Pictures of Castle Course on GAP

[Frank Pont]

While I was over in Scotland the last two weeks working at Cruden Bay I took the time to head down to St. Andrews and walk the Castle Course. Made a lot of pics of the course, and ofcourse esspecially of the wild greens. Enjoy!

http://www.golfarchitecturepictures.com/Web%20Galleries/Scotland/St.Andrews%20Castle/index.html

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Kidd is clearly developing his own style.

After seeing the photos and having played Tetherow recently, Kidds designs have a very similar look in two very different environments.  I look forward to hearing whether the Castle Course is as demanding visualy and intellectually as Tetherow.  And as a result of those demands whether players feel it is an addition that will provide an exciting and viable alternative for play in St Andrews.

Thanks for the link.

[Tom_Doak]

Frank:

That's a lot of pictures!

There is one green that looks really bizarre -- protruding high front deck, falling sharply away to the sides and behind a mound at the back right -- wish I knew what hole it is.

I like a lot of the contouring of the little bits.

I'm curious what people think of the big-white-sand bunkers in the otherwise linksy setting.  It's kind of an odd combination ... though I understand he was trying to do something different.

[Scott Macpherson]

HI Frank,

Thanks for posting photos ( I will look at them later).

Tom, from your description, I think you are talking about the 12th green. I'm told it is the highest point on the course (though the 13th must be close). Hitting a shot on to the front of the green is all but impossible, except with luck. Laying up is not good, because the front section of the green rolls away from you, and over the right side puts you down onto a maintenance path. The prevailing wind is off the right, and maybe slightly helping. I have not figured out how to play this  dog-leg left hole yet (in two attempts).

I am glad this course has come to the mecca of golf that is St Andrews, because it has definitely widened the spectrum of golf course variety. But while they have called it the 'Castle' course, some may suggest the 'Bouncy Castle' is a better name. If my cards are on the table, I think a few alterations to the course would make this course enjoyed but a much wider group of golfers.

[Tom_Doak]

Scott:

I don't think it's the twelfth, because that's one of the only holes that was shaped when I was given a tour 2 1/2 years ago.  The one I was trying to describe doesn't look like an uphill approach, in the pictures anyway.

[Scott Macpherson]

OK Tom,

I'll take a second strike at it. You may be talking about the Par 3, 3rd. Also an almost impossible hole. First time I played it I hit played it from the back tees, about 200y with the prevailing wind slightly hurting off the left. I hit a good shot on target, but the wind got it and after hitting the front of the raised green, it kicked hard right into, what was then, long tangly rough.

Second time played it from about 175y, the flag was on the right side. light breeze off the left. My ball was online, hit the green, kicked right, ran off the green, up a hillock on the right and back onto the green to about 10 feet. (Made the putt). But both time I felt I hit good shots but the result was more due to luck than any skill on my part.

With the raised green, bunker protecting the small left hand part of the green and a deep catch area over the green, I don't think know if even Sergio could hit the left side of the green (and hold the putting surface), but I could be wrong.

What I found stranger about this hole however is a weird rough hill about 20 or 30y short of the green so  the option of running it up has all but been eliminated. I hope that know gets removed or at least shaved.

scott

 

[RJ_Daley]

Mr. Pont and his contributors are putting out the best architectural pictures on the web, IMHO.  Along the same theme as I had pointed out on the most recent thread about photos of Sand Hills, from the courses that Mr Pont and friends have posted that I have played, they have done very representative work in displaying the courses as you see them, and most of the photo journey's on his site are multiple scenes of the courses that you encounter as you play them, and look about in varying directions. 

As to these photos of the architecture at the Castle Course, it seems to me that we need to come up with a new sort of term for the many chocolate drop-like features, that aren't exactly drops but sort of inverted bunkers or abrupt hummocks with some native and backside FW turf.   Mr. Kidd seems to have definintely carved out a distinctive styling that if he incorporates it at many more of his future courses, will certainly identify his work rather unmistakably. 

