I played Castle Stuart and Dornoch back to back on two supernaturally beautiful November days a couple of weeks ago. Both courses were deserted (actually, Dornoch had two groups on it, Castle Stuart none). The ground conditions were remarkably similar (excellent for the time of year), still pretty firm. I'm a sceptic when it comes to new links course developments, but I think one would have to be churlish not to admit that CS and Dornoch can be discussed in the same breath. The hugely enjoyable greens are obviously inspired by Dornoch, elevated and quirky and demanding to get onto, but manageable to putt on. And the settings – not surprisingly given their proxmimy - are not dissimilar, a mixture of some holes hugging the water's edge and others high up overlooking the course below.
The tee-shots, with their abnormal width, are, however, more Kingsbarns. But I felt the options of where to drive it were at least more real than illusory (not sure if that is as true at KB). Despite the width there was definitely some premium on placement. The risk reward ratios are perhaps a little too repetitive and precise (you can sort of feel the architect m saying, OK, there should be a 60% benefit for hitting it to the left side of the fairway, but it should be 45% more dangerous), and likewise, on approach shots, it seems to me there were quite a lot of holes where the safe play was more or less the same, sliding the ball off a subtle or not so subtle bank on one side of the green or the other to avoid the more severe trouble on the other side.
I found it a more satisfying track than Kingsbarns - the holes were just a little less theatrical, more intimate, a little more traditional even. And putting the most spectacular 3 holes along the ocean at the very beginning of the round is, suprisingly enough, fantastic. Just puts you in a great frame of mind. And I was charmed by the little par 3 8th, which requires a bouncy downhill shot through natural seeming contours to a punchbowl green (Dornoch surprises with a sunken green on the front side as well) The green proper is hidden by the slightly raised undulations just in front, so the flag looks as if it is just stuck in a field. I'm sure there have been dozens of raw holes similar to it over time, on both links and inland courses, and it just just harkens back to golf before bulldozers, but very nicely done indeed. A brave hole, I thought, on a course which by its nature is meant to visually spectacular.
Ultimately, I do believe the much vaunted width on CS lets it down. It seemed to me that almost all tee shots were even more foregiving than they seemed visually (and few look that dangerous), with subtle raised areas on the side of fairways to help the ball bounce back into play and away from the ocean and gorse (can a great course be so relentlessly friendly off the tee?) It also means that unless you regularly putt for eagle, the par 5s are relatively uninteresting until you get 80 yards from the green.
But a stirring and spectacular and hugely fun place to play. After playing the two courses on consecutive days, I wasn't sure I could think of a course more like Dornoch than CS in Scotland, even though, paradoxically, CS is far more like Kingsbarns.