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By David Brice
Golf International, Inc.

Barely 7 years old, Kingsbarns has set the standard for all new Scottish courses

Scotland's great allure to golfers has always been connected to its past and the very roots of the game that started here more than 600 years ago. Without detracting from the importance of the country's place as the home of golf and its starring role in the history of the Royal & Ancient game, Scotland is also very much a part of golf's future.

An existing inventory of 550 golf courses or so, might be enough to satisfy other countries with populations even twice as large as Scotland's 5 million. But in this land where golf is the passion of most, you can never have too much of a good thing. New course development not only continues, but it's accelerating, with more excellent new courses coming on-line. Perhaps because this is the home of golf and national pride is at stake, they are all of an amazingly high quality, with some that can honestly be called, true masterpieces.

The Torrance Course at St. Andrews Fairmont Golf Resort

A shining example of the caliber of the new breed of Scottish courses can be found at Kingsbarns, located just 6 miles outside of St. Andrews. It's a very special design from Californian Kyle Phillips who has produced an 18-hole links course that seems as though it has been here for over a hundred years. Only opened in the summer of 2000, this masterful piece of golf architecture skyrocketed onto the Top 100 Courses of The British Isles rankings within 18 months of opening where it seems to have taken permanent possession of position # 16. Kingsbarns is ranked # 7 among Scottish courses.

Turnberry's resurrected Kintyre Course

Also near St. Andrews are the two relatively new, cliff-top layouts at the Fairmont St. Andrews Golf Resort. The Torrance and Devlin Courses, named after their designers, were opened in 2001 and 2002 respectively and are already ranked as Scotland's # 24 and # 38.

Golfers never took the Turnberry Resort's second layout, The Arran Course, very seriously until it underwent a total makeover by the great English designer Donald Steel in 2001. Now renamed, The Kintyre Course it has been transformed into a links layout that belongs on every visitor's must play list. No longer a second tier layout, The Kintyre shot up in the Scottish rankings to position # 31.

Dundonald illustrates the design mastery of Kyle Phillips

After completing Kingsbarns, Kyle Phillips tackled another links design project on Scotland's west coast and produced The Dundonald, a classic links of the first order. Opened in 2003 and quickly purchased by the prestigious Loch Lomond Golf Club, Dundonald is working its way up the rankings and currently sits in position # 35 - but look for this superb links to climb far higher. Mr. Phillips has performed another miracle, Loch Lomond Golf Club recognizes it and this time, they are even allowing non-members to play their new acquisition.

The Carrick Course on Loch Lomond opened earlier this year

The Carrick Golf Course opened on the shores of Loch Lomond earlier this year. Named after its Canadian designer, Doug Carrick and attached to the luxurious, Cameron House Hotel, this is a resort course, filled with good looks and spectacular views across the famous loch. Designed for the casual player, who wants a pleasurable round of golf amid handsome surroundings, it fits the bill admirably.

Those who might be looking for more of a challenge, the Kingdom of Fife provides a selection of new layouts, all with a bite and one of the best is tucked away in the quaint fishing village of Crail.

Crail's new Craighead Links opened in 1998

Founded in 1786, Crail Golfing Society is the 7th oldest golf club in existence and it's historic, Old Tom Morris designed course, Balcomie Links, has long been a favorite with visitors to the St. Andrews area. But this is a forward thinking club and when the members decided they needed a second course; they brought in an American designer with a very traditional and Scottish approach to golf architecture.

The new Craighead Links opened in 1998, a piece of links artistry from Pennsylvania's Gil Hanse who has created a tough, demanding layout filled with variety and all of the characteristics of a fine traditional links. Craighead complements Balcomie perfectly and is certainly bound for future glory.

Craigielaw offers a pure, unadulterated links experience

The tiny, golf rich county of East Lothian sits 30 minutes due east of Edinburgh. This is home to Muirfield, North Berwick and a dozen other historic layouts, as well as a few that are a part of the new wave of Scottish courses.

Craigielaw Golf Club opened to great acclaim in 2001, the handiwork of Donald Steel. It's a testy layout, filled with challenges enough to push the best players. Relatively flat, with no significant sand dunes, the thing to watch out for here are the deep dark bunkers and greens that are difficult to hold and always filled with undulations.

