Kilmarnock (Barassie)
A links course wrapped up with gorse, heather
and pine trees. It’s a lovely combination of
colours, especially when you consider that
the course (all 27 holes) is enclosed between two railway lines.
This may not be right on the sea – you start inland – nor have
obvious wispy dunes, but Kilmarnock still plays like a links where
there are plenty of hollows, bumps, testing pot hole bunkers
and a variety of burns, ditches and streaks of deep gorse. In
places it feels quite wild… most noticeably on the long walk to
the par three 4th (and the new nine holes). These holes have the
strongest links traits, which is not surprising since they nestle up
against both Western Gailes and Dundonald Links. Barassie’s par
four 7th hole is part of the new nine, opened in the 1990s. At 430
yards it drives straight at the railway line before doglegging to run
parallel to it. Heather is everywhere and it is as dangerous as it is
colourful. In the bunkers, rakes stand upright to give fair warning
of the threat that the sand poses. This is an Open Championship
Final Qualifying course... and the ‘third’ old nine (Hillhouse) are
definitely worth your time.
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