Crail (Craighead)

The Crail Golfing Society may be over 200 years old, but they are well-versed in modern technology. In the mid-1990s, a decision was taken to buy a comparatively small 114 acres of land next to their Balcomie course to turn the cliff top setting into a new, seaside golf course due to the demand of an growing number of visiting golfers.

The appointment of American Gil Hanse, an amateur architect in the British Isles, to design the modern 18-hole layout raised several eyebrows. Following his departure from Tom Doak's renaissance golf design team in 1993, he established his own company and set out to design courses that were "simple and elegant in style and complex in technique and appeal."

Hanse may have been an unexpected choice for architect from outside the United States, but he was no stranger to British shores, having spent a year during his cornell studies working with the renowned english golf course design company Hawtree, so he was well aware of the expectations for his first design in the United Kingdom.

Despite the fact that the landscape is more pasture and headland than real sandy soiled links property, his description of a scottish links is excellent. Hanse faced an difficult difficulty in incorporating many stonewalls into the plan, including one of special archaeological significance, "Danes Dyke." This raised road stretches the length of five holes, providing a daunting obstacle from the tee on the uphill 11th hole and a blind path to the green on the 15th.