A few holes away from being a great course

If you are only planning to play the Castle one time on a trip to St. Andrews I believe it is worth playing, in spite of the quality of golf in the area. The course has ~9 very good holes, ~5 okay holes, and 4 head-scratchers that most of the critical reviews tend to focus on.

Some of the good holes are number two which has a risk-reward drive and stunning views of the city, six with its fantastic shot into a great against the property line, and the signature 17.

The okay holes are mainly just boring and 1, 5, 10, 13, and 16 come to mind for me as fairly straight away and unstrategic, though still benefitting from the views. This leaves a handful of somewhat unenjoyable....mainly uphill or downhill....holes such as 11, 12, and 15 which I do find a bit over "quirky"

While you might catch a bad break on these holes that disrupts your round - that's probably not the reason that you're playing the Castle Course. It's to see stunning views of St. Andrews town and hit approach shots on cliffs overlooking the ocean and in that sense, the course delivers its intention with good conditioning and enough strong holes that it remains memorable.