Adding even more spice are the swales and hollows of fairways that have more resemblance to the North Sea in a storm than a golf course. There are ancient stonewalls to be navigated, cantankerous crosswinds to negotiate, deep juicy rough to be avoided and for good measure, a less than innocent and very wet burn. A thriller of a round is all but guaranteed.

The Renaissance will be Tom Doak's first Scottish design

Just a few miles down the road, a pair of new layouts at Archerfield Links, The Fidra and Direlton Courses, made their debut in 2004. Nearby, another American golf architect is busy putting the finishing touches to the Renaissance Club and what promises to be one of the most stunning new additions to Scottish links golf.

Tom Doak, one of our most respected architects is the man responsible and this will be Tom's very first design project in Scotland. Opening is scheduled for the spring of 2008.

St. Andrews new Castle Course is taking shape

There's still another big new opening on the books for 2008, the long awaited Castle Course in St. Andrews. Known only until quite recently by the code name, "Course # 7", the opening is slated for next summer, when The Castle becomes the town's first new course in almost 100 years.

Native son, David McLay Kidd (of Bandon Dunes fame) is the designer and early reports are that he has done an amazing job with the piece of cliff-top farmland he was given to work with. Whether or not a non-links course will curry the favor of pilgrims to golf's birthplace remains to be seen, but with Kidd's impressive credentials and the St. Andrews name attached, the odds are in favor.

Machrihanish Dunes is being built the old fashioned way

Machrihanish is arguably, one of Scotland's most revered links gems. For more than 130 years this classic links has been sequestered in the western reaches of the country, remote and totally isolated from other courses.

Well things are about to change -- a new neighbor is moving in and Machrihanish Dunes is taking shape just a hop, skip and a jump down the road.

David McLay Kidd was called in for the architectural duties and the head greens keeper from St. Andrews Old Course for design assistance and the course maintenance. Working with a superb piece of pure linksland, sand dunes and all, a sparkling new links, called Machrihanish Dunes will be opening in 2008. This one promises to be quite extraordinary.

Spey Valley Golf Club is surrounded by the beauty of The Highlands

Heading to the Highlands, Scotland's new golf course development continues unabated.

Macdonald Hotels opened The Aviemore Highland Resort in 2006. Pride and joy of the resort is the Spey Valley Golf Course, an impressive championship quality layout, measuring almost 7,200 yards from the tips.

Located a 30-minute drive south of Inverness, this is the heart of the Highlands and Scotland's most spectacular scenery.

A new links course is also under construction on the coast between Inverness and Nairn, which is worthy of a little extra attention. Castle Stuart Links is the brainchild of the original Kingsbarns developer, Mark Parsinen, the Californian who showed the Scots how to build a links course in their own backyard.

Slowly Castle Stuart Golf Links begins to take shape

If Mark was able to accomplish the impossible in St. Andrews, he will certainly be successful in the Scottish Highlands and although the grand opening isn't scheduled until Spring of 2009, construction is under way, things are progressing well and it looks as though Castle Stuart Links is going to be a Kingsbarns North. The wait will be well worthwhile.

And there's even more to Scotland's golf development story. Donald Trump has acquired 800 acres of enticing linksland, located a few miles north of historic Royal Aberdeen Golf Club.

The Donald has promised to build a pair of links courses that will be the best in the entire country (if not the world) inevitably accompanied by a 500 room luxury hotel, a few hundred expensive second homes and the full complement of supporting, manmade infrastructure.

Donald Trump's would-be links course may be for the birds.

Mr. Trump is now going through a learning curve -- an apprenticeship of sorts - discovering in the process that this is not a television show and there are planning commissions and certain zoning requirements to be complied with; there are also important environmental and wildlife issues to be addressed. Trump's "discussions" with the authorities are ongoing, but at the moment, the birds, sea otters and Mother Nature, seem to be winning.

And finally, just last month, Jack Nicklaus announced plans for his second signature course in Scotland. This will be a links course and part of a new hotel/resort complex to be built on the coast, about 10 miles south of Aberdeen

Whether Scotland really needs these additional courses or not, is a debatable point, the important thing is that golf in Scotland is alive, it's well and it's certainly growing. For a few ideas on how to include some of Scotland's excellent new courses in your golf trip, click here.

© 2007 David Brice / Golf International Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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