Does anyone else see Mr. Kidd's work as readily 'different' that other native links-dunes bunkering and feature shaping styling? 

BTW, if Mr Pont is able to address this question:  I tried in the usual way to capture a few of his photos by right clicking and then bringing up the "properties" selection to copy the internet address of the jpg that the photo is posted on the internet within.  But, all I get is an Adobe Flash 9 selection and no way to bring the picture back into my post in order to demonstrate and point out specific things on various individual photos.  Is there a way to do so that is similar to using the "properties" and copy address of jpg to then post with the [img] format?

[JSlonis]

I'm curious what people think of the big-white-sand bunkers in the otherwise linksy setting.  It's kind of an odd combination ... though I understand he was trying to do something different.

That was the first feature that stuck out to me.  I guess I'm just so used to seeing the rounded riveted faced bunkers in this type of setting that anything other than that looks a bit out of place. 

All in all, it looks like an interesting place to play.

[TEPaul]

Those photos look interesting to me---they make me want to go play the course to see what that's like. I like those little edgy/ridgy mounds here and there, even in the middle, that have Bert Simpson hairdos and such.

Also two or three or so of those greens have more going in with overall shape and slopes and contours and little individual sections than I think I've ever seen anywhere.

[Jeff_Mingay]

I agree with Mr. Daley. Frank's GolfArchitecturePictures.com is a very cool web site.

My hat's off to Frank and the other contributors for providing this excellent resource.

Frank's photos make me anxious to get back to Scotland -- at least in part -- for a look at the Castle course, in person. It looks like a difficult layout to judge from images alone.

[Jim Colton]

I'm not a huge fan of the bright white bunkers, but those greens look like a lot of fun.

[Darren_Kilfara]

Frank, is there any way you could label all of those photos in some form or fashion? Your site has the potential to be an amazing resource, but I have stopped visiting it because for all of the photos on the site I don't know what I'm looking at (apart from which course you're talking about, of course). Ideally you'd be able to match each photo to a hole number - "7th hole, photo #1", etc. - but even if they were simply labelled numerically, Tom could have cited that number in referencing the photo so we could tell him which one it was without having to look through literally hundreds of photos. (The site would actually be more useful to me if there were only 2-3 pictures of each hole on a course, as it'd be easier to tell where one hole ended and another began...at the moment, the site is just full of data that doesn't really tell me anything, if you follow me.) Just a few thoughts - hopefully helpful ones!

Anyway, I posted my review of the Castle Course here a few weeks ago. I can't say the color of the bunker sand struck me as being unusual, although I don't think I was in a bunker all day, so perhaps I'm not the best judge on that score. The fairways are all very wide, so the long-haired mounding doesn't come into play as much as you might think; a good player should be able to steer well clear of the mounds, even the ones that appear to be in the center of the fairway. And the greens are wonderful - so much fun to play, many reminding me of the better greens at Machrihanish (like the 2nd, 6th and 12th). It's well worth a visit...it's in the same class as Kingsbarns, I think, but even though both courses have similar origins, they play and feel much different to one another.

Cheers,
Darren

[Frank Pont]

Mr Daley, you can get access to the HTML version of the slideshow by adding _html to every address on the site.
So for the Castle Course site the address would be:

http://www.golfarchitecturepictures.com/Web%20Galleries/Scotland/St.Andrews%20Castle/index_html.html

Here you can also see which number the pictures have (eg 034), which makes communicating easier.

Darren, sorry you have stopped visiting the GAP site. I understand your suggestions, but honestly do not have the time to complete the tasks you are suggesting, that would require a fulltime knowledgeable assitent, for which I do not have the money :-) ... however keep in mind that I allways walk and photograh the courses in chronological order, so the tenth green shown will also be the tenth green.

I made the same connection as you; the greens at first glance look similar to those of Machrihanish (I'm an overseas member there), however the greens at Castle have more distinct plateaus and less of an organic feel to them. In short I would say they are more modern in design.

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