Maybe it's because everyone who has visited the Auld Gray Toon feels like it's a part of them. Or maybe it's simply the unique nature of this project. People remember the hype when the Jubilee Course was created (it's adjacent to the Old and New Courses) and had its official opening in 1989, just after the Ryder Cup, with Curtis Strange hitting the ceremonial first tee shot (he was in town to compete for the U.S team in the Dunhill Cup).
The Jubilee paled badly next to the Old and the New. It was something of a disappointment. This No. 7 course can't afford that. The land, in a country that is predominantly rural and agricultural, is simply too precious.
"You rarely ever get golf developments in the United Kingdom," Kidd said. "The planners don't like that. They want to keep the building development within the town and stop urban sprawl. In that sense, No. 7 is a wonderful thing because it will stop any further development out along that coastline. As soon as we finish it, it reverts to public ownership. So you can go out on that land, plop down and have a proper picnic, same as you can do at the Old Course.
"People here just don't like change. It's hard to understand. We're still suffering fallout from the locals who say, 'I'll never cross the door of that golf course.' They pay 113 pounds (approximately $197) a year to play all these courses, now you'll get another course free. If you like to play it, great. If you don't want to play it, you don't have to pay a single thing, ever. They didn't want it at first, it was the strangest thing. There can't be many towns in the world like that."
The good news is, they're going to want to play it. The chances are very good that No. 7 is going to be spectacular. even though Kidd faces two significant obstacles -- his total project budget is $4 million (a pittance in today's modern golf design circles) and he's working in a clay-based site (not sand-based, as many oceanside links are), which requires additional drainage costs.
The clubhouse alone will be worth the visit. It will be situated on a promontory overlooking the ocean. "You'll literally have about a 220-degree panorama of the water from the clubhouse," Kidd says. "People will be talking about that."
The ninth and 18th holes will share a double green near the clubhouse, again, a potentially spectacular setting. The 17th is sure to be the signature hole. It's a par 3 across a yawning chasm on the oceanside cliffs, with a dramatic look that may remind you of the par-4 eighth at Pebble Beach or the par-3 third hole at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
"It's 170 yards across and one side of the chasm is 30 feet higher than the other," Kidd said. "It's dramatic. You couldn't build a better par 3."
The ninth, 16th, 17th and 18th holes have already been shaped. "Those are the killer holes right on the water," Kidd said. The course will be links-like. "The routing revealed itself, really, and became obvious," he said. "The point on the water had to be the focal point and dictated the routing. The clubhouse went on the point. You want to play in two directions along the water and you had to come to that point on the closing holes for both nines. Once you've done that, the chasm had to be a par 3 and then -- click, click, click, it all fell into place."
Kidd hopes to offer something a little different from two nearby tracks it will obviously be compared to -- Kingsbarns and St. Andrews Bay's Torrance Course.
"Kingsbarns could be the best modern golf course ever, bar none, architecturally," Kidd said. "That's because it was originally potato fields. At Bandon Dunes, any architect with half a brain could've done a good job but Kingsbarns is a huge leap from what it was to what it is now. The Torrance Course, a linksy style course, was a massive earthworks project. Kingsbarns and its flat fairways, I think we can do something different. Traditional pot bunkers, I think we can do something different.
I'm not good at subtlety. If I can squeeze one more ounce of thrill ride in, I will."
The style Kidd is going for is wild.
"I'm not good at subtlety," he said. "If I can squeeze one more ounce of thrill ride in, I will. We want to take people's breath away."
For that reason, some of the small piles of earth currently resting in and adjacent to the planned fairways will stay right where they are. When they're covered with tall grass or fescue or gorse or whatever, Kidd sees them as being the equivalent of bunkers.
"I think the course is going to be dramatic," Kidd said.
There is little doubt about that.