Angus & Dundee

Scotland

Seven times an Open Championship venue, Carnoustie was the penultimate Scottish golf course added to the Open Championship rotation – 

Carnoustie is a big natural seaside links and is widely considered to be one of the world's most difficult golf courses. In fact, according to the results of a Top 100 survey, Carnoustie is the toughest golf course in Britain & Ireland.

The first record of golf being played across this links land dates back to 1527; a 10-hole course was laid out in 1842 by Allan Robertson. Fifteen years later, in 1857, an 18-hole course was fashioned by Old Tom Morris. James Braid extended the course in 1926 and it has hardly changed since.

The main A930 road passes through the town in an east-west direction, running parallel to the railway line as it approaches the town centre. Shortly after turning off the main drag, the road narrows considerably and you’ll cross under a litle railway bridge, allowing you to reach Links Parade and the car parks next to the hotel at the back of the 18th green on the Championship course.

Much has been written about Carnoustie over the years. The finishing holes are especially brutal at this eight-time Open Championship venue and many consider that it has one of the greatest back nines in championship golf. Others will recall John Van de Velde’s barefoot paddle in the Barry Burn at the 18th hole during the 1999 Open Championship. Bernard Darwin perhaps had Van de Velde in his mind when, in 1910, he wrote in his book 

 “he had got burns badly on his nerves… there really is some justification for the nervous golfer who has water on the brain after a round at Carnoustie.” You have to cross the snaking burn no less than five times whilst playing the closing two holes. We mustn’t forget to mention wee Jockie’s Burn—the young son of Barry—he comes in to catch your approach shot to the 3rd green.

In addition to burns, Carnoustie has some of the most formidable bunkers to contend with. There’s a plethora of them and some are alarmingly cavernous. The par five 6th measures 520 yards from the white tees and is regarded as one of the world’s best holes. Named, “Hogan’s Alley”, after the immortal Ben Hogan who won the Open Championship in 1953. Two fearsome looking bunkers lie waiting in the middle of the fairway and a third bunker to the right hand side ensures that the tee shot is daunting.

The 15th, 16th and 17th are considered the world over to be three of golf’s very best closing holes. “Lucky Slap”, the 15th, is a 460-yard par four, where the fairway slopes from left to right into the path of two waiting bunkers and the approach shot must avoid a cluster of three bunkers sited to the right of the green. “Hardest par three in golf; downwind it is difficult, into an easterly wind it is practically impossible”, according to the yardage guide. We won’t argue because the 16th, called “Barry Burn”, measures 245 yards from the white tees; for the ladies it’s a short par four measuring 212 yards. The 17th is a complete conundrum, called “Island” because the Barry Burn snakes in front of the tee and then loops back, cutting across the fairway. Into the prevailing wind, it is tough to know what to do on this brutal 400-yard-plus par four.

 in 2005 and 2006 respectively, Tiger Woods was chasing a rare treble. He tried to emulate Peter Thomson (1954-1956) by winning a third consecutive Open at Carnoustie however Padraig Harrington had different ideas, claiming his first Major title, pushing Woods back to 12th place in the 2007 championship.

Carnoustie isn’t the most scenic golf course—rarely do you catch sea glimpses—but it is incredibly tough, even from the forward tees. Bring your “A” game here and pray for the weather to be kind. But be aware that should you plan to play Carnoustie in the winter (Nov-Mar), mats are required on the fairways and the first cut of rough.

Architect Martin Ebert kindly supplied the following update at the start of 2017:

Mackenzie & Ebert made recent changes to the 3rd hole on the course, where we have created fairway to the right of reconfigured central bunkers to tempt golfers into being more aggressive from the tee. Previously, the only option was really a 6-iron shot to the corner and then a pitch to the green in stroke play though a few players tried to drive the green recently in The Amateur match play stages.

Carnoustie (Championship)

Britain & Ireland

Carnoustie is a big natural seaside golf links and the Championship course is considered to be one of the most difficult in the British Isles.

Dorset

England

Ferndown Golf Club is a pine and heathery heaven, set in pleasing manicured countryside a mile or two north of the popular seaside town of Bournemouth. This is where Peter Alliss learnt his trade, for his father, Percy, was the professional here for more than a quarter of a century.

The club was founded in 1912 and Harold Hilton, one of the finest amateur golfers of all time, designed the course. It opened for play in 1914. Hilton won the British Open championship as an amateur twice, a feat only surpassed by Bobby Jones, who was British Open champion on three occasions, also as an amateur.

The Old course at Ferndown Golf Club plays across a sandy outcrop of land where there is a proliferation of heather and pines. It’s an inherently pretty golf course and sometimes Ferndown is bracketed alongside Augusta because of its immaculate tee to green grooming. The hazards at Ferndown are subtle – there are the obvious heather and trees to avoid, but the bunkers are especially well designed and positioned. Steep-lipped sand traps are invariably visible from the tees and the fairways and they certainly concentrate the mind. Many of the holes are dog-legged in shape and tee shot position is critical, rather than sheer length. Ferndown is a course where scoring well depends entirely on whether or not the ball is kept in play.

