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Carnoustie Links
Par 72, 6941 yards
While celebrated as one of the great venues in championship golf,
Carnoustie must also be regarded as one of the most demanding. This
is a tough golf course that few have tamed. Carnoustie is truly a
great challenge to the able golfer. It is not for the novice or the
faint hearted, although everyone who loves and enjoys the game will
marvel at its intricacies. It is simply a 'must' for the avid player
for, as Hogan said, "No player's experience can be complete without
playing Carnoustie." Great skill and thought are prerequisite for
the challenge that is Carnoustie but a bit of luck can make a huge
difference too.
Gleneagles Kings Course
Par 70, 6471 yards
The Kings is a triumph of golf course design. Braid hardly disturbed
the Highland terrain but rather insinuated golf holes upon it. Every
hole is a surprise, not one overlooked by another so that one has
the glorious sensation of being the only ones on it. The Kings is a
tough track and has hosted many great championships. The Kings is
arguably the best inland course in Scotland; the eighteenth being
one of the most glorious finishes in golf.
Gleneagles Queens Course
Par 68, 5965 yards
The most benign but perhaps the most beautiful of Gleneagles'
courses, The Queens is considered to be Braid's most elegant layout.
Braid's brief was to create an easier second course after the King's
but he clearly couldn't resist designing a course which although
shorter, is nevertheless as hard to score on as its neighbor.
Accurate tee shots are the order of the day while the smaller greens
require a deft putting stroke.
Gleneagles PGA Centenary Course
Par 72, 6551 yards
Jack Nicklaus designed and built this, the newest of the Gleneagles
courses. It is a course in complete contrast to its elderly regal
relatives. The PGA Centenary Course (formerly known as The Monarchs
Course) was made rather than placed and the great rolling banks of
rough and broad lush fairways are more redolent of the modern golf
courses of the US than of Scotland. As such, this course is unique
and provides an opportunity for the visitor to refresh himself after
the rigors of the antiquities. Scots themselves love this course for
it is maybe more forgiving than most!
Kingsbarns Links
Par 72, 7126 yds
Six miles south of St Andrews lies Kingsbarns, the newest of
Scottish links land golfing venues. Indeed it may well be the last
true links to be developed in Scotland. In fact Kingsbarns golf
origins go back some 200 years when it was home to a nine-hole
course and golf club. The new revival is being heralded as a truly
spectacular and worthy addition to the legendary St Andrews
portfolio. Embracing the sea as it does, the layout is superb with
each hole offering a great sea view, and seven of them actually
playing over or alongside the sea. The course design provides great
variety and presents a stiff golfing challenge balanced by generous
greens and wide fairways. Kingsbarns blends together all the
advantages of a modern course with the traditional features of an
old links course.
Muirfield
Par 70, 6801 yards
Muirfield is home to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers
which is regarded as the oldest Golf Club in the world having been
founded in 1744. Designed by Old Tom Morris and opened in 1891,
Muirfield has been host to The Open 15 times with the most recent
being in 2002 when Ernie Els won his first Open Championship.
Muirfield is a fantastic course that is consistently rated in the
top ten courses in the world.
Prestwick Old Course
Par 71, 6544 yards
This lovingly tended old golf course, laid down by Tom Morris in
1850 hosted the first twelve Open Championships. Despite many little
changes through the years, there are many blind tee shots remaining
which make for very demanding second shots. Every hole is
interesting and many idiosyncratic. Every golfer should experience
playing Prestwick at least once in their golfing career.
Royal Dornoch
Par 72, 6514 yards
One of the worlds' great courses and only the remoteness of its
location precludes it from being an Open venue. Dornoch is possibly
Scottish links golf at its best, whatever the time of the year. In
spring, the sea of yellow gorse is truly something to behold.
Dornoch is as close to a golfing paradise as one can get. Golf has
been played here since the 17th century but it was the influence of
the legendary Tom Morris in 1886 that made it the spectacle and
challenge that it is today.
Royal Troon
Par 71, 7097 yards
Founded in 1878 is one of the great Open venues, favored for its
quirky greens and long holes that can make for low scoring or quite
the opposite! Troon has the longest and shortest holes of all the
Open venues, the 577 yard sixth hole and the 126 yard eighth hole -
the Postage Stamp. So called because of its tiny green, this hole is
in one way characteristic of Troon - miss a green at Troon and
simply you drop a shot. Troon is surely one of the world's great
golfing shrines. This prestigious club came to be in 1878 when
twenty-three members from Prestwick went their own way and built
this splendid links course adjoining Prestwick.
Skibo Castle, Carnegie Links
Par 71, 6403 yards
Tom Morris built this course on the estate at Skibo Castle the
Scottish seat of Andrew Carnegie of Pittsburgh, USA, the great steel
magnate and philanthropist who was born in Dunfermline in Fife.
Every European dignitary would have visited Carnegie here at the
time and tried their hand at the game of golf. The course was
totally reconstructed and modernised in 1995 and it has quickly
matured into a splendid golfing venue. Highland mornings can be so
quiet and still that only nature; with a cry from a curlew or the
piping of a pewit could intrude on the peacefulness of a round here.
An early breakfast followed by an early round of golf on the
Carnegie course is an unforgettable experience. Touch more than
power will be required to meet the challenge of this thoughtful
links layout.
St. Andrews Old Course
Par 72, 6609 yards
The Old Course St Andrews is surely the mecca of the golfing world.
Golf has been played here for over six centuries on a course that
wasn't designed by any architect but rather has largely evolved out
of the natural terrain over time. Starting and finishing in the
town, it is best renowned for its huge double greens; which mean
that a golfer may face a 100 yard putt, compact shared fairways and
massive bunkers; of which there are 112!.
Turnberry Ailsa Course
Par 72, 6504 yards
The most junior of Open venues, the Ailsa course is nevertheless one
of the best and toughest challenges in championship golf. Sited
between the magnificent Turnberry Hotel and the sea, this great
course weaves in and out of spectacular dunes that, with Turnberry
lighthouse and Ailsa Craig standing over 1200 foot high out at sea,
form great backdrops to all of the holes. Although stretched to over
7,000 yards for Open Championships, the medal course is not one that
demands great power for par but rather more care and attention to
detail both off the tee and with the approach shots. This course has
seen some of the best exhibitions ever in the game, particularly
over its closing holes testing the world's greatest players to their
limits.
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