Kingsbarns architect has designs on a new golf course for north of Scotland

Jeremy Watson, Scotland on Sunday, 28 September 2003

The American multi-millionaire who built the acclaimed Kingsbarns golf links is planning to repeat the feat in the north of Scotland. Mark Parsinen was at the course, six miles south of St Andrews, this week to watch the leading professionals and their celebrity partners in the £3.5m Dunhill Championship.

That Kingsbarns, opened only three years ago, is of sufficient quality to host the Dunhill alongside the Old Course and Carnoustie, two Open venues, is proof of Parsinen’s determination to construct one of the world’s best courses.

He is in the early stages of signing a deal to create another classic links course in Scotland. "I am not at liberty as yet to disclose where it is," said Parsinen, who went into the golf course development business after selling his successful Californian computer company. "It will be a delight because Scotland truly is magnificent golfing territory."

The original nine-hole course - the 12th oldest in Britain - which skirted the coastline below Kingsbarns village was obliterated when the Ministry of Defence commandeered the land during the Second World War.

For more than 40 years it was used for grazing animals and growing crops. Then a consortium of local developers realised its potential.

But when their plans came to nothing, in stepped Kyle Phillips, a renowned American golf course architect holidaying in Fife who persuaded Parsinen that here was his opportunity to create a gem.

When Parsinen retired at 41, his thoughts turned to his boyhood obsession, golf. When his local club in Sacramento told him he would have to wait five years to join, he built his own course. Granite City, is now one of the most highly-rated courses on the US west coast.

After raising £5m, work began on Kingsbarns in 1996. "Within 20 minutes of getting to Kingsbarns, I knew that this represented the opportunity to create something really special," he said.

It is regularly ranked in the world’s top 100 courses and Britain’s top 20. The Scottish Incoming Golf Tour Operators’ Association voted it their "most outstanding" course this year.

Parsinen unashamedly drew from the dunes of Cruden Bay, the greens of Royal Dornoch and the legendary humps, hollows and bunkers of the Old Course to fashion a links that is exacting, but fun to play.

Projects in New Mexico and Oregon are on his books before he will be able to turn his attentions fully back to Scotland.

Wherever his new course is, it will be open to everyone. "My roots are in public golf and I want everyone to be able to play my courses. They should be fun to play at a reasonable price."