As a rule, golf course reviews do not make the news. Except this one. Tom Doak – the extremely knowledgable and outspoken architect and critic – famously gave the Castle Course a zero on his scale of 1 to 10. And – frankly – he had some valid points. This is a flawed course. It is not a course where keeping score will do good things for your blood pressure. But it’s a course you should play and its a course that, if you go into it with the right mindset, you’ll love. It’s a ridiculous course, at times. The greens are borderline impossible, at times. You’ll hate moments of it. But like an uber hot pepper, you’ll want to go back for more pain. Maybe it’s the views, maybe it’s the cliffs. Maybe because it is so ridiculous at times that it ends up being original. It may not even matter. But you should play the Castle Course when you’re in St. Andrews.