Favorite Hole 

No. 6, par 4, 401 yards 

Playing from the prominent knoll around which Colt seemingly centered the design, the sixth presents little intrigue off the tee but finishes at one of the most spectacular greens in golf. While I could have picked any of the first eight holes as my favorite, the sixth green captured my fascination and left me pondering how one created such a thing. I have never before seen a putting surface so chaotically undulating. It deserves its very own spotlight. 

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Overall Thoughts

A golfer’s pilgrimage to St. Andrews is almost unanimously centered around the Old Course and its storied history. From here, most visitors venture outward to places like Kingsbarns, Elie, Dumbarnie, and Crail, blindly omitting the Old Course’s neighbors. Perhaps the Old casts too great a shadow, marring golfers from the great treasures that the Links Trust has to offer. For my money, I side more with Alister MacKenzie and believe Harry Colt’s Eden is the second-best course on St. Andrew’s links and worthy of study.

Unlike the Old, New, and Jubilee, the Eden was more deliberately designed and constructed by Colt. The three predecessors are largely a product of what was lying on the ground, carefully crafted and massaged into form by Old Tom Morris. Forged by nature, if you will *wink wink*. By the turn of the century, golf became more of an engineering feat to optimize the land for sport. It’s this more thoughtfully designed and constructed nature that sets the Eden apart on this 700-acre golfing haven. The routing is more complex than the simple out and back that most links follow, and the greens feel much more deliberate and intriguing rather than random. But don’t get me wrong, the Eden still seamlessly blends into the landscape and visits the most interesting landmarks the property has to offer. It simply does so in a more refined manner than the chaotic randomness found on the other courses. 

The Eden Course begins similarly to its siblings to the east with a straight(ish) jaunt towards the Eden Estuary. The first green provides a not-so-subtle foreshadowing of what’s to come: rollicking green contours. Upon reaching the third green, pressed up against the bank of the estuary, the course really turns up the dial and showcases Colt’s design prowess. Turning back to play along the water, the fourth features an intimidating volcano-like green just 270-some yards away. A true bait hole begging you to take on the risk of a water ball for an eagle putt. Colt then turns your attention to the aforementioned central dune complex that houses the fifth, eighth, and 11th greens, all unique in their own ways. The fifth sits down in a pocket at the base of the dune, the eighth rests on top with a mental false front, and the 11th is benched into the backside with a multi-tiered and multi-pocketed surface. Six and seven then make a quick loop out and then back to the shared tee box for five and eight, returning you to the central knoll by way of two fascinating par 4s. A smooth sailing par 5 returns you to the start of the round and brings you down from the infectious high provided by the first eight holes. 

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While the back nine is evidently less interesting than the front, there’s still a strong handful of quality golf holes. The 11th green is absolutely splendid, and the diagonal buried wall really makes you think your way through what kind of approach shot you want to hit. Amazing rumpled contours short of the 16th green make for fun ground options, whether hitting your second or third shot into the wavy green. A Road hole homage greets you on the 17th with a gently curving OB fence down the right, which the green is also pressed up against, as well as the customary and much less intimidating “road” bunker guarding the left. Finally, the sporty 18th provides a birdie chance with its green set in a shallow bowl. While these are the highlights of the back nine, I’d be remiss not to call out the heinous work carried out by Donald Steel on the 14th and 15th holes. It appears as if he tried to build the polar opposite of links holes, so devoid of character that it plagues the round. These two holes feel as if they could have been copied and pasted from a Chicagoland municipal golf course with the egregious man-made pond and dead-flat, totally uninteresting nature of each hole. I’d be thrilled to see these two holes wiped away from the existence of the earth and replaced with something more sympathetic to Colt’s genius found throughout the rest of the course.

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Despite this pair of deeply criminal holes on the far end of the routing, the Eden Course provides all there is to love about golf with its truly special greens, strategic and fun golf holes, and sporty length. You’d certainly be disappointed if you missed this course on a trip to the Home of Golf.

1 Egg

(How We Rate Courses)

With more than 10 top-notch golf holes, a clever routing, and the best set of greens outside of the Old Course, the Eden deserves more praise and recognition than it gets. This is a course I would adore to play every day of the week. 

Course TourThe Eden Course at St. Andrews (Illustration by Matt Rouches)

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