@ Ken Moum -
I have walked Coul extensively.
It is an incredible site.
I dont want to comment on your comments as I get you are expressing an opinion.
Thankfully, those with vision do "get it".
Bandon, Cabot, Barnbougle, Sand Valley, Sand Hills.....that, to me, is a whole helluva lot of "getting it".
Okay, I am actually surprised my naive comments haven't actually drawn any more ire than they have. I suppose it's because almost no one has actually seen the place from the ground and a most of those who have drove by on the closest road, which doesn't offer much of a view, especially since it's singletrack where you best be paying attention.
Whatever, we went out there on bicycle again today from Dornoch, and this time we pressed on down the abandoned railway line that runs from just north of Dornoch well past Embo. We didn't quite make it to Loch Fleet, but I climbed one of the bigger dunes on the west side to get a much better view.
I have to admit that the northern portion of the property most definitely looks like a site that any golf course architect would love to get his hands on.
But to to refer to my earlier comments, does it look like a golf course?
Ummm, no. It looks like a place where you could build a HELL of a golf course. Build, not "find."
The great links courses I've seen and played are actually mostly flat... Their undulations often are hard to see even from a couple of hundred yards away. Places like TOC only show their real contours for photographers in the raking like of sunrise or sunset.
Coul doesn't appear to be like that. If they've found enough flattish ground for fairways good on 'em.
FWIW, I just went back and re-read the first 3 or 4 pages of posts in this thread, and now I can't decide if I think building a course here is a good idea or not.