Tough resort golf comes to St. Andrews

text size

The term, golf resort, is not one that inspires many serious golfers. Too often it implies a hotel with an accompanying, often mediocre golf course that is a part of the resort's guest facilities. The course comes together with tennis courts, swimming pools, perhaps a health spa and a few other sources of amusement, designed to keep hotel guests and their wallets at the resort, rather than spending their money elsewhere.

The Torrance Course has been selected as the final qualifying course for next year's Open at St. Andrews

Playing along the cliff-tops is a pre-requsite of both Fairmont courses

Fairmont's 5 star elegance extends to the clubhouse as well

Elevated greens, shrewd bunkering and the North Sea wind, all come as standard fare on The Kittocks

On a clear day you can see forever, but best ignore the views and focus on your golf

Links-like characteristics are common to both The Torrance and The Kittocks Courses

Seldom will you find 36 holes of golf this exhilerating

Book Your Trip

For other ideas on golf trips to Scotland, Ireland, British Open, Spain & Portugal, click here or call Golf International at 800.328.9898

While this may be true in many parts of the world, in Scotland, golf resorts are quite different, often boasting some of the country's very best courses. Scotland doesn't have a great number of true golf resorts, but what may be lacking in numbers is more than made up for by the astoundingly high quality of golf resorts here and their courses are nothing less.

The luxurious Gleneagles Resort, boasts three genuine, championship layouts, two of them ranked among Scotland's top 20 and one of these, The PGA Centenary Course, has been selected to host the Ryder Cup in 2014. Turnberry is another plush golf resort, with two championship layouts, of which The Ailsa Course, is not only ranked as one of Scotland's very best, but will prove it again this July when it hosts The British Open for the third time.

World-class golf isn't limited to only the older resort properties that have been around for 60 or 90 years. There are some of much more recent vintage that shine just as brightly as the two already mentioned and among of the very best is a youngster, barely 8 years old.

The Fairmont St. Andrews, located a brief two miles along the coast from historic St. Andrews, sits on 520 acres of seaside property, perhaps the very last on this entire Fife coastline to be developed for golf. Enjoying spectacular views across the North Sea in one direction and medieval St. Andrews to the other, the setting couldn't be more picture perfect and perhaps one of the world's most idyllic locales for a golf course. But it couldn't just be any course, a site this beautiful with its almost sacred vistas and proximity to the home of golf, demanded a layout befitting the privileged situation.

The first of two championship layouts that would call the Fairmont home, opened in 2001, a stunning design by European Ryder Cup captain and native Scot, Sam Torrance, appropriately called, The Torrance Course. Taking full advantage of the unique, cliff-top site, with sea views from practically every hole, the track starts off in a cordial, gentlemanly fashion, as player and course become acquainted. By the sixth hole formal introductions are completed and The Torrance gets down to business, revealing its many devilishly links-like characteristics -- what a challenge it is and never more so than on the back half.

Total exposure to the elements is only exaggerated by the elevated, cliff-top setting, making the always unpredictable winds even more cantankerous. The fairways rock and roll their often perilous way, peppered with bunkers, an occasional meandering stream and a generous share of doglegs, from green to green - some literally perched at cliffs edge, dangling above the rocky shoreline, 100 feet below. The Torrance is a solid test for all, but it's the thinking golfer who will be rewarded most.

Within 5 years of opening, The Torrance had joined the prestigious ranks of, "The Best 100 Courses in Britain and Ireland" and was soon selected by the R&A to be the final qualifying course for the 2009 British Open, taking place at St. Andrews Old Course. Such honors called for a little fine-tuning, something that is currently underway during a temporary closure. The newly revitalized Torrance Course is scheduled to reopen on July 14th this year, when we can expect this sparkler to be shining brighter than ever.

The Fairmont's second championship course opened in 2002 to a rapturous standing ovation. Those who had been impressed with The Torrance, fell head-over-heels for the new Devlin course, with its even sterner test of golfing skills -- far from being a typical "second course", The Devlin immediately became the resort's star attraction.

Tough as the course is, designer Bruce Devlin has shown some sympathy toward we mere mortals who tremble at thoughts of monster layouts such as this. Generously, Devlin has provided four teeing areas to choose from, shrinking the ominous 7,049 yards from the tips, down to a far more human 5,195 yards from the forward tees.

After a recent and rather extensive redesign, The Devlin has also been renamed and is now called The Kittocks Course, but the bite of the original remains very much intact, perhaps even a little sharper than before. Filled with risk/reward holes, there's a sense of adventure ahead for all who take on this tantalizing teaser of a course as it sweeps for almost a mile along the handsomely rugged coastline.

Kittocks eases its challengers into the full weight of its examination with a kindly start that may at first seem too forgiving -- don't be impatient and accept this gentler side while it lasts, , by the time you reach the par-5 seventh, forgiveness will be a forgotten word. From here on pure excitement crops up at every hole, with each challenge totally different from the previous. The thrills continue to build, reaching a crescendo on the closing stretch, the precariously close cliff-edge only adding to the exhilaration.

The Kittocks will serve as a reminder to one and all of why we love the game and our view of golf resorts, at least in Scotland, will be seen through different eyes. The Fairmont St. Andrews provides a clear demonstration of what real golf is all about. Despite the inevitable early skepticism and Doubting Thomas's, even the most dyed in the wool critics have been won over -- St. Andrews has added not one, but two more jewels to its already glittering, golf crown.

For a few ideas and suggestions as to how The Fairmont St. Andrews can best fit into your golf vacation plans, click here.

©2009 David Brice / Golf International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Golf International -- Providers of quality golf travel arrangements since 1988.