Just left Scotland after being there a few days on our honeymoon. Managed to play Kingsbarns and Castle Course. Due to time constraints, we weren't able to play any others.
Kingsbarns:
We show up, and are treated very nicely. Go hit a few balls (off mats) on the driving range, then head to the first tee. We are each given a sleeve of Callaway Diablo balls because "A couple of the greens aren't up to par", according to the starter. By the time we get through the 2nd hole, we are hoping the first two greens are the "couple of greens" the starter was referring to, because they were total crap, and at this point, I can't believe the 125+ pounds we paid to play here only to be rewarded with a sleeve of crappy balls.
The fairways weren't bad, but the greens were pretty much awful. I felt like I was paying on my local muni after they just punched the greens.
The only positives about Kingsbarns the day we played it was, 1. The Company, 2. The fish and chips in the clubhouse, and 3. The views of the sea were outstanding.
Castle Course:
Whew, not sure where to begin with this one. I had read several reviews talking about how unfair this course was with grass mounds in the fairways, the rediculous undulating greens, etc, but we figured we would give it a try ourselves.
The previous night, the forcast called for 40mph winds, so we weren't looking forward to that.
When arriving at the clubhouse, it had a very "Jurassic Park" feel to it. It is a few miles down the road from the rest of the St. Andrews courses, and they sell pretty much ANYTHING you can think of with a "Castle Course" logo on it.
Anyway, we invested in renting a battery powered cart, which turned out to be a great idea in the long run.
It is VERY windy out, and we get to the first tee, and everything looks nice, because the wind is actually behind us. Drive goes strait down the center of the fairway, so everything starts out nice....until we start walking up the fairway.....I kid you not, the fairway looks like a dirt track that was just raked with farm equipment. I had to move my ball out "dirt track" it was in just to play my shot.
We begin thinking to ourselves.... wow, who did we piss off to get this kind of welcoming to Scotish golf??
Little did we know that the worst part of this course (and round) had yet to come. When you read reviews about these greens, please take them to heart. These people are not exagerating, nor lying when they talk about how unfair, and what a joke these greens are. I think one person described it best when they said "The only thing missing from these greens are clownheads and windmills".
If you don't land the ball inside a 4 foot circle on almost all of the greens, the ball will funnel 100 feet from the cup, and leave you with a 6 break putt going every which way with the pin 5 feet above your head.
To add to the frusturation, it was soooo windy on half the holes (right to left wind), I actually played a pitching wedge from 130 yards, 100 yards to the right of the green, and the wind actually pushed it about 50 feet left of the cup (not to mention what the ball did when it actually did hit the rediculous green). It got to a point we stopped keeping score, and just laughed at how unfair the course was.
I don't know what the architect of the Castle Course was smoking when he drew this thing up, but someone should have told him that the wind was a good enough defense for the course, and he could have done without the absurd greens.
In summary, I recommend Kingsbarns, but make sure the greens are in good condition!
I DO NOT recommend Castle Course. Don't even play it once! Based on how some of the locals talk about it, and the reviews I see, this course will be closed inside of two years, unless someone comes in and redesigns the greens.