Greens Concept

		The greens and their immediate surrounds should stand out as a unique aspect of the course; let them test one's perceptual ability, judgment, decision-making, and emotional poise; let them be more than bland targets; let them require consideration and be engaging for approach shotmaking and greenside recoveries.
›	Green contours and especially those of the edges should reflect the topography of surrounding landforms and be readable or at least intuited from considerable distance.
›	Intuitive perception from distance is important; green contours and those at the edges have meaning to be the links-style forward release of the ball and therefore to angles of approach which result from lines of play chosen at the tee.
›	Some driving lines should be rewarded with angles into green contours which are favourable (e.g., they can gather a releasing ball toward a desirable position or deflect a release from an undesirable one) or easy to gauge (e.g., that allows a straight-and-true release rather than a deflecting one); conversely, other driving lines should result in angles which turn green contours from supportive or manageable to troublesome or confounding.
›	Severe contours on occasion should divide large greens into separate 'smaller greens'; these contours may be 'hazard-like' where considered; greenside bunkers and abrupt falloffs (a severe form of contour) should be coordinated with the concept of contours and approach angles.
›	Emotionally 'settling' and 'unsettling' visual perspectives should also be coordinated with angles of play, i.e. a bold line of play off a tee should be rewarded with a 'settling' approach perspective while a safer play should contend with an 'unsettling' perspective.
›	Greens should in general be asymmetrical, with recovery issues differing substantially left vs. right and long vs. short.
›	Greens and their immediate surrounds should be generous enough to constitute manageable targets under windy conditions, and should provide for running shots under the wind, especially from the preferred angle of approach.
›	Approach issues to greens should be simple to grasp and visually profound enough to dominate the mind; insofar as possible, greens should be visible from tees, allowing one's intuition to grasp the issues of the hole in question.
›	May the heart, soul and intellect of Castle Stuart's greens be absorbing and a source of engaging pleasure to all golfers.
-Mark Parsinen


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