|
|
It is a terrible thing to be a golf fanatic. It leads you to do crazy things, like buying an hotel just so you can watch the best golf in comfort! I even designed an hotel for a man who spent $200 million building his own golf courses and hotel. I don’t understand it myself, knocking a little white ball around. They say it was originally called flog, as the golfers keep flogging away at that little ball and was reversed to make golf, only to save the players blushes..
The home of golf is reckoned to be the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, on the sandy links by the side of the North Sea, where the wind whips in straight from the arctic with a biting chill. I was lucky on my visit to be blessed with balmy weather, so the hotel hadn’t lit the fires, although baskets of logs stood ready to be used if need be. Under pale blue northern skies and bright sunlight I watched as a hare ran down the pathways between the greens, unseen by those looking at their balls with fierce concentration.
|
Entrance vestibule with domed ceiling allows entry to both Reception lobby, Conference spaces and the restaurant area - click to see the exterior.
|
|
"Public areas too have worn well, with some looking as if they were done quite recently, a tribute to the unknown designers who did the work."
|
The Old Course Hotel was my temporary home, with fine views across the links to the North Sea, in what was once a Railway hotel; with the petrol price shock, it probably wishes the platform that now carries their conservatory still had trains pulling up to it.
Classic architect's atrocity on the outside but almost classic country house on the inside, the hotel was 'Scottish Hotel of the Year' in 2007. Bought by global bathroom supply company Kohler some years ago the Old Course Hotel is now reaping the benefits of an investment programme from the golf-crazy owners. Parts of the hotel which have not been touched for some years are now receiving investment, literally from the top down, as the classic top floor dining room has received new floor to ceiling windows maximising views from the golfers on the links below out to the distant rigs and service vessels of the Scottish oil industry in the North Sea beyond.
Whilst the appeal to golfers is evident, the hotel has broadened its appeal by adding a new Spa and refurbishing its impressive conference facilities. The central section of bedrooms has also been refurbished with, of course, Kohler products used throughout, although these are the less familiar US style versions from the UK ranges for which Kohler are finding a bouyant demand in European projects.
|
New spa entrance echoes the round entry lobby to the main building. Click to see how the new windows have transformed the views from the main restaurant.
|
Old Course Hotel
|
