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— Center of the Golfing Universe —

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A pearl in the golf course necklace of Scotland’s
Ayrshire coast. A classic links like its neighbors
Royal Troon, Prestwick, and Turnberry,
but puts less of a dent in your wallet.

Kilmarnock (Barassie) Golf Club
29 Hillhouse Road
Barassie, Troon, Ayrshire
KA10 6SY Scotland
Tel: +44 (0) 1292 313920
Fax: +44 (0) 1292 318300
E-mail: golf@kbgc.co.uk
Web Site: http://www.barassie.net

ROLLING DUNES LEAD TO THE 16TH GREEN

          Finding good links land is not unlike finding the rarest of truffles or the finest of pearls: one must dig through lots of sand and root through lots of spongy earth to discover the hidden treasure. Fortunately, the best links land is often otherwise

POT BUNKERS AT THE 10TH GREEN

useless to man: too wet, too unstable, too unfertile, too windy, and too exposed to the elements for most practical human endeavor. Fortunately, too, golf is more madness than practical endeavor, a mental and physical challenge well suited to a landscape that normally attracts transient sea birds, sucking whelks, crawly things with too many or too few legs, and tough, low-slung vegetation with its collar up. In this regard the shifting sands and mud flats of the Ayrshire coast has yielded

a chain of luminescent pearls and tasty truffles. When the fathers of golf discovered the coastal plain just south of the Atlantic’s gate to the Firth of Clyde, the rush was on. The Tom Morrises, Willie Park, Jr., and MacKenzie Ross worked their alchemy here fashioning polished gems from these rough settings. Some of the courses they created over 100 years ago have gained mythic status as host venues of the British Open: Prestwick, Turnberry, and Royal Troon. Shouldering these legendary linkses are other tracks tucked among the Ayrshire dunes, less well known, but magical, local, venerable, challenging, and wonderfully welcoming. Much like the courses along the sands of Barassie near the Ayrshire town of Kilmarnock. Much like Scotland itself.

THE COURSES & SOME NOTABLE HOLES:
          One of Scotland’s oft called “hidden gems” was Kilmarnock (Barassie) Golf Club’s 18-hole links built in 1887, and long a qualifying course for the Open. In recent years the original layout has been cut into two nines, with each old half being combinable with a new nine holes on land north of the original links and south of the new Southern Gailes Golf Club. The resulting 18-hole championship Barassie Links (6,817 yards, Par-72, SSS 74) has already secured its

BLOOMING GORSE LINES
BARASSIE'S13TH FAIRWAY

status as a top echelon course, hosting the British Amateur Championship, an Open Qualifier (as it will again in 2009 when the British Open returns to nearby Turnberry), and the 2004 Junior Open. A second 18-hole combination, called the Dundonald Course (6,107 yards, Par-69), is shorter, more weather sheltered, and less challenging. A third permutation of the 27 holes at Kilmarnock is the 2,888 yards, Par-34 “easier” nine original holes now called The Hillhouse Course. This latter may be played alone or as an additional nine holes to a full day of 27 holes of golf at Kilmarnock.

          While all three nines offer challenging play, four holes on the Barassie Links championship 18 represent the signature challenge at Kilmarnock Golf Club:
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• Hole #7, “Western”, Par 4, 439/427 yards, No. 1 handicap: Long, open dogleg right
   among the dunes to a tight green protected by bunkers and mounds. Low, accurate,
   long shots required here, especially when the wind is up.

• Hole #8, “Dundonald”, Par 5, 539/519 yards,
   No. 7 handicap: The S-curve of a double
   dogleg makes an honest woman out of this
   Par-5, requiring 3 substantial shots to reach a
   troublesome, sloped green.

THE BURN IS A TRADITIONAL HAZARD
ON BARASSIE'S 4TH FAIRWAY

• Hole #12, “Barassie”, Par 4, 439/387 yards, No. 2 handicap: The signature hole is  
   long, straight, and narrow, flanked with gorse, bunkers, slopes and a creek. The
   green offers no safe refuge, being long and double-tiered. Straight holes don’t play
   very straight in the wind.

• Hole #15, “Adams Gate”, Par 4, 428/413
   yards, No. 4 handicap: Ditto #12. Long and
   strong required, and hold a straight line at all
   costs. This time, though, there is grace at
   the green: a bowl with a roll towards the
   middle.

BARASSIE'S FRIENDLY 17TH GREEN

]
Want to learn about other courses throughout the British Isles
including some of the greatest tests of golf in the world? See our
SCOTLAND, IRELAND, ENGLAND, and WALES
Course Guides for more information.
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