Fairmont St Andrews (Kittocks Course)

Above the Bay, Across the Den

The Kittocks Course at Fairmont St Andrews opened in 2002 as the Devlin Course, a modern clifftop layout created by Bruce Devlin and Denis Griffiths, with Gene Sarazen involved as a consultant.

A refurbishment in 2008 was intended to make playing conditions more dependable across the seasons. The course later took the Kittocks name from the deep coastal ravine running through the property.

The routing begins on higher ground before the landscape becomes more animated near the fifth. Fairways tilt and roll towards the coast, while large greens place a premium on where the approach finishes. Two double greens and deep pot bunkers bring familiar Scottish references into a course shaped with distinctly modern scale.

The sea becomes a constant presence through the middle and closing stretches. The seventh reaches a promontory green, the long fifteenth turns towards the cliff edge, and Kittock's Den repeatedly changes the scale of the view. With the ninth lying furthest from the clubhouse, the course keeps an outward-and-homeward flow despite its dramatic changes in ground.