Old Petty opens for play at gateway to the Scottish Highlands

The routing works around wetlands by the coast.Clyde Johnson

Golf course development would never be mistaken for Hollywood filmmaking. But the two industries do share one trait: both know how to stage a rollout. Movies get premieres and advance screenings. New courses get preview play.

Nothing, though, compares to opening night.

Or, in this case, opening day.

That moment arrived Friday in Scotland, where Cabot Highlands held an official ribbon cutting for Old Petty, the second course at the resort formerly known as Castle Stuart.

Adding a second course was part of the plan when Cabot acquired Castle Stuart in 2022. Tom Doak was enlisted as the architect, with his longtime associate, Clyde Johnson, overseeing matters on the ground. Together, they shaped a layout across rumpled terrain beside the Moray Firth, routing holes around tidal inlets and alongside 400-year-old Castle Stuart.

The course itself was named for another nearby structure, Old Petty Church, which stands sentinel to the right of the 2nd hole. Among the routing’s other many memorable features are crossing fairways on the 1st and 18th holes and coastal vistas that emerge at different points throughout the round, only to disappear behind dunes. Those fleeting glimpses are something of a metaphor for the marketing of the course itself, which held limited preview play last year. A sneak peek prior to the main event.

For Cabot, the opening marks another milestone in the transformation of the property into a luxury golf destination anchored by two marquee courses. Gil Hanse and the late Mark Parsinen designed Castle Stuart, which already ranks among GOLF’s Top 100 courses in the World. Old Petty shares the same firm-and-fast DNA, but no one would mistake the two layouts for twins.

“It was important to build something that would fit naturally with the great courses in the area while still having its own identity,” Doak said in a release announcing the opening.