Dundonald Golf Links

Founded:

Designer:

Ayr Road
Irvine

Holes: 18
7303
Par:

On a warm summer's evening by the Ayrshire coast, as lengthening shadows are cast across the dunes and the hazy outline of the Isle of Arran shimmers in the distance, it seems almost sacrilegious to suggest that so spiritual a setting, a haven at one with nature, could be manufactured by hand. But Kyle Phillips has mastered the art. On a short trip from his home in Sacramento , where he is establishing a reputation as one of the leading golf-course architects, the 45-year-old American uses up every last hour of daylight, steering his buggy between the gorse bushes, content that he has played God with the land. If the future of golf is man-made, this is the man who is making it. By transforming a patch of disused farmland six miles south of St Andrews into the spectacular layout now known as Kingsbarns, Phillips has made his name as the designer who re-creates nature. He is literally altering the landscape of links golf in Scotland. His latest project is on the course formerly known as Southern Gailes, recently acquired by Loch Lomond Golf Club and renamed Dundonald. Set among a concentration of classic venues, from Prestwick to Turnberry and Troon, Dundonald has much in common with the acclaimed Kingsbarns. Both sites were home to ancient courses that fell into disrepair during the Second World War; while the Fife venue was later given over to livestock, its Ayrshire equivalent became wasteland. Where Kingsbarns is a course that sits on top of a hill, with those wonderful views in front of you, Dundonald is more like Carnoustie or Lytham St Annes, or even Troon. It's down among the dunes. You're near the coastline, but you don't really have a great deal of visual contact with the sea."