IF GOLF in the Auld Toun has always been provocative, the ideal that each hole should be an adventure endures at the Castle. The seventh course opened by the St Andrews Links Trust embraces the spectacular. Like a polka by Strauss, it soars cheerfully over the top.
As the latest addition to the most revered collection of courses in world golf – as well as the Old, the New and the Jubilee are among the game's most prized links – the flamboyance of the Castle is not to everyone's taste. Indeed, some purists have
complained it offers too much of everything: the mounding in the middle of the fairways is too quirky, the greens slope to excess and the overall level of difficulty is too severe.
While some of the criticism which greeted the opening of the course in June was justified, the point also needs to be made that the fiendish challenge of the Castle is alleviated by the beauty of the surroundings and the transformation of some featureless farmland, located a couple of miles from the town centre, into a remarkable test. The sixth hole, which plays to a green framed by the spires of St Andrews, is particularly exhilarating.
Praised and damned in almost equal measure for his work at the home of golf – the ambitious seaside project has far more in common with Kingsbarns and Pebble Beach than a traditional links such as the Old Course – David McLay Kidd, the Scottish designer, was glad to get an opportunity to respond to first impressions of his work.
Kidd, 36, who made his name designing Bandon Dunes in Oregon, admits he eschewed a safety-first approach on a stretch of the sweeping Fife coastline unlike any other in world golf. As a Scot, given the unique opportunity to sculpt cliff-top farmland into a modern version of the seaside game, Kidd says it would have been much easier to play a safe hand.
"The fear of failure and criticism could freeze anyone from taking any risk and steering the safest course leading to the most benign of golf courses," he reflected. "Had that happened no-one would have anything bad to say, but nothing good either. We wanted to provoke reaction, hopefully more positive than negative, but either is better than neither."
As many of the season-ending magazine polls singled out the Castle for accolades, Kidd was pleased with the response: "Well, it was only four months, not a full season. Nevertheless, how could we not be thrilled at the general reaction?
"There were 14,000 rounds, half of them played by locals, a few of whom said they'd never play it. And we had lots of press attention. Travel and Leisure magazine here in the US just awarded the Castle the Best New International Course of 2008 and Golf Inc shortlisted it in their 2008 awards.
"There was lots of attention and debate – a debate we knew would occur if we achieved what we set out for. General acceptance was never our desire."
Work has already started this winter on softening some of the more extreme aspects of the Castle's design. When the course re-opens in the spring, there will be fewer mounds dotting the fairways and some of the greens will slope less violently. I asked Kidd how he felt about charges of over-egging the pudding.
"I guess 'over-egging the pudding' is a criticism I can bear better than the alternative which, as I said earlier, would have been creating a course from nothing that looked and played like nothing," he replied.
"We figured that given golf has been played at St Andrews for 600 years – and we had a far inferior site to begin with – we had better aim at over-egging the pudding than aim modestly high and come up short.
"There will hopefully be many generations to tweak and tinker. What we needed was a base course that was sound. We knew there would need to be adjustments. We even asked the Links Trust to build an allowance into the budget for post-construction alterations, which we are now doing."
Kidd continues to co-operate with the Links Trust and says his team are "totally involved" in the ongoing decision-making process as the course continues to be nipped and tucked.
"These adjustments are minor compared with what it took to create and can be incrementally implemented over many, many years," he added.
Asked if it had been pressurising as a Scot to be handed such a prestigious undertaking, with an estimated budget of nearly £12 million, Kidd added: "Of course it was motivating, but it could also have been debilitating. All the courses at St Andrews were a great influence, but we were keen to give the Castle its own identity. That's why we avoided the sod bunkers that predominate on the links. Kingsbarns was a great influence as it was a revelation to me when I saw it back in 2000 and realised it was created and not laid out over natural linksland. It started to make me aware of what was possible if you need to create something from nothing. We stole a few ideas from Kingsbarns including the fairway hummocks. We liked them so much we did lots, maybe too many, but they are easier removed than added."
The greens at the Castle are huge, with many slopes and run-off areas. "I guess we were taking a lead from the Old Course by building far larger greens than is normal," he noted. "By having large rolls within the putting surfaces we were asking for accurate approach and recovery shots. The individual pin placements were reasonably flat, so once close the putt should be make-able.
"But don't ask for sympathy if you are trying to make a 50-footer. The grasses on the greens are the old traditional predominantly fescue blends that are necessarily slow and, unless the greenkeeper slicks them off, they should putt slower than a modern course."
When asked to compare the Castle with Bandon Dunes, Kidd confesses he was forced to throw caution to the wind in St Andrews. "The Castle and Bandon have some similarities, but in the main there's little comparison. Bandon is a true links built on seaside sand dunes where the designer had little to create.
"It was more about figuring out the best use of land and then showing restraint in the implementation. The Castle was 220 acres of barren farmland devoid of trees, hedges, ditches or subtle contour. Restraint was not an option."
While he keeps an eye on the evolution of the Castle, Kidd has moved on to fresh pastures and is also the architect behind two new courses on home turf as well as projects in Europe and the USA. "In Scotland we've completed a course on the Mull of Kintyre called Machrihanish Dunes next to the Old Tom Morris original, which is slated to open in May of 2009," he volunteered.
"We're currently working on a project adjacent to Gleneagles on the same land as the original Kings Course, which may be even better. Overseas we are working on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco and Portugal, and in the US we have completed new courses in Idaho, Oregon and California over the last couple of years.
"It has been a busy time, but the current (state of the] economy is slowing us down like everyone else. Strangely the best courses are often built in recession. Look what was built in the US during the Great Depression. So watch this space, there's much more to come."
The full article contains 1278 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
