New courses in East Lothian

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

The same Members of Muirfield I noted in an earlier post told me of three new courses in the area. Two would be part of a 36 holes complex just east of Muirfield. I went overe there the evening after my two rounds to see the progress. They are being built by and Edinburgh firm. The harr was in so it was tough to see alot. However the courses appeared to be half finished. some holes had not been started and others were being grown in. It looked like an american Scotish course. The grasses were local but the mounding and shaping were as fake as one might find on Rees's poor efforts. This is farm land so one might say it was a poor man effort to do Kingsbarns. On the other hand the clubhouse will be awsome. Does anyone know much if anything about this project. The members I spoke to said the owner had not made the final call on private versus daily fee/resort yet.

[Bill_McBride]

John, "the harr?"  Please elucidate!

[ForkaB]

Bill

It's "haar" which is hte coastal fog which you get in Scotland.

John/Tiger

Are you talking about the Archerfield project?  That's been going on for ages (at least 10 years).  Finally on the git go?

[Paul_Turner]

John

Like Rich states, it's the Archerfield project.  I only know one other person who's seen it, and he thought it was the worst course he'd seen in 5 years.  The designer is a Brit called David Williams, I believe.

[Norbert P]

  Hmmm, not sure why that link didn't work.  Try Google with "Archerfield Golf".  

 Does 55 million quid seem exorbitant?

 Tom Doak was there a few years ago to design two courses.  I wonder what happened there.  

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Yes Rich is correct on both counts. It is the Haar lol and the Archerfield Property. I did not see enough to call it the worst, but as you could tell I was not impressed. It was very weak with fake dunes shaping the holes on both sides of some fairways with naturally flat farmland on all sides. I know Tom Doak and that did not look like Tom Doak work. It has gotten off the ground but did look like a work in progress. Some holes look almost ready to play and others have barely had the native grass removed. There is a way in by the family home. The entrance was blocked by equipment.

[Bill_McBride]

"The entrance was blocked by equipment."  

Otherwise John D. Bernhardt would have been in there, snooping around in the haar, like Sherlock Holmes on the moors!  I know this first hand from snooping around Bandon Dunes for the elusive sheep ranch!  

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Oh so correct Bill. I would have seen more but my driver was getting jumpy. another reason to have your own car while in Scotland.

[lesueur]

I looked around the site last year with the construction team. The developer (an Edinburgh business-man) had several architects produce routings and went with English based David Williams. From what the contractors said, Doak's ideas were good but he wanted to use the coastline for golf (imagine that) whereas the developer had other ideas (real estate). This may or may not be correct - I'm sure Tom Doak could shed light.
Once Williams had completed the routings, the owner employed ex-pro David Russell to oversea the detail work. This is Russell's first attempt at design work as far as I could tell so it will be interesting to see the finished product. I will hopefully be out again in the near future and will try to get some photography to post.