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Golf in Scotland

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The courses by county. Choose a part of Scotland, or scroll down for every course.

FifeEast LothianAyrshireAngusHighlandsAberdeenshireArgyll & islandsPerthshire
Did you know20 hours ago

Cruden Bay had a golf club long before the railway built its links: a ballot box marked 'Cruden Golf Club 1791' survives.

Those first golfers are thought to have played on Ward Hill, which can be seen from the third hole of today's golf course.

See Cruden Bay Golf Club · Aberdeenshire
Course of the day19 hours ago

Balnagask Golf Course.

Golf has been played on the Balnagask headland since 1905, at the mouth of Aberdeen harbour, with the North Sea for a boundary and the ships coming and going below. It is a public course, run for the city, over rolling coastal ground of hidden fairways, high tees and ravines walled with gorse; one member said it was so hilly it kept him fit. Beside it stands the Girdle Ness lighthouse, built by Robert Stevenson and first lit in 1833, after a whaling ship was wrecked in the bay below and only two of the 44 on board were saved. The lighthouse is on the club's crest. At the course's edge is Torry Battery, the old harbour fort, said to be the best place in Scotland to watch bottlenose dolphins.

WhereTorry, AberdeenGolf since1905Course18 holes, clifftop, publicLaid out byArchie Simpson, James BraidSee the course
Quiz19 hours ago

In 1815 a golfer bet a gallon of whisky that he could hit a ball from Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh over Arthur's Seat. How many strokes did it take?

Did you know18 hours ago

The slow-motion beach run that opens Chariots of Fire was filmed on the West Sands, beside the golf links at St Andrews, on 24 April 1980.

Local athletes did the running. Sand got into the camera and scratched the film, so the crew came back a week later and shot it again in rougher water. A plaque by the beach marks the spot.

See Old Course at St Andrews · Fife
Did you know18 hours ago

Willie and Alex Smith of Carnoustie are still the only brothers ever to win the US Open, one of golf's four great championships.

Willie won it in 1899, and Alex in 1906 and again in 1910. Both learned to play on the golf links at Carnoustie before they left for America.

See the course
True or false17 hours ago

True or false: the entertainer Bruce Forsyth's brother is remembered on a war memorial above a green at Turnberry, in Ayrshire.

Today17 hours agoLothianDunbar Golf CourseAttractionMorayshireCullen Links Golf ClubAttractionLothianNorth Berwick Golf ClubAttractionAyrshirePrestwick Golf ClubAttractionRoss and CromartyRoyal Dornoch Golf ClubAttractionRoss and CromartyTain Golf ClubAttraction

A day for the links.

6° and clear: the sort of afternoon the coast courses were laid out for.

See all the courses
Did you know16 hours ago

Old Tom Morris, four times winner of the Open, was born on North Street in St Andrews in 1821, the son of a weaver.

He kept the greens of the Old Course for nearly forty years and laid out golf courses all over Scotland. A plaque marks the house he was born in.

See Old Course at St Andrews · Fife
True or false16 hours ago

True or false: Mary Queen of Scots is recorded playing golf a few days after her husband was murdered.

Did you know16 hours ago

Henry Cotton won the 1937 Open at Carnoustie, in Angus, in rain that almost flooded the course, with the whole American Ryder Cup team behind him.

Every member of the American side had come over for the championship, and the final day was played in incessant cold rain. Cotton, the English champion, closed with a round of 71 to win by two strokes from Reg Whitcombe. It was his second Open.

See Carnoustie Golf Links · Angus
From Issue 8 of Hidden Scotland magazineIssue 815 hours ago

Fife: Discovering the Nooks and Crannies

Our guide to Fife, from the East Neuk villages of Pittenweem, Anstruther and St Monans to St Andrews, Culross, Falkland Palace, the Wemyss Caves and places to eat and stay.

Read the story
Did you know15 hours ago

The fifth hole on the Balcomie links at Crail is called Hell's Hole, after the rocky stretch of beach beside it that the fishermen called Hell.

It is the hardest hole on the golf course, a long par four along the shore, but the name is older than the golf.

See Crail Golfing Society · Fife