The resort will include a small luxury Hotel & Spa, 'resort-ownership' Lodges & Apartments, plus a second Seaside Course. Castle Stuart’s goal is to add to the rich fabric of golf in the Scottish Highlands - a fabric made rich by Royal Dornoch, Nairn, Brora and many other fine golf clubs.

The ‘art deco’ design emphasises a desire to present, what many consider, stunning views over the Moray Firth from each of the three floors of the clubhouse. The ground floor is organised around views from the golf shop, restaurant and bar and provides easy access to a patio overlooking the practice putting green and the Moray Firth. The second floor locker rooms and ‘wrap around balcony’ are also conceived with the panoramic views in mind. The third floor comprises a lounge and dining area with balcony available for private use.

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The tee shot on the first is perhaps one of the most unsettling at Castle Stuart, with penalties lurking both left and right in the form of a solid bank of gorse and the full expanse of the Moray Firth- stroke and distanc to the left and lateral water hazard to the right.Contrary to your first impression, the play area is wide (60 yards) and forgiving with supporting upslopes on either side. A modest drive in play leaves a straightforward approach to a green more forgiving to recoveries from the left than right. With its simplicity and flip-flopping asymmetry the opening hole can be straigtforward and yet vexing.

If you managed your game successfully on the first two holes, you're ready for a different kind of fun. A solid tee shot of any shape accompanied by the appropriate target line can find this green. Yes, this is a drivable par 4 under most conditions. The green is long and narrow (some 14 paces wide) and slightly sloping rightward toward the sea.Recoveries from left of the green are quite testy although one can putt, chip, or wedge it from the unevenly 'rumpled' and tightly mown fairway cut.

Aggressive players choosing wedge, beware of the elevated green sloping away from your recovery position on the left.Those of more modest aspirations, have fun recovering with your putter. But whatever the decision on the tee, try and take the bunkers out of play with the first shot and remember how testing the lie, stance, and angle can be from left of the green.

Hole 8. Par 3 SI 15

The contours of this 'punchbowl' green make a first-putt position relative to pin placement an easy or perplexing problem to solve.

Consider the green with its significant contour running front to back leaving the lower half portion nearest the sea. This aspect makes approach shots from the higher rightside of the fairway difficult and perhaps made even more so given the likelihood of a 'hanging lie' on that side of the fairway; but for safety, playing toward the fairway bunker slightly right of the middle is a reasonable target line; but, if you're a long hitter or the hole is playing downwind, that fairway bunker must be taken into account. Once on the green you'll notice that a misstep won't put you in the sea alongside, but it's close.

Before considering the challenges of the 18th, take note of the topography of the entire course and with a look over the cliff edge, marvel at where you've been. Now the challenge. This partially blind and potentially intimidating tee shot cries out for focus - ignore everything at this moment except a good line in which is dead on the prominent blue scottish saltire left of the clubhouse. Trust it. Use it. Let your drive go.

Depending on your drive and wind conditions, you might consider going for the green in two. Appreciate that the 18th is the largest of Castle Stuart's greens; that there is hidden fairway in the hollow beyond the 'open sandy area' in fron of the green; that a shot hit slightly left and short of the green can take a down slope.

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