Kilmarnock (Barassie) Golf Club

The club was formed in 1887 by golfers from Kilmarnock, ten miles inland, who took the train to the coast at Barassie to play, which is why a club named after one town sits in another. The original routing is credited to Theodore Moone and much of it survives. In 1990 the club added nine new holes on adjoining ground, and the eighteen played today combines nine of the old with nine of the new.

It sits on the Ayrshire links belt between Troon and Irvine, in company that includes Royal Troon, Western Gailes, Prestwick and Turnberry a little further south. Being surrounded by that is both the club’s difficulty and its opportunity.

What it asks of you

Par 72 over 6,852 yards on ground that is sandy and firm underfoot, largely flat by the standards of the dunes further south, and open to the wind off the Firth of Clyde. It is slightly inland of the true dune line, so purists call it a links and heathland mixture rather than a pure links, and both halves of that description are fair.

The newer holes run through heather and broom and are the more dramatic. The older ones are flatter, tighter and more old-fashioned, and they ask for placement rather than power. The greens are the common thread: quick, firm and consistently rated among the best-conditioned in Ayrshire.

The rough is not the punishing kind found at some neighbours, which makes this a course a mid-handicapper can enjoy in a wind that would ruin their day at Troon.

What players say about it

Visitors are welcome with booking advised, and the review record is healthy. The notes below summarise recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveller review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course. We report what comes back repeatedly rather than isolated remarks, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favour

• The greens draw the strongest praise, repeatedly described as lightning fast and kept to championship standard even outside the main season.
• Value is the second theme and it is emphatic. Genuine championship links golf at a fraction of what the famous neighbours charge.
• The welcome and the facilities are praised more here than at most Scottish clubs, and visitors arriving without a member say so.
• The rough is described as fair rather than penal, which reviewers appreciate on a links played in wind.

What comes up against

• It is not a pure links, and visitors who came for dunes and sea views find it flatter and further from the water than they expected.
• The mixture of old and new holes does not read as one course, and the join is visible to anyone paying attention.
• The neighbours overshadow it. Reviewers routinely frame it as a good second choice rather than a destination, which is unfair but persistent.
• Wind exposure on open ground makes a bad-weather round hard work.

Getting there and when to go

Barassie is on the coast just north of Troon, with its own railway station, around forty minutes from Glasgow and fifteen from Prestwick airport. It fits naturally into an Ayrshire trip alongside Western Gailes, Prestwick and Royal Troon, and it is the one on that list a visitor can usually get on at short notice.

The course plays all year and the sandy ground drains well. May to September gives the best weather and the longest days. Booking ahead is advised in the summer months.

Green fees

Rates and visitor tee times are handled by the club and vary by season, with a nine-hole course also on the property. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published architecture coverage for the history and the 1990 extension, and the club’s own site for access and booking. The opinion section summarises public reviews and player discussions read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played this course, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.