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 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. This is an Open
Championship Final Qualifying course... and the ‘third’ old nine
(Hillhouse) are definitely worth your time.
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