Golfing in Scotland

Second only to St Andrew’s in golf lore, Muirfield is home to The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, the world’s oldest golf club. Old Tom Morris, Harry Colt and Tom Simpson designed the layout – two concentric rings of nine holes that go clockwise out and counterclockwise back.

Except for the tee shot on the 11th, the whole course is laid out in front of you, with no trickery save the bumpy fairways. Even the greens are perfectly sized for the approach shot required – the mark of a totally fair challenge.

It’s so good – and so famous – that when Jack Nicklaus designed the course of his dreams in his home state of Ohio, he named it after this Gullane beaut.

Pick your superlative: the oldest, the most famous, the most storied. Or, simply, the Home of Golf. All there is to say about the Old Course, the world’ most famous and revered course, has most likely been said many times. Carved by Mother Nature, golf’s spiritual home is an experience without parallel. The Valley of Sin, the Road Hole, the bridge over the Swilcan burn… these are a golfer’s hallowed relics, to be revered as part of the golfing divine.

There are harder courses, and ones in a more spectacular setting, but the Old Course is special; its famous tee shots and infamous bunkers, its huge greens and crazy fairways, make up the greatest walk-in golf.

When you set foot on the Old Course, you’re walking in the footsteps of every great golfer to have graced the game for the last few centuries. And if that’s not enough of a reason, consider this: it’s a public course, open to everyone who joins the tee time lottery. All you have to do is put your name down.

A four-hour drive from Glasgow, Royal Dornoch is a pilgrimage – and worth every effort. Wild, isolated and spellbindingly beautiful, the course – the third-oldest links in the world – bears the authorial stamp of Old Tom Morris, and it’s here that Donald Ross learnt his craft: the turtleback greens at Pinehurst No. 2 were inspired by the devilish domes that make this links a proper challenge.

Everything else about it is straightforward, but perfectly maintained. The humble clubhouse and straight out, straight back layout are deceptive, for this is a truly special place. Forget your score, just soak up the atmosphere and remember that you’re playing in the shadow of golf’s very beginnings.

This stunning links, tucked away north-east of Inverness in northern Scotland, is a delight both to play and look at, with widescreen views as far as the Black Isle peninsula.

Unlike many links courses, the fairways aren’t overly tight, especially off the tees, but it puts all the onus on the quality of your approach, which needs to be accurate to find the perfectly protected greens. The opening holes on both nines make their way along the water before rising up to higher ground; this is where the views really start to open out.

It’s not an old course, but it’s a regular host of the Scottish Open – and it’s not hard to see why.

It’s nicknamed ‘car-nasty’ and when the wind is up, it’s not difficult to understand why: the championship course at Carnoustie is fiendishly difficult at the best of times, but when nature gets involved it can break even the toughest golfing spirit.

It’s a proper test; of length, accuracy, strategy and a whole heap of patience. Out of bounds beckons on plenty of holes, while the devilishly placed bunkers just seem to attract a disproportionate number of shots.

Play well here and you can comfortably call yourself an experienced and talented golfer. A regular host of the Open Championship.

This modern masterpiece sits on the southern tip of Jura Island, its humps and bumps a feat of golfing imagination and creativity. There’s a run of holes that hug the cliff tops, but the whole course is a delight and well worth the inevitable sleeve (or two) of lost balls.

It’s not an easy course, but the stunning surroundings – as well as the ultra-fancy hotel, which was completely refurbed in 2020 – make this one of the very best golfing experiences in Europe.

Despite only hosting its first Open Championship in 1977 (the classic ‘Duel in the Sun’ between Nicklaus and Watson), the Ailsa course has become a classic, and not just because the 1977 championship was so good. Its location is perfect – on a headland overlooking Ailsa Crag and, on a good day, the Mull of Kintyre and the Isle of Arran.

The course itself – first laid out in the early 20th century and redesigned by Mackenzie Ross after WWII – is as good as any you’ll play in Scotland. The finish is as tough as it gets, starting with the deceptively short 15th and concluding with the 18th, backdropped by a hotel and renamed the ‘Duel in the Sun.’

The course was upgraded substantially after Donald Trump bought it in 2015; all it’s waiting for now is to host its fifth Open.