By today’s standards, the course is fairly short, extending to just under 6,530 yards from the back tees, but the heathland layout will challenge the very best golfers and will enthral the average handicapper with its inherent beauty. Many important amateur and professional events have been contested over the Old course. In 1989, Ferndown hosted the Women’s British Open. Jane Geddes carded a 67 on the first two days and dominated the tournament from thereon in.

Ferndown (Old)

Ferndown Golf Club plays across a sandy outcrop of land where there is a proliferation of heather and pines... it’s an inherently pretty golf course.

Surrey

Back in 1998, when Foxhills first appeared on a ranking list, the club's two courses were called the Chertsey and the Longcross. We’ve played both courses on several occasions and we felt back then that the Bernard Hunt (nee Chertsey) course had the edge. In fact, Janet Melville won the Pretty Polly Women's British Open on the Chertsey course in 1978.

Fast-forward several decades and you'll find the Longcross billed as the premier layout at this impressive facility. You'll simply have to play them both and make up your own mind as to which you think is the better course.

Foxhills is marketed as “good enough to be mentioned as forming one point of a triangle of Surrey courses with Sunningdale and Wentworth”. Geographically this is indeed true, but Foxhills is not laid out on the sand belt, so don’t go to Ottershaw expecting to play golf on the heath. However, you can expect to play golf on a undulating and densely forested parcel of land.

The Bernard Hunt course is a stern test, measuring 6,883 yards from the back tees where the rolling topography creates both challenge and entertainment. The Longcross meanders through the forest and it’s no shorty either, measuring 6,743 yards from the tips.

Foxhills – named in Georgian times after one of England’s Foreign Secretaries – was the brainchild of the cousin of Victorian Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli. It remained a family home for more than a century before being transformed into a sporting and impressive club and resort.

Finally, a word about the Manor course... a fun 9-hole par three course, which is the perfect place to hone your short game. If it was good enough for 2006 World Match Play Champion Paul Casey to develop his short game skills as a junior, then it's good enough for us too.

Foxhills (Bernard Hunt)

The Bernard Hunt golf course (formerly the Chertsey) at the Foxhills Resort plays across a lovely, undulating and densely forested parcel of land. It was on this layout in 1978 when Janet Melville won the Pretty Polly Women's British Open...

Yorkshire

Fulford Golf Club is located just one mile from the centre of the historic city of York. It's a high-class heathland/parkland course, home to the Benson and Hedges International Open during the 1970s and 1980s. This televised tournament immediately made Fulford a household name and gave it nationwide recognition as one of the country's best inland courses.

The club was founded in 1906 but it moved to its current site in 1935 after James Braid identified the land a few years earlier. Major Charles MacKenzie, the brother of the legendary Alister MacKenzie of Augusta National fame, designed the course on predominantly sandy ground. A major renovation has recently been completed by Mackenzie & Ebert.

The fairways wind their way between avenues of trees. But there's one particular tree at Fulford that will remain a monument to Bernhard Langer for as long as it lives.

In the 1981 B&H International, Langer hit his approach shot to the 17th into the branches of a large ash tree. Amazingly, the ball remained lodged. Rather than taking a penalty drop, Langer decided to shin up the tree and play the shot from where it lay. From a precarious and unusual stance, Langer chipped out and to everyone's astonishment, the ball landed on the green. A plaque on the same tree now commemorates Langer's remarkable feat.

Measuring 6,779 yards from the back tees, Fulford is a serious test for the handicap golfer, but the course is too short for today's long hitting professionals. Just ask Ian Woosnam. "Woosie" posted the All-Comers' course record in 1985 with an amazing 62.

It is most unlikely that we'll have the chance to score 62, but we'll certainly enjoy Fulford. It's a fine golf course in a beautiful part of the country and, thanks to Langer, it will always be remembered.

Fulford

Fulford Golf Club will always be remembered for the tree-climbing exploits of Bernhard Langer in the 1981 Benson & Hedges International.

Fife

According to golf historian Bobby Burnet, golf at Kingsbarns dates back to 1793. A nine-hole golf course once played over part of the current layout. The “nine-holer” was commandeered by the military at the outbreak of the Second World War because they felt that the beach at Kingsbarns was an invasion risk. The golf course disappeared until American architect Kyle Phillips came along at the close of the 20th century.

Phillips studied various courses, including Royal Dornoch, to ensure that the end design would look natural. The earthmovers then rumbled in and shifted hundreds of thousands of tonnes of earth to create the moonscape that is now Kingsbarns.

The course opened in July 2000 to rapturous applause and the layout appears so natural that you would think that it had been there for years.

One of the many delights of Kingsbarns Golf Links is that you can see the North Sea from virtually every part of the course. What’s more, it has its own burn (the Cambo), which was uncovered during all that earth moving. The terrain is perfect for golf, rippling fairways, humps and hollows.

“As a piece of construction work, Kingsbarns is one of the best projects I’ve ever seen,” commented Tom Doak in 

. “It started out as a flat field above a small bowl of linksland, but I wouldn’t have believed that if I hadn’t seen it for myself, because the reshaping and grassing of the landscape was so well done.

The routing of the holes takes excellent advantage of the 2 km of sea frontage, though more for views than as a hazard, because the golf had to defer to the coastal walking paths. For me, the 4th and 5th holes on the upper deck may be the best of the bunch, using the edge of the plateau in their strategy and the sea beyond to intimidate. The overlap of fairways between the 6th and 7th holes and the incoming 16th and 17th is brilliant in blurring the edges of the work and helping to make the course feel more natural.”

Situated just six miles from St Andrews, Kingsbarns is an important addition to the ancient links courses in this area. It's one of only a few true links courses to be built recently along Scotland’s coastline, so it is just as well that this course is a cracker and deserves its status as one of the greatest links courses in the world.

Kingsbarns co-hosts the annual Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the European Tour, together with the Old Course at St Andrews and the Championship course at Carnoustie. The tournament is played as a four-day pro-am, with each team comprising one amateur and one professional. A 54-hole cut is made after teams have played each of the three venues, with the leading professional players and teams advancing to the final round at St Andrews.

The club also hosted the Ricoh Women’s British Open (now named the AIG Women’s Open) in 2017, when South Korea’s In-Kyung Kim won the event with an 18 under par four round total of 270, beating her nearest rival Jodi Ewart Shadoff by two strokes.

Kingsbarns

One of the many delights of Kingsbarns Golf Links is that you can see the North Sea from virtually every part of the course.

Lindrick Golf Club is remembered passionately because it was here in 1957 that Great Britain beat the USA to win the Ryder Cup. Victory had been a long time coming; the last time the home team had defeated the dominant Americans was way back in 1933 at 

. After the 1957 Lindrick triumph, the Ryder Cup remained firmly in the grasp of the USA until 1985 when, at the 

, a combined team of GB&I and Europe managed to wrestle the cup from the Americans.

Lindrick Golf Club played host to the 1957 Ryder Cup matches between the USA and Great Britain. Team Captains were Jack Burke (US) and Dai Rees (GB). Yorkshire industrialist, Sir Stuart Goodwin, financed the British Team to the tune of £10,000 and the team selection process utilised a new points system. The result was a win for Britain despite a dominant American 3-1 lead in the foursomes. A 6 ½ to 1 ½ result in the singles was more than enough to seal the first British win in twenty-four years. GB 7 ½ - USA 4 ½. The Ryder Cup was played at 

Clearly, the Ryder Cup put Lindrick firmly on the golfing map, but the Sheffield and District Golf Club, as it was originally called, was actually founded in the 19th century, 1891 to be precise, when a course was laid out by Old Tom Morris and Robert Black ‘Buff’ Wilson. In 1894 another nine holes were added, with the direction of play reversed. Tom Dunn then made some improvements in 1897.

Harry Colt was next to be consulted, followed by new holes and a revised layout from Willie Park Junior in 1907-09.

A Matter of Course: The life of William Herbert Fowler 1856-1941

: "Lindrick Golf Club had been one of Herbert Fowler's earliest clients, in 1907. On his advice, and that of Willie Park, the course had been extended to 6,010 yards. By the 1920s, further modifications were needed. Three holes required balls to be played over the main road which runs between Worksop and Sheffield, a feature which became increasingly unacceptable as motor traffic grew in density. Advice was sought from Fowler and Simpson, and changes were recommened which were implemented between 1923 and 1925. Minutes of the Lindrick club show a fee of thirty guineas."

A couple of years after this, Alister MacKenzie made further improvements and suggested many others. In more recent times, Fred Hawtree, Donald Steel, Cameron Sinclair and Ken Moodie have all altered the layout.

Lindrick Golf Club is laid out on prime common land and the excellent turf has a mixed heathland and moorland feel. It’s a wild but picturesque course with silver birch trees and gorse lining many of the fairways, which are generous and immaculately conditioned. The greens are subtly borrowed, lightning fast and well protected by bunkers. Accuracy, rather than length, is critical at Lindrick. We're perhaps stating the obvious here, but it's much more desirable to play from manicured fairways than dense rough.

There are a number of strong holes, especially on the back nine and the 4th, a short par five of 478 yards, is certainly fun and memorable, with a downhill drive and a blind approach to a hidden green, nestling in a hollow.

According to the writing of Bernard Darwin in his original article for the Times, 

, the “secret and engaging dell” in the area of the 4th green, once bordered three counties - “York, Notts and Derby – and so it was once the ideal spot for prize-fighting. If there was an obdurate magistrate on one side of the water there was probably a complaisant one on the other, and the ring could be reformed without much ado.”

In a more up-to-date publication, the 18th is featured in 

 a 210-yard par three. It’s unusual to end with a par three and cruel to have such an exacting final tee shot, especially if the match is finely poised.

As with so many golf courses of this era, Lindrick, measuring a little over 6,600 yards, is simply not long enough to host today’s professional men’s tournaments. However, in 1966, it was the venue for the British Masters with Neil Coles emerging as the eventual winner and, in 1977, Vivien Saunders took the Women’s British Open crown. Greg Norman somehow took 14 strokes at Lindrick’s 17th, a par four,during the final round of the 1982 Martini tournament and then went on to win the British Masters by eight stokes at 

During the winters of 2015 and 2016, Ken Moodie of Creative Golf Design was busy enhancing various features on the course, building new championship tees, introducing strategic fairway bunkers and reshaping numerous greenside bunkers, which resulted in changes to eleven holes in total.

It was recently discovered that Alister MacKenzie was involved in the construction of the course, working on the layout during 1912-13, when he designed five of the existing holes, including the iconic 18th. He also prepared a 16-page handwritten report on the course and many of his proposals were subsequently actioned.

Lindrick hosted the English Women's Amateur Championship in July 2017 (won by fifteen-year-old Lily May Humphreys), to add to an impressive list of professional and amateur tournaments it has hosted down the years, including both the Ryder Cup and the Curtis Cup.

Lindrick

Lindrick Golf Club is remembered passionately because it was here in 1957 that Great Britain beat the USA to win the Ryder Cup.

Hertfordshire

Located conveniently near to London, but sufficiently protected by mature trees to shield us from suburbia, Moor Park Golf Club's elegant High course layout will provide a challenging test of golf in pleasant park surroundings.

The clubhouse at Moor Park is an elegant 17th century mansion, the most photographed clubhouse in golf, perhaps with the exception of the R&A clubhouse at St Andrews. It has been used for many purposes throughout its illustrious history: home to the gentry, religious hierarchy and requisitioned as the HQ for the Parachute Regiment during the 2nd World War. It was here that the doomed battle of Arnhem was planned.

 as the club with highest membership in England (1,600).

Designed by Harry Colt, the High course opened for play in 1923. Two years later it hosted the PGA Matchplay Championship.

“It is park golf with a dash of something else, wrote Bernard Darwin in his 1925 book, 

, “for in the middle of the round, close to a fine clump of beeches, there is a strip of bracken country. It is here that the best and most amusing holes are to be found, and Mr. Colt has used every available inch of it.”

The Bob Hope Classic was held here during the 1980s, along with many other professional tournaments. The club has also staged a number of blue-ribbon junior events, including the Boys Amateur Championship and the English Boys’ Stroke Play Championship, formerly the Carris Trophy.

“They do say you remember a golf course with special affection if you’ve played it well,” wrote Peter Alliss in 

, “and that’s certainly one of the reasons for my liking Moor Park. In the 1964 Esso Golden Tournament I played the best golf of my life. I hit the ball well throughout, hardly missed a short putt and holed not a few long ones as well. It was a round robin matchplay event with a selected field. You played everybody. I won all my matches except for a half with Ken Nagle and a loss to Christy O’Connor, who both finished with birdie 2s.”

There are some very good holes on the 6,700-yard layout, opening with a friendly par four. The 2nd is a good driving hole, requiring a solid tee shot across a valley to a fairway that doglegs to the right. The 4th is a long downhill par four, two accurate shots are required to reach this green in two. The 8th, 440 yards, is one of our favourites, sweeping downhill and then back uphill to a sloping green protected by a lurking pond with the half-way house sitting welcomingly behind the green.

The homeward nine is really more of the same, some strong and long par fours with a couple of short and reachable par fives. If anything, the back nine is more memorable and certainly a much tougher proposition than the outward nine. Two troublesome holes are the par three 12th (one of the best inland par threes in the country) requiring a bold tee shot over a valley and the 14th, a fantastic long par four where the approach shot must carry a hidden gully dissecting the fairway.

Moor Park oozes quality. The High is a classy golf course and a warm welcome awaits in the clubhouse mansion, but don't overlook the club's Harry Colt-designed West course. It may be rather short, but it's lots of fun and it's not as easy as it appears on the scorecard.

Moor Park (High)

Moor Park Golf Club oozes quality. The High is a classy golf course and a warm welcome awaits in the spectacular clubhouse mansion.

Lothians

Muirfield was the fourth course to stage the Open Championship and is the third most used Open venue (host to 16 Opens) after 

Muirfield is the course of “The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers” (HCEG), the world’s oldest golf club—according to direct written evidence—formed in 1744. In those days, the members played over Leith Links, originally a five-hole course. In March 1744, the first official rules of golf were drawn up by the “Gentlemen Golfers of Leith” in readiness for a tournament which was due to be played over Leith Links the following month. These original 13 rules became the basis for the game of golf and shortly afterwards, the HCEG was formed.

Almost 150 years later, in 1891, the course at Muirfield opened for play. Old Tom Morris designed it, originally as a 16-holer. A further two holes were added a few months later. In 1923, another 50 acres were purchased to the north of the course. Harry Colt was engaged to redesign the layout and he introduced fourteen new holes, forming the course that remains in place today. Apart from Tom Simpson's re-modelling of the 13th hole in 1935, the only major changes since then have been the addition of new tees.

The design layout is a masterpiece and highly unusual for links courses of this era. Most courses were laid out simply, nine out and nine back. Muirfield is different; it was the first to be designed with two concentric rings of nine holes. The outward nine holes run clockwise around the edge and the inward nine run anti-clockwise, sitting inside the outward nine. The layout ensures that the wind hits you from all directions, but Muirfield is as difficult to play downwind as it is upwind.

Host to fifteen Opens, most recently in 2013, Muirfield is considered by many top professionals to be one of the fairest Open Championship golf courses. Bernard Darwin loved Muirfield, and in his 1910 book, 

, he wrote: “There is a fine view of the sea and a delightful sea wood, with the trees all bent and twisted by the wind; then, too, it is a solitary and peaceful spot, and a great haunt of the curlews, whom one may see hovering over a championship crowd and crying eerily amid a religious silence.”

Muirfield is blessed with a collection of superb golf holes and we'll mention a couple of them: The 554-yard par five 9th hole is a tough driving hole, two bunkers lurk on the left-hand side and beyond them is a grey stone boundary wall with out-of-bounds threatening the hooked tee shot; the fairway cruelly starts to narrow at the landing area of a good solid drive, the tangly rough waiting hopefully to catch anything struck off-line. The second shot must avoid a waiting line of five cleverly placed bunkers situated short and right of the green. The 13th is one of best short holes on the open circuit, an uphill 191-yarder; five abysmal bunkers, three on the right and two on the left ferociously protect the deep and narrow green that slopes from back to front. Whatever we do, we mustn’t leave a scary downhill putt.

Muirfield is an eccentric but traditional golf links of the highest calibre. The fairways have that lovely spongy seaside turf, there’s some unbelievable bunkering (many of which are small and deep) and there’s that thick, thick rough to contend with. The greens are relatively small too, which makes you think carefully about your approach shots and once you are safely on the putting surface, you’ll need to interpret them well because the borrows are subtle and tricky to read.

In readiness for the 2013 Open Championship, following a land swap with next-door neighbour the 

, Muirfield was lengthened, with new tees added on seven holes. Now measuring 7,192 yards from the tips, with par set at 71, Muirfield has become a stern 21st century challenge, especially when the wind blows.

Muirfield

Muirfield is the course of “The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers” (HCEG), the world’s oldest golf club – according to direct written evidence – formed in 1744.

Northumberland

Northumberland Golf Club was formed in 1898 when disaffected members of another local club decided to set up their own course at High Gosforth Park, adjacent to the Newcastle racecourse, and a small clubhouse was constructed close to the start of the mile-long straight to cater for the new membership.

Sometime after 1905, when another clubhouse was built in a more commanding position to the west of the property, Harry Colt was called in to redesign the existing layout. Unfortunately, World War I intervened during the rebuild, and this work was put on hold.

When the war was over, Colt’s remodelling got under way but James Braid was also engaged in October 1919 to advise on further alterations, resulting in a number of additional changes to the layout. On 29th May 1920, Braid took part in an invitation event along with George Duncan, Abe Mitchell and Harry Vardon to mark the opening of the reconstructed course.

Today, the fairways weave in and out of the racecourse, starting at the par five 3rd. Holes 4 to 12 are then routed inside the rails before the tough par four 13th (stroke index 1 on the scorecard) leads golfers back outside the track for three holes. The 16th and 17th (formerly named “Paddock” and “Grandstand”) are played inside the track, ahead of a tee shot back to the clubhouse at the 408-yard 18th.

The club has hosted a number of notable tournaments down the years, including the Dunlop Masters in 1972, which New Zealand's Bob Charles won by two shots from England's Tony Jacklin. More recently, the club staged Open Regional Qualifying for the R&A over a five-year period from 2013.

Renowned for its firm, fast greens, strategic bunkering and racecourse setting, Northumberland Golf Club has played host to the Dunlop Masters and the English Amateur Championship.

Lancashire

Ten-time Open Championship venue, Royal Birkdale was the last English course to be added to the Open rotation. 

 is the most junior Open Championship venue.

The Birkdale (as Royal Birkdale Golf Club was originally called) was a nine-hole golf course located at Shaw Hills and it opened for play in October 1889. In 1894, the committee decided to extend the course to 18 holes and move it to its current home at Birkdale Hills. Designed by George Lowe, the course was ready in 1897. In the 1930s, the course was remodelled and upgraded to championship standard by F.G. Hawtree and J.H. Taylor.

, Bernard Darwin writes: “J.H. Taylor was the architect and he has unquestionably made of Birkdale a ‘big’ course on which it is good fun to see the big men stretch themselves… no bad player is going to win over Birkdale, and yet it is no slogger’s paradise, for in the English Championship the final was fought between Arnold Bentley and W Sutton, who are neither of them particularly long drivers.”

The club was simply known as Birkdale until 1951 when King George VI bestowed the royal charter on the club. Royal Birkdale Golf Club has hosted all the important events—the Ryder Cup, Walker Cup, Curtis Cup, Ladies British Open Championship. The Open Championship has been hosted at Birkdale no fewer than ten times (most recently in 2017).

It truly is a famous links and widely recognised for its fairness. If you hit the fairways, rarely will the ball be thrown off course. The fairways are laid out in the flat-bottomed valleys between the towering dunes. These dunes, in turn, provide superb viewing platforms for spectators. Invariably in immaculate condition, Royal Birkdale is a very tough cookie to master. The greens were re-built prior to the 1998 Open and despite their youth, are extremely difficult to read.

Birkdale has a superfluity of great golf holes. F.W. Hawtree created a new 12th hole in the 1960s, this 183-yard par three is a wonderful one-shotter and as natural as you can get. From a raised tee, the ball must carry across a hollow, whilst avoiding four deep pot bunkers before coming to rest on a narrow, raised green that is nestled at the feet of tussocky sand dunes. The par five 15th is Birkdale’s longest hole and one of the most heavily bunkered on the course; knock it straight down the middle off the tee and then using a long iron or a fairway wood, avoid the bunkers spread-eagled across the fairway; chip it on and, bingo, an easy five! The monstrous 18th has seen drama over the years, a heavily bunkered par four measuring 476 yards. Only our best two shots in the bag will see us putting for a birdie.

Royal Birkdale can be a torrid experience when the wind is up, with white horses kicking and rearing their heads in the Irish Sea, crashing like kamikazes onto the beach. In these conditions, many of the carries from tees to fairways into the prevailing wind can be too much for the average golfer. But whatever the weather, Royal Birkdale is a provocative place to play golf.


After the 1991 Open, Martin Hawtree rebuilt all the greens, re-contouring and fashioning swales around the edges of many of the putting surfaces. Prior to the 2008 edition of the tournament, Hawtree remodelled the par five 17th, using the back half of the old green as the front half a new one, surrounded by new dunes. For the 2017 Open, the architect added new tees, tightened entrances to nine greens and added fairway bunkers on ten holes.


Did you know that Royal Birkdale is the favourite English course on the British Open rota according to the results of a 2006 Top 100 poll whereby we asked: "Four Royal English courses are currently British Open venues. If you've played them all, which do you think is best?" 42.9% voted for Birkdale with 

 coming 2nd with 28.6%. In 3rd place was 

Spieth "flips switch" to win by three - 2017 Open Championship Royal Birkdale

Royal Birkdale

Royal Birkdale Golf Club is the favourite English course on the British Open rota according to the results of a Top 100 poll...

Cheshire

Royal Liverpool was the second English course to host the Open Championship and is the fifth most used Open venue after 

The Open Championship returned to Royal Liverpool Golf Club in 2006 after a 39-year gap. Hoylake, as it is called by those in the know, has a long and illustrious history of playing host to the Open, and has now staged twelve, its first in 1897. Founded in 1869, Hoylake is the second oldest seaside links course in England – only

George Morris, brother of Old Tom, and Robert Chambers originally laid out a 9-hole course on the site of a racecourse and for the first seven years, golfers shared the land with members of the Liverpool Hunt Club. Three extra holes were soon added and in 1871, the course was extended to 18 holes. In 1872, the club received royal patronage from Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.

Bernard Darwin reported on the coming of the Haskell, which burst onto the scene at the Amateur Championship at Hoylake in 1902. The winner Charles Hutchings and the runner-up, Sidney Fry, used the rubber-core ball. Later that same year, Sandy Herd used a Haskell and won the Open at Royal Liverpool, sounding the death knell for the “gutty” ball.

Harry Colt made alterations to the 11th and 17th holes, named Alps and Royal. He also created a new 13th hole and changed the greens at the 8th and 12th holes.

, Bernard Darwin describes Colt’s changes and the alteration to the 16th, called the Dun: “I do not criticise the disappearance of the old cross-bunker at the Dun because that had been made inevitable by the modern ball and modern driving. It was sad to see it go if only because the soberest might fall into it after dinner – I have seen them do it – in finding their way home across the darkling links; but it had to go and the present Dun is a fine long hole. Trying not to be Blimpish and die-hard and to look at the course with eyes unblurred by sentiment, I solemnly and sincerely declare that Mr Colt made a great job of it”.

Donald Steel was commissioned to make alterations to the course; these changes included a number of new greens, tees and bunkers. The work was completed in 2001 stretching the course out in excess of 7,000 yards. We wonder if Darwin would approve of Steel’s alterations?

The land is unusually flat, offering little in the way of definition – three sides of the course are bordered by houses and the Dee Estuary lies on the western side. When you get out onto the course, the undulations become more pronounced and, as you move away from the houses, the overall experience improves. The holes alongside the shore (9th, 10th, 11th and 12th) are the most visually appealing and very challenging.

Without doubt, Royal Liverpool is a tough links. Only six holes are in the dunes – otherwise there is little protection from the ever-changing wind. There is nothing artificial about the course. It represents a traditional, genuine test of golf and it was heart-warming to see that Hoylake examined the very best players in 2006. They came, they saw and Tiger conquered.

During the winter of 2009/10, Martin Hawtree carried out alterations which included a new 17th green, removal of fourteen bunkers, seven new swales added to green surrounds, and broken ground was added to the rough on six holes to toughen the challenge. The course measured 90 yards longer (7,312 yards) for the 2014 Open Championship when Rory McIlroy claimed his first Open and third major title with a two-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler.

At the start of 2020, having consulted with both the R&A and architect Martin Ebert, the club announced a series of course alterations to be made in advance of The Open returning to Hoylake in 2022.

These modifications included raising the front of the 4th green to allow more pin positions, moving the 7th green to the left of its current position and introducing new tees on the 8th, remodelling the 13th green with new runoff areas, creating a short par three 17th hole (with the new green positioned where the 15th tees were located), and lengthening the par five 18th.

Royal Liverpool

Without doubt, Royal Liverpool Golf Club is a tough links. Only six holes are in the dunes – otherwise there is little protection from the ever-changing Hoylake wind.

Eleven-time Open Championship venue, Royal Lytham & St Annes was the fourth English course after 

Royal Lytham & St Annes is the most northerly of the English championship links courses, situated only 10 miles, as the seagull flies, from its illustrious neighbour, 

. This monster links opened for play in 1897, eleven years after the club's formation, when it moved from its original location. George Lowe, the club's first professional, fashioned the links and the layout was further modified between the wars by Harry Colt.

This is definitely a links course, but it is no longer beside the sea. It now lies half a mile inland, but with Blackpool tower looming in the distance you know the sea isn't far away. Rather unusually, the links is surrounded by red brick houses and (less unusually) flanked on the west by the railway line. The guardian Victorian clubhouse always watches sternly over the links. Conditioning is often exceptional and not as rough and ready around the edges as many of its contemporaries. The ground is relatively even, except perhaps on a couple of holes, where the going is slightly undulating.

The course itself is extremely tough, only 

 (on the British Open circuit) is thought to be tougher. Bernard Darwin describes Lytham’s challenges in his book, 

“The trouble, besides the rough grass and pot-bunkers, consists of sandhills, both natural and artificial. To build an artificial sandhill is not a light task, and it is characteristic of the whole-hearted enthusiasm of the golfers of St Anne’s that they have raised several of these terrifying monuments of industry.” At this stage we should remind ourselves that Darwin penned this in 1910, and, in those days, it was highly unusual to build anything other than bunkers, talking of which, the bunkers at Royal Lytham are many and annoyingly magnetic.

The greens are firm, fast and true, or as Darwin once said when he was playing a match at St Annes against an opponent who was a very good putter. “The truly-struck putt comes on and on over that wonderfully smooth turf and flops into the hole with a sickening little thud, and there we are left gasping and robbed of our prey.”

The 1st is unique because this is the only par three starting hole on the Open Championship circuit and it’s a long one, measuring 206 yards from the back tees. Ian Woosnam hit a fine tee shot here in the 2001 Open and then sank the putt thinking he’d made a birdie two. Unfortunately Woosnam was carrying 15 clubs in his bag. This cost the Welshman £225,000 and possibly the Open Championship title—it also cost his caddy around £20,000 and his job.

The 17th hole, a 467-yard par four, belongs to the esteemed Bobby Jones. As an amateur, he won the 1926 Open Championship, beating Al Watrous by two shots. A plaque (located close to the spot from which he nailed his second shot onto the green from a rough, sandy lie during the final round) commemorates Jones’s triumph and the mashie that he used for this remarkable shot is displayed in the clubhouse. The final hole is a relatively ordinary 414-yard par four and it’s a simple case of straight hitting to avoid the 15 bunkers that are trying hard to swallow the ball. The resurgence of British golf occurred here in 1969, when Tony Jacklin’s final drive avoided all the bunkers and he putted out to win the Open in a sea of emotion.

Royal Lytham and St Annes could never be described as a “classical” links course. It doesn’t have any giant shaggy dunes, nor does it have undulating roller-coaster fairways or pretty sea views. But it does have honesty and character by the bucket and spade load, and bags and bags of history.

Royal Lytham & St Annes

Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club is the most northerly of the English championship links courses, situated only 10 miles from Royal Birkdale.

Ayrshire & Arran

Eight times an Open Championship venue, Royal Troon was the fifth Scottish course after 

Troon was founded in 1878 as a five-hole golf course following a meeting in the local pub by a group of golf enthusiasts. It was Charlie Hunter, Keeper of the Green at 

, who laid out the original course and a few of his greens are still in play today. George Strath, Troon's first professional, later extended the course to twelve holes and then to eighteen by 1884. Willie Fernie and James Braid later modified and lengthened the layout. In 1923, Royal Troon Golf Club hosted its first Open and finally moved out of the shadow of its famous neighbour, Prestwick. (By 1923, Prestwick had already hosted 23 Open Championships).

"The course at Troon is perhaps a little overshadowed by its more famous neighbour," wrote Bernard Darwin in his 1910 book, 

, "but it is a very fine course nevertheless, especially since it has been lengthened of late years. It has, moreover, one of the finest short holes to be found anywhere."

In 1978, Troon’s centenary year, royal patronage was bestowed. Royal Troon Golf Club remains the first (and last) club in Great Britain to have been granted Royal status under the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Royal Troon is a traditional out and back links course. The opening few holes are relatively gentle, with a series of short par fours running along the Firth of Clyde. It’s from these early holes that you get the chance to soak up the views. On a clear day, you can see the distant Ailsa Craig in the south, and to the west, the majestic mountains on the Isle of Arran.

The course measures 7,208 yards from the championship tips but line is more important than distance from the tee. Bunkers are everywhere, the majority of which are not visible from the tees. There’s plenty of deep rough and a smattering of gorse and broom to punish the wayward shot. Make your score on the outward nine holes; the inward holes are severe, often playing into the prevailing northwesterly wind. The stretch of holes from the 7th to the 13th provides an interesting and varied challenge.

The 6th is the longest par five in Open Championship golf and the 8th the “Postage Stamp” is the shortest par three on the Open circuit (123 yards). The name stuck after Willie Park referred to the hole in an article for 

: “a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp”. It was here, in the 1973 Open, at the age of 71, Gene Sarazen holed out in one. The following day, he holed his bunker shot for a two at the same hole. It was an amazing return for Sarazen, who had played in Troon’s inaugural Open in 1923.

The 11th is a brutal 490-yard par four for the pros and was rated the most difficult hole of the 1997 Open Championship – out-of-bounds and the railway line runs along the right hand side.

Mackenzie & Ebert made minor adjustments to every hole for The 145th Open in 2016, along with more major changes to the 9th, 10th and 15th holes. A backdrop of trees behind the 9th green was replaced with dunes, the former bunker in the carry of the 10th was restored, and both tees and early portion of the 15th fairway were moved to the left of the 14th hole, reinstating the old line of the hole.


The Open Championship returns to Royal Troon in 2024, just over 100 years since Arthur Havers lifted the Claret Jug at Troon for the first time.

Royal Troon (Old)

Royal Troon is a traditional out and back links course. On a clear day, you can see the distant Ailsa Craig in the south, and to the west, the majestic mountains on the Isle of Arran.

Southport & Ainsdale Golf Club hosted the 1933 and 1937 Ryder Cup matches between the USA and Great Britain. Team Captains in 1933 were Walter Hagen (US) and J.H. Taylor (GB). It was an exciting contest in 1933, which went down to the very last match between Easterbrook and Shute and it turned out to be a putting contest on the final green. Shute had a four-footer for the USA to retain the Ryder Cup, but he missed. GB 6 ½ - USA 5 ½. The 1935 Ryder Cup was played at 

Team Captains in 1937 were Ben Hogan (US) and Henry Cotton (GB). Despite unpleasant weather, the first US victory was achieved on British soil thanks to fine performances from rookies Byron Nelson and Ed Dudley. USA 8 - GB 4. After a 10-year gap due to World War II, the next Ryder Cup was played at 

 has hosted more home soil Ryder Cups than Southport & Ainsdale Golf Club. But everybody flocks to play S&A’s royal neighbour, 

. If only they knew what they were missing a couple of miles down the road.

Southport & Ainsdale Golf Club was originally founded in 1907 with George Lowe laying out the first course. At that time, golf was played across a stretch of links land between the railway line and the main Liverpool road. In 1922, the council decided to build another road into Southport and they decided to route it across the links, splitting the course in two. Fortunately, some new land was identified and James Braid, the greatest golf course revisionist of all time, was called in to sort things out. By 1924, Braid had built six new holes and updated the remaining twelve.

So, in the scheme of things, Southport & Ainsdale is a relative youngster and it is set amongst exhilarating dunes and tangly heather. S&A has a very natural feel to the layout, although it is somewhat old-fashioned with some blind drives and obscured approach shots. This is not your traditional out-and-back layout. In broad terms, the course is laid out in two loops, with holes 2 through to 6 forming the inner loop. The fairways wind their way through gaps and valleys between the dunes and many of the greens are raised on tricky-to-hold plateaux. S&A is a serious golfing test, the layout measures over 6,800 from the back tees with par set at 72 and from the yellow tees, the length drops to 6,396 yards, but the par also drops down to 71.

There are many memorable holes at S&A and the 8th is a bunkerless par three, measuring 157 yards. The green is sited on a raised table and only the best tee shot will stay on the putting surface. The 16th, measuring 506 yards, plays directly into the prevailing wind and when the wind’s up, three solid strikes will be required to reach the green. The hole is called “Gumbley’s” and it has a fine example of a sleeper-faced bunker. It’s a monster, set into the face of a large, tussocky sand ridge. Avoid this one like the plague.

Southport & Ainsdale has hosted many important amateur events over the years and the good old Dunlop Southport and Swallow Penfold professional competitions were held here in the 1940s and 1950s with Max Faulkner, Fred Daly and Christy O’Connor emerging victorious. But S&A will be remembered for the 1933 and 1937 Ryder Cups. Britain won in 1933, but 1937 heralded the first American Ryder Cup victory on British soil, but it wasn’t their last because the USA retained the Ryder Cup for the next 20 years.

Marc Westenborg was engaged by the club in 2018 to improve the aesthetics on the closing hole through the installation of dunes to screen the fairway from the driving range and the removal of weed trees from around the tee complex. Material for the new dunes came from “slabbing” blocks of marram grass from elsewhere on the course, affording the work an immediate mature look.

In addition, bunkers were removed from the 1st, 17th and 18th greens as part of an overall plan to reduce the number of sand hazards around the course.

Southport & Ainsdale should be played not only from a historic perspective but because this is a very natural and challenging links course, one of Braid’s finest seaside examples. It stands up remarkably well against its regal neighbours.

Southport & Ainsdale

Southport & Ainsdale Golf Club is a relative youngster and it is set amongst exhilarating dunes and tangly heather.

The Old course at "The Home of Golf" in St Andrews has staged 29 Open Championships, that's more than any other course on the rotation.

Rarely is the Old course ranked outside the top ten because it’s a very special links, designed by Mother Nature. Surely there is little left to write about St Andrews; the spiritual home of golf, the world’s most famous links course, the mother of golf and so on. It is probable that golf was played here way back in the 12th century; what is certain is that the Old course is one of the oldest golf courses in the world.

In 1553, the Archbishop of St Andrews administered confirmation, at last allowing the community to play golf over