KILMARNOCK BARASSIE
DG SCOTLAND 2024 EDITOR, KEVIN MARKHAM
A 27-hole traditional links course founded in 1887, and wrapped up with gorse, heather and pine trees. It’s a stunning combination of colours, enhanced by paths of crushed seashells that lead you ever onwards to crisp, tight fairways and sleek greens. The course is enclosed between two railway lines but it remains a seaside links with the winds ever-present. 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… with the newest nine holes possessing the strongest links traits, which is not surprising since they nestle up against both Western Gailes and Dundonald Links. The club embraces visitors from around
the world and when you play here you will join the likes of Jose Maria Olazabal, the Molinari brothers, and Graeme McDowell in doing so. Investigate the club’s Walker Cup contributions in the clubhouse. The club will host Regional Open Qualifying from
2023 to 2026.
Did You Know?
The Walker Cup has been played 48 times. The GB&I team has won it on just nine occasions. On three of those, a member of Kilmarnock Barassie was part of the team. Take a bow Jack McDonald (2015), Gordon Sherry (1995) and Jim Milligan (1989). No other club can boast such a feat.