When the eyes of the golfing world turn to St Andrews in Scotland, as they do every October during the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and next July when The Open Championship returns, it is the venerable Old Course on which they focus. Scant attention is paid to the adjacent New Course, which is routinely tramped over by spectators oblivious to its marvels. But that's rather like overlooking a Matisse because it is next to a Picasso: the New is one of the finest links courses in Britain, and were it not next to the Old, would be a destination in its own right.

Moreover, as one who played both courses hundreds of times during four years in St Andrews supposedly in pursuit of a history degree rather than a single-figure handicap, I can testify that the New, which opened in 1895 and is therefore anything but, offers a greater challenge. It is tighter yet fairer, more rewarding of good shots than the Old, but less forgiving of poor ones. It was designed by Old Tom Morris, one of the fathers of modern golf-course architecture, and of all the courses he helped to create, which include jewels such as Muirfield and Carnoustie, it has probably been tinkered with less than any other. The New Course today, to all intents and purposes, is the New Course as the old boy envisaged it.

It begins fairly sedately, two reasonably straightforward par-4s luring newcomers into the belief that they are better than their handicaps suggest. The next might disabuse them. It is a splendid par-5 with a double-green, one of many features the New and the Old have in common, but damnably difficult to hold with a third shot, let alone a second. The fourth, fifth and sixth are as fine a run of consecutive holes as you'll find anywhere.The fourth is a 351-yard dogleg requiring a tee-shot of laser accuracy, and the fifth is a short hole that smiles at you from the tee but snaps mercilessly at your scorecard. The par-4 sixth is arguably the toughest hole on the course, but what it lacks in gentleness it gives back in aspect. Nowhere on any of the golf courses at St Andrews is there a better, more evocative view of the ‘auld grey toon' itself than from the sixth on the New.

Nor is there a more spectacularly-appointed par-3 than the ninth, which runs along the side of the Eden Estuary and completes one of the great outward nines in links golf. I am slightly less enamoured of the inward half, but it's a strictly relative judgement. There are some fantastic holes still to play, not least the punishing 10th, which begins on an elevated tee that can't be any less wind-buffeted than the top of the Matterhorn. "Is it always like this?" said Eric, the New Zealander with whom I played the New a couple of months ago. "This," I said truthfully, "counts as a light breeze up here."

Eric pronounced the New as memorable a track as he had played during golfing travels on three continents, and left St Andrews without any regret that he had not managed to play the world-famous Old Course.

New Course St Andrews Fact Box

Green fees: £65 (€74), seven days a week (the Old is closed on Sundays).

Playing information: Starting times cannot be booked — the New is a walk-on course — but members of the Royal & Ancient club have every second tee-time at their disposal.

Contact: The St Andrews Links Trust,+44 (0)1334 466666

Further information: Accommodation at the luxurious Old Course Hotel (+44 (0)1334 474371) starts from £890 (€1,020) per night. Alternatively, at the somewhat less deluxe end of the scale, try the Pilmour Hotel, from £50 (€57) a night (+44 (0)1334 473252)

Transport: Fly to Edinburgh and rent a car; it takes approximately one hour from the airport to St Andrews