The Castle Course at St. Andrews racks up awards

The Castle Course, newest addition to the hallowed links at St. Andrews, has racked up a few prestigious awards.

The golf course has been recognised by Travel & Leisure Golf magazine as the “New Course of the Year.” It was also named “International Development of the Year” by Golf Inc magazine, beating out the Els Club in Dubai for the title.

In August, the Castle Course was recognised by the Institute of Groundsmanship, the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) and some leading turfcare journalists as the 2008 “Turf Professional Project of the Year.”

Now, does this mean there aren’t some aspects of the 6,759-yard David McLay Kidd design that could use some, well, tweaking: the liberal use of unplayable grassy “hummocks” in the middle of blind landing areas in the fairways being one, and a few roller-coaster greens being another.

By and large, however, this rather modern sister to the Old Course has become an almost instant must-play for golfers traveling to or living in Scotland.

(Have you played the Castle? Post a reader review! BTW, here’s MY review.)