COURSE FLYOVER

View Castle Stuart and its wonderful surroundings from above. Fantastic scenery, beautiful fairways and enticing challenges, they're all here. See what you could be experiencing, one of the best links courses in the world.

COURSE GUIDE

Read about the philosophy of co-designers Mark Parsinen and Gil Hanse whilst getting some insight into the challenges and intrigue each hole offers. 

​

CLICK the image to view a pdf of the course guide.

​

CLICK HERE to view the Course Design Goals.

COURSE SCORECARD

Here is the Castle Stuart course card for 2018. How do you fancy your chances? Have a look at our aerial flyover and view the course guide to help you answer that question.

​

CLICK the image to see the course scorecard.

RANGE AND SHORT GAME AREA

Castle Stuart’s complimentary 350 yard Practice Range includes a ‘short game area’ and is just steps away from the Golf Shop. The morning sun shines from behind practice shots played into the prevailing wind. A wee warm up or some serious sorting out and you’re on your way to the practice Putting Green located just beyond the Golf Shop next to the Starters Hut.

PUTTING GREEN

Adjacent to the Golf Shop, Restaurant & Bar, and Starters Hut, Castle Stuart’s Putting Green is large and conveniently located – both for finding your putting groove while waiting to be called to the 1st tee AND resolving any unfinished post-round business while enjoying a beverage, or two, on the adjoining restaurant patio.

STARTER HUT and HALFWAY REFRESHMENTS

LINKS COURSE TOUR

A photographic tour of every hole at Castle Stuart as they were 6 years ago – not just the photogenic. From aerial perspectives to those that show off infinity edged greens, the images highlight partially revetted (stacked sod) natural bunkers, uneven ‘rumpled’ fairway contours, and the rich texture of a ruggedly natural links landscape, i.e. a links course that looks as though it’s 100 years old.

ARNOLD PALMER VISITS CASTLE STUART

We were honoured to be visited with one of the game's true legends, Mr Arnold Palmer. Seen here being welcomed to the course, along with Mrs Palmer, by owner and co-designer, Mark Parsinen.

THE CASTLE STUART GOLF ETHOS

We take a look at the early beginnings of Castle Stuart and the ethos which has driven it so high in golf rankings and endeared the course to so many.

DISTINCTIVE COURSE FEATURES - THE RUMPLE

There are significant differences among links courses – in topography, sea views, fairway contours, bunker styles, green complexes, landscape mosaic, and even the smallest of course details, e.g. path and step details. Distinctive Course Features is a photographic journey with text and music that highlights Castle Stuart’s distinctive character in the world of links golf. We begin here with the RUMPLE - Many links courses are known for their uneven or ‘rumpled’ fairways.Fairways can be flat in areas and ‘rumpled’ in others with differences in ‘lie and stance’ of tactical significance. Greenside rumple can disturb the release of an approach to a ‘short pin’ from certain angles. ‘Rumple’ is inherent to the charm of links golf that Castle Stuart embraces.

BUNKERS

Castle Stuart’s partially revetted, natural bunkers are derivative of early open sandy areas so typical when there were no defined pathways to the green and types of hazards were varied. Castle Stuart bunkers sometimes ‘save from a worse fate’, create issues for aggressive play, but rarely bracket left-and-right’ limiting play options. Bunkers are not the sole hazard defining play.

INFINITY EDGES

The topography at Castle Stuart allows key Highland landmarks to be put on display through infinity edged greens and seen across the Moray Firth.Kessock Bridge (Highland’s ‘Golden Gate’), Chanonry Lighthouse, Fort George (home of military’s elite Black Watch), and Castle Stuart deliver a constant ‘sense of place,’ both in the ‘now’ and in one’s memories. Infinity edges. Beauty beyond.

LANDSCAPE MOSAIC

At Castle Stuart, nature bequeathed an opportunity for a links golf course to enjoy a rich landscape texture of Scottish ‘whins’, gorse and broom, heather, and marram – pervasive accents constituting backdrops and context throughout the golf experience – from beginning to end and changing throughout the seasons as nature commands. A rich tapestry. A landscape mosaic. A rugged beauty.

SLEEPER DETAILS

Details are a form of expression. No detail is too small to warrant attention, even edging detail on walk paths. Using rugged railway sleepers complements a rugged natural landscape and resonates with rugged natural bunkers. Green-to-tee walks and walkups to tees are part of the golf experience. Of great consequence? No. Of importance to us? Yes. Beauty in the detail.

MACKENZIE PERSPECTIVE

Alister MacKenzie’s inspirational musings, captured here from his seminal book ‘Golf Architecture’ (1920), include that the best courses are pleasurable to all players; that the pleasure of negotiating difficulties hinges on there being no main thoroughfare to the hole and require judgment without ‘guide posts’; and that the best courses are in time felt and admired as works of beauty.