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1. The Royal Hotel in Campbeltown received a top-to-down renovation. 2. A guest room at the Royal hotel. 3. The Royal overlooks Campbeltown Harbour. 4. The Black Sheep Pub is a gathering place for visitors and residents of Campbeltown. Aberdeen. The Dunes falls squarely in the latter camp—it's as wild as links golf gets. Mach Dunes, as it's referred to colloquially, has a unique creation tale. The UK's environmental regulations have intensifed since the days of Old Tom, to put it mildly, and the property Southworth had in mind had been designated a Site of Special Scientifc Interest (SSSI). In the interest of protecting an endangered orchid, David Kidd was compelled to tread lightly, shaping only the tees and greens—on a 275-acre site, only 7 acres were disturbed. For the past decade or so, "minimalism" has been the buzzword in golf design, but Mach Dunes often feels beyond minimalist—it's more like cross-country golf. In a couple of places, big landforms awkwardly barge into play in such a way that one is convinced no architect would have allowed them to remain had his hands not been tied by the environmentalists, but this is part of the fun. Indeed, the best way for visitors to experience Mach Dunes is in the traditional Scottish manner— by playing a match, rather than maintaining the card-and-pencil mentality of the more sedate and "fair" (as if golf were meant to be "fair"!) American game. Embracing the inevitable crazy bounces unlocks our ability to fully enjoy Kidd's design. One can say of Mach Dunes, without a trace of hyperbole, that it possesses golf holes you won't fnd anywhere else. On the very short par-four 13th, for example, golfers attempting to drive the green take dead aim at a distant X (like a railroad crossing), then traverse the humpy-bumpy land with great anticipation—given the heaving terrain, there's no telling where one's ball might end up. The green rests like a tossed-aside blanket at the base of a family of dunes: Imagine chipping into a skate park's half-pipe and you're part of the way there. Early visitors to Mach Dunes returned with concerns about the course's playability, reporting that ball-eating rough had led to some slow rounds. This problem has since been alleviated, in part due to an ever-improving relationship between the club and Scottish Natural Heritage, but also thanks to the efforts of the herd of black-faced sheep that roam the grounds. (At Mach Dunes, as at other sheep-mown courses, if you see the ruminants hunkered down by the clubhouse, you probably don't want to be on the links—even if the weather seems perfect, somehow they just "know" a front is coming.) While the Dunes is reasonably lenient with wayward shots, it's a course that presents the player with an almost overwhelming amount of visual 84 Tempus-Magazine.com . Summer 2013 Rwanda's amazing, inspiring, and humbling story is unfolding right now.