Kingsbarns: the modern links that looks as if it was always there

When construction started at Kingsbarns in November 1997, the land seven miles south-east of St Andrews was clay-based farmland with no natural dunes and no golf features to speak of. From 1 to 4 October it is one of the three venues for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship again, alongside the Old Course and Carnoustie.

Golf at Kingsbarns since 1793

According to the club’s history, golfers from Kingsbarns were recognised by the neighbouring Crail Golfing Society in 1793. The Kingsbarns Golfing Society was formally founded in 1815 and played a nine-hole links until 1850, when the Cambo Estate’s tenant farmer ploughed it up because farmland was worth more.

Golf came back in 1922, when Lady Erskine of Cambo encouraged the society’s revival and Willie Auchterlonie laid out a new nine holes. The Second World War ended that too: the links was mined as part of the coastal defences and returned to rough pasture, and play never properly resumed.

Those layers survive in the hole names. The 6th hole is named Auld Links after the original 18th-century course that lay below its tee. The 18th is Cundie Brig, after the arched stone bridge over a drainage burn in front of the green, which the club dates to the 1700s.

Building a links from scratch

The revival came from Mark Parsinen, a Californian developer, and his partner Art Dunkley, with the American architect Kyle Phillips as designer. The course opened in July 2000, described by the club as the first Scottish course built on links land in more than 70 years.

As Planet Golf explains, Phillips built an entire dune system from scratch, then weathered and shaped the mounds until they looked as if the wind had put them there. Fairways were cut into staggered shelves stepping down to the shore, so that, as the club puts it, every hole embraces the sea.

GolfPass’s history of the course adds two details: former St Andrews greenkeeper Walter Woods advised on growing true links fescue, and the project won planning permission partly by keeping the Fife Coastal Path open to walkers.

The course spreads over about 220 acres and 1.8 miles of North Sea shoreline. The club’s hole-by-hole guide gives 7,226 yards from the back (black) tees, par 72; GolfPass puts the forward tees at around 5,250 yards. We think it is one of the best examples anywhere of a links built from scratch.

Pick a side off the tee

Fairways look generous, but the club’s own advice for hole after hole is about which side to be on: drive left on the 1st and 3rd, right on the 7th and 12th, and let the slopes feed the ball back to the middle. Many of the greens are tiered and heavily contoured.

The 6th, just 338 yards from the back, is a drivable par 4 with a plateau to aim for and water beyond a two-level green. The 3rd is a short par 5 guarded by a greenside bunker that, the club notes, reaches 18 yards forward of the putting surface.

Kingsbarns’ 2nd hole (2016). Photo: Iain Lowe / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The holes people remember

The 2nd, Firth. A downhill par 3 of up to 200 yards with the North Sea on the right. Look beyond the green and, across the mouth of the Firth of Tay, you can see Carnoustie on the far shore.

The 12th, Orrdeal. The longest hole on the course at 606 yards from the back, a par 5 reached after a climb to one of the best views on the course, with a green the club measures at 65 yards long. The name is a pun on its length and on the Orr family, who owned the land where the green now sits.

The 15th, Rocky Ness. The photograph hole: a par 3 of up to 212 yards played across the rocks to a green on a spit of land poking into the sea. The club’s tip is to aim at the bunker back left and let the slope do the rest. There is a drop zone for anything that finds the beach.

The 18th, Cundie Brig. A 444-yard finish up towards the clubhouse, with the fairway running hard down towards the burn short of the green.

Dunhill Links since 2001, Women’s Open in 2017

Kingsbarns has been part of the Dunhill Links since 2001. In that pro-am format, professionals and their amateur partners play one round on each of the three courses before the cut, and the final round is on the Old Course.

It also hosted the 2017 Ricoh Women’s British Open, won by In-Kyung Kim on 18 under par, a shot ahead of Jodi Ewart Shadoff. Michelle Wie opened that week with a 64, which the club says set a new course record.

Last year’s Dunhill was cut to 54 holes by high winds on Saturday, and Robert MacIntyre won by four, according to Golf Monthly.

Green fees, booking and caddies

Kingsbarns is open to visitors. No handicap certificate is needed; the club asks only that golfers keep up with a pace-of-play guideline of 4 hours 40 minutes.

• Green fees (at the time of writing): £486 from 1 May to 8 November 2026, with a replay round within seven days at £292. The 2027 rates are £430 from 27 March to 30 April, £524 from May to early November, and £590 for 12–20 July 2027, the week The Open returns to St Andrews. Juniors (17 and under) pay £110–£130.
• Booking: advance tee times open on 1 June for the following year, by phone or email; online booking is only for last-minute times, up to three days ahead. If you are entering the Old Course ballot, the club advises booking Kingsbarns first and will try to move your time if the ballot comes good.
• Season: the course is closed for the championship until 4 October and shuts for winter on 9 November, reopening on 27 March 2027.
• Caddies: £80 plus gratuity, with a money-back guarantee if golfers feel their caddie didn’t add to the round. Buggies are only for those with a medical need and are driven by a caddie.
• Getting there: about 20 minutes by car from St Andrews, roughly 1 hour 20 minutes from Edinburgh Airport.

Sources

• Kingsbarns Golf Links: History
• Kingsbarns Golf Links: Course guide
• Kingsbarns Golf Links: Reservations and green fees
• Kingsbarns Golf Links: FAQ
• Kingsbarns Golf Links: Events
• DP World Tour: Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2026
• Planet Golf: Kingsbarns Golf Links
• GolfPass: Kingsbarns at 20
• Golf Monthly: MacIntyre wins shortened Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
• Wikipedia: Alfred Dunhill Links Championship