The first of the six short video clips from Castle Stuart. These were mostly filmed and edited back in 2007, during the second year of construction. The first clip is narrated by Mark Parsinen, the principal owner/developer as well as co-designer. He quickly introduces the project, which will officially open this coming July 13th. I had the privilege of spending 32 weeks on site, participating in the construction of the project. It was a fascinating opportunity to see an extremely complicated, intricate, ambitious project. To me the key line here is “we’re building a course, from our standpoint, is one we would love, and we would love to play everyday.” Mark has the retail golfer in mind when he made each of the several thousand small decisions that led to the final product. Just like most people enjoy Kingsbarns’ playability, Castle Stuart will possess many similar elements that challenges the golfer, yet avoiding him/her from getting overwhelmed by thick rough, gorse and narrow fairways.
The next two videos are after the jump.
In the second video, Gil Hanse explains the origins of the bunker methodology. I have to admit this was a very clever contribution from him. In the fall of 2004, during an advance team gathering, Gil arrived with a copy of Horace Hutchinson’s British Golf Links. (From a publishing standpoint, it remains one of the best reprints in recent memory.) The book includes dozens of profiles of the leading British links at the end of 19th century, backed with remarkably clear sepia/black&white images of the courses. From St. Andrews to Hoylake to Sandwich, there is not one single riveted bunker anywhere in the book. Instead, the bunkers looked ragged and rugged with no clearly defined edges, which made them appear vulnerable to the elements. They were often collapsing in on themselves with yawning brows and occasionally they were buttressed with railroad ties. It is also incredibly attractive looking style, as well as visually intimidating and best of all, they clearly played as real hazards. (Not that riveted pot bunkers don’t.) Gil suggested we return to this concept, which he called “broken ground”, where bunkers took form where the turf and sandy ground could not hold itself together. Mark Parsinen and project manager Stuart McColm loved the idea and as they discussed what to do along the areas that connect to the “tight mow,” it was resolved to use the more modern riveted style as well. So their exists a spectrum at Castle Stuart, from the fully contained riveted pot bunker in the middle of fairways to the 19th century “blow-out” style. In a handful of key instances, they incorporated both elements within the same bunker, beginning with a riveted area along the edge of the fairway and devolving into the blow-out look further from the playing area. In spite of my obvious affinity for (and affiliation with) the project, I think this combo represented one of the most original bunker schemes in modern design.
I filmed this third clip in the back of the Defender while Mark and Stuart were discussing the seventh hole on Halloween of 2006. This, as Mark mentioned at the tail end of the clip, is the hole that he always dreams about. Probably the one handicap hole, it’s a long par-four that may play directly down wind, or directly into the wind, depending on the two prevailing winds. I was probably 20 minutes into filming their discussion about the sequence for cuts and fills and shaping when Mark digressed about the options for the third shot. I knew immediately I had captured a very concise statement of his core architectural beliefs. Mark, about a 12 handicap at the time, admits that older he gets, the more the third shot is “what it’s all about on a par-four.” A friend of his from St. Andrews first introduced the concept after years of playing the Old Course. Mark is like most of us, he misses more greens than he hits. And he gets easily bored by courses that present the same type of recovery shot: “a lofted pitch from somewhere short of the green.” Castle Stuart will feature 18 greens where the golfer will have all sorts of options to get up and down, or in his words, in order to ”solve the problem and have a put for par from 10 or 12 feet.” To me this empathy for the average person is missing from so many PGA-Tour designers who speak of “playability for the average golfer” with condescending and patronizing undertones.
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