Course: Royal Ayrshire Golf Links
Architect: Jeff Kissel
Begun: July 1997
Completed: December 1999
Revised: June 2000 (cleaned up land plot, redid #18 green, other minor modifications)
Released: June 30, 2000

Royal Ayrshire Golf Links is my first links-style course.  Back in '97, I wanted to 
design a links course so I copied Prestwick's land plot.  And I started designing the 
course.  I loved the style I could do the holes in.  But for some reason I only designed 
the first five holes and left it for more than two years, until I got up to school in the 
fall of '99.  Slowly but surely, I finished the course, and you might notice some 
differences in the design of the first five holes versus the last thirteen.  The name 
comes from the fact that Prestwick is on the Ayrshire coast.

The course has an interesting variety of holes.  It has characteristics of many links 
courses, with mounded greens, pot bunkers, blind shots, sea breezes, and even a "road hole" 
(actually two of them).  It's pretty short for championship JNSE standards but is 
challenging nonetheless because many of the greens are small and mounded, and all of them 
are protected by trouble on different sides.  The course has five par threes, nine 
par fours, and four par fives for a par of 36-35=71.  The course has no cart paths, 
as most British links courses do not, and also has no parallel holes on the terrain.  
I felt that doing parallel holes for this course would be too much work for very little 
gain.  I realize it's less realistic this way, but some of the holes might get a little 
close if they were put on together so I decided to leave them off.

Some of the better holes include #3, a long par four along a road; #4, a short downwind 
par four with a humped green and OB long across a road; #12, a short dogleg par four with 
lots of bunkers and a dune behind the green; #13, a gorgeous short par three with a 
"postage stamp" green; #16, a downhill par 3 where the ocean behind the green is in play; 
#17, a long, upwind, and uphill par 4 and (in my opinion) the toughest hole on the course; 
and #18, a downhill par 5 with the beach and ocean coming into play by the green.  
#18 originally had a huge green out on a peninsula with water all the way around the 
front, but I found that unrealistic so I changed it to the present configuration.

I think that Royal Ayrshire is probably my "second-fiddle" fantasy course to 
Boulder Beach.  It has a lot of unique and very pretty holes.  It can be a challenge, 
but is not unplayable.  And most importantly, it achieved what I was trying to achieve 
with the design: a links feel with my own personal touch.  Enjoy!