I had a guided tour of Castle Stuart in April and played the course for the first time about a month ago. Knowing Mitch and his game and having played with him at Dornoch the day before his most recent round there, I very much value his observations. Mine are as follows:
1. Castle Stuart (CS hereafter for brevity) easily fits in with the best of the new courses I have played over the past 10 years (i.e. Kingsbarns, Pacific Dunes, Applebrook) and also compares favorably with the best of the older courses I played for the first time this year (i.e. Royal Melbourne (West and East), the Valley Club, and Kingston Heath). It sits comfortably within this company.
2. It is a new course, with seeding lines in the fairway still visible and enough roughness to allow one to imagine ameliorations and alterations to be made as the course physically matures and the green staff and management gain, interpret and act on information gained from players as well as their own observations.
3. The management and staff are all highly competent and committed to developing a very special golf course.
4. The course is the most comprehensively "arty" golf course I have ever played or seen. Tremendous care has been taken to place greens on sites which are not only interesting from a golf point of view but also aesthetically pleasing. There are more "skyline" greens than I have ever seen, and others are framed by views of lighthouses, mountains and the Castle Stuart itself. In addition, as has been discussed before on this board, there was a conscious effort to create interesting mini- and micro-undulations on the course, both on the fairways and the green sites.
5. In regards to the above, there is a relative profusion of aged wood around the course (most of which I do not think are technically "sleepers"), both in bunkers and on the sides of paths going from green to tee, but they do not seem at all out of place. There are also a few Ryeish eyebrow bunkers which are amusing, but relatively trivial to lines of pay (as they are at Rye).
6. The overall routing of the course, which divides the 18 holes into two mirror-image 9's which first go down to a strip of thrilling shoreline holes and then up to a Kingsbarn-like recreated linksland is ingenious, creating a course which has an adult mixture of intimacy and seclusion. There are a few aerobically challenging climbs, most notably from 12 to 13, but that is necessitated by the fact that the natural landform climbs up that way, and you eventually have to get from point A on the shore to point B on the uplands. Thoughtfully, there is a refreshment appliance halfway up the hill.
7. As for the course in general, it is distinguished by characteristics such as:
• Mostly very wide fairways, with penalties for straying from the proper side challenging rather than binomial
• Some interesting “rumples” in the land, but more “micro” than “mini” undulations, i.e. indicative of design rather than nature. These features will surely mature and morph over time.
• Many green sites with significant ground movement, both on the putting surfaces and in their surrounds. High stimpmeter readings would not suit this golf course. That being said, there are oodles of points of interest on most greens which will only be close to fully revealed with repeated play. Playing this course once will be satisfying, but only by playing it many times will you begin to understand its subtleties.
8. The clubhouse, which is retro (art deco) is comfortably sized and designed to allow either camaraderie or seclusion, and staffed by people with the friendly and intelligent edge that defines the best of the Scottish people.
9. As to specifics, in my brief encounter, the following were the most interesting to me:
• The multiple tees which sit between the 1st and 10th holes (aiming in opposite directions), many of which can be used flexibly for either hole. There is even one of these tee markers on the putting green!
• The reachable par-5 2nd which makes it clear to the observant golfer that you must go left on your second but “penalises” you with fascinating recovery shots if you stray right.
• The driveable 3rd which has even more fascinating recovery/scoring possibilities if you miss left.
• The long par-5 7th which has a cool right->left slope making the almost inevitable 3rd shot to the green problematic
• The spectacular drive over a huge waste area on the 13th with the mid-iron then to the skyline green
• The punchbowl 17th green that begs for a reverse Redanish shot down the left to get to any leftish pin
• The long 18th where you hit your 2nd of 3rd downhill to a diabolical green in front of the clubhouse, with spectators sipping their pints on the balcony
I reserve final judgement until I (hopefully) play the course several more times, but it is now already at least 2** on the Rihcelin Scale