By Will Pearson, europeantour.com
in St Andrews
At just 15 years old and by far the youngest of the three fine courses on which the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is contested each and every year, EuropeanTour.com investigates the majestic Kingsbarns Golf Links – a modern links masterpiece and a layout Martin Kaymer described as "perhaps the most underrated in the UK”.
Opened in 2000 at the turn of the century, the links at Kingsbarns might well be 158 years the junior of fellow Dunhill Links layout Carnoustie, and a staggering 250 years younger than the revered Old Course at St Andrews, but the venue already evokes a timeless feel and provokes widespread praise from professionals and amateurs alike.
LOCATION AND OVERVIEW
Situated six miles east along the coast from the Home of Golf, Kingsbarns was designed by Kyle Phillips and comes in at 7,150 yards and to a par of 72 and, despite its relative infancy, the Fife gem is already well lodged within many a top 100 golf courses in the world list.
According to local history, golf was played on the same land since 1793 until the original nine-hole layout was commandeered by the military upon the outbreak of the Second World War because they felt the area was at risk of invasion.
The land lay dormant for the rest of the 20th century until Phillips, after studying numerous vintage links including Royal Dornoch, arrived to create what could prove to be his magnum opus.
You feel like it’s been there for hundreds of years but it’s very new – it’s one of those courses that just fits.
Peter Uihlein
All sparkling ocean, rippling fairways, whispy fescue and immaculate greens, the result is breath-taking, natural and ageless.
“It’s a cool place, a special place,” says Peter Uihlein, runner-up at the Dunhill Links two years ago. “You feel like it’s been there for hundreds of years but it’s very new – it’s one of those courses that just fits.”
UNDERRATED?
The Major Championships of 2015 were pervaded by links style layouts with The Open at St Andrews complemented by Chambers Bay in Washington for the US Open and Whistling Straits in Wisconsin for the US PGA. Speak to most professionals, though, and they’ll tell you that Kingsbarns tops the lot in terms of modern links layouts.
England’s Eddie Pepperell, off for a practice round at Kingsbarns before this week’s championship, said on Twitter: “Probably my favourite course in the UK. Like Whistling Straits in some ways just without the steroids.”
Having won across these three courses back in 2010, two-time Major Champion Martin Kaymer knows a thing or two about the host venues, and believes Kingsbarns deserves a lot more credit.
“I think in general in Great Britain, Kingsbarns is very underrated, perhaps the most underrated in the country,” says the German. “It's a very, very good golf course. I heard yesterday that they will go there for the Ladies British Open next year so I'm glad that finally Kingsbarns is getting a little more recognition, because usually it's all about St Andrews and Carnoustie, which are obviously Open golf courses, but Kingsbarns has a lot of great holes and should get a lot more reward for it.”
Joint course record holder and 2012 winner Branden Grace agrees.
“It’s always enjoyable playing St Andrews with all the history and heritage,” says the South African. “I got here Sunday and couldn’t wait to get out there. You sit in the hotel room, look at the holes and get that vibe. But Kingsbarns gives me just the same feeling – it’s a course I just really enjoy playing.”
SCORING
With Carnoustie undoubtedly presenting the toughest test of three layouts used at the Dunhill Links – it’s not nicknamed ‘The Nasty’ for nothing – most winners in years past have done much of their scoring on the Old Course and, perhaps even more so, at Kingsbarns. But why is it the most scoreable of the trio?
“Kingsbarns is certainly a golf course where you want to score,” says Kaymer. “It's a very scoreable golf course. The par fives are all reachable really, depending on the wind, but if there's very little wind, then all of them are essentially like long par fours. It's a golf course where if you shoot only two or three under par then you are a little disappointed. Very little rough, very firm to play. Fast greens, pretty, it has a bit of everything.”
Uihlein adds: “It’s funny actually when you think it’s the most scoreable of the three because it’s still quite long. But it’s generous off the tee and the greens are all kind of bowl shaped where you can use the slopes to feed into the hole. They generally make it set up friendlier so it promotes a lot more birdies which I think is great – that’s what players and amateurs and fans want to see. We’ve also had pretty much no wind playing around there which really helps.”
THE SCENERY
With the vast North Sea viewable from all but a few holes at Kingsbarns, and especially in the clear weather predicted all week in Scotland, Kingsbarns is highly picturesque.
Kaymer says: “It’s a very pretty golf course, a lot of the amateurs and professionals love going there for the scenery as much as the golf," while Grace adds: “It’s beautiful, I think almost every hole you can see the ocean. That, for a moment, takes your concentration away from golf and you can stand there and take it all in and that really helps.”
Uihlein, meanwhile, summarises eloquently: “The views are pretty spectacular. You stand on some of the tee boxes and you feel like you can see the whole world."
THE ICONIC HOLES
The 12th – 606-yard par five
Although the entire course seemingly borders the North Sea, no hole comes closer to the ocean than the signature par five 12th. At a colossal 600 yards in length, the hole snakes its way to the far end of the property to a vastly undulating green perched out in the water. “What a great golf hole; ocean, ocean, ocean,” says Grace.
The 15th – 200-yard par three
One of the most memorable par threes on The European Tour, the 15th is also framed – this time down the right – by the deep blue sea and is the last and indeed longest short hole on the course, often playing as the toughest of the par threes at Kingsbarns.
#59WATCH
In two of the last three years, we have teetered on the brink of golfing history at the Dunhill Links as first Grace in 2012, and then Uihlein a year later, posted 12 under par rounds of 60 at Kingsbarns, just one shot outside the illusive, tantalising 59 – a magical score yet to be recorded officially on The European Tour.
“Thinking back to two years ago, I only turned in four under and nothing was going in at the start, I missed a lot of putts!” remembers Uihlein. “I was playing with Ernie (Els) and we were both really flat and then I made a putt on the second – my 11th – and then after that I didn’t miss a thing, I just remember hooping it from all over the fairway. I remember birdieing the seventh hole, got to the eighth, looked at my card and thought ‘Oh man! I’m 11 under, I’ve got a chance at this!’ It was a special day.”
Of his scrape with the record books three years ago, Grace reflects: “Kingsbarns is a place where if you get it going then you can really get it going like in 2012 when I came up one shot shy of the perfect 59. Kingsbarns is one of those courses that is not the longest and you’re going to have short numbers in so you can often be aggressive and if you do that at the right times you can go low. That’s why I think I’ve been so successful there in the past.”
MONSTER PUTTS
Much like the titanic, mountainous double greens at the ancient Old Course, Kingsbarns also has some enormous putting surfaces and with that comes the opportunity for players both professional and amateur to drain some of the longest, most extraordinary putts ever seen in golf.
Three years ago, at the driveable par four sixth, Olympic legend Michael Phelps did just that.
Less than two months after hanging up his goggles following the London Olympics, 18-time gold medallist Phelps holed what is believed to be the longest televised putt in history from 153 feet. The ball took 17 seconds from leaving the putter face to falling in the cup.
