"Anybody could play there and have a good time."

John Huggan played Castle Stuart--the new Gil Hanse creation for developer Mark Parsinen in Northern Scotland--and offers a glowing review along with comments from others and a nice mention about the efforts of shaper Jim Wagner.

"Castle Stuart is unbelievable," says European Tour pro Stephen Gallacher. "I think it is the best new course I have ever played. The layout is fantastic, as are the facilities. It looks as though it has been there for ever, completely natural.

"The fairways may be wide at first glance, but you have to attack the greens from the right sides. Plus, there aren't many holes where the high-handicapper couldn't get away with a 'skitter' off the tee. Anybody could play there and have a good time.

"I especially enjoyed the short par-4s, classic risk-and-reward holes where you can take a chance off the tee. That's a nice change from many courses these days where 250-yard par-3s and stupid rough seem to be the norm. In contrast, Castle Stuart is proper golf."

Gallacher speaks the truth, of course. The outwardly generous fairways – 60-80 yards wide in places – at Castle Stuart are a feature increasingly less common in an age where great spaces to drive into are far from the convention at the professional level. There, one-dimensional thinking of officials defines the point of golf as asking players to drive down narrow and constricting corridors of fairway bordered by long grass.

Happily, that sad and depressing scenario is the antithesis of golf at Castle Stuart. With width comes a multitude of options from the tee, affording the player the chance to decide where best to play. This does not make driving easy; as it is at all seaside courses the skill is to drive the ball through the winds to the correct spot on the fairway. So it is that there are many different shots to be had from different sides of the fairways. But one thing is constant: the thoughtful, accurate player can always open the ideal angles that provide for significantly less demanding approach shots.

I've previously posted images of the course here, here, here, here, and here.