up to Kyle Phillips and the team and congratulate them.  It is the sort of golf course that could not be created by accurate contour drawings in an office, it was created on site by the architect and the team.

It will never ever be perfect and I hope it never is, but no other course is, not even Pine Valley.

Kingsbarns....to me is next level of design that I may never achieve.

Brian Phillips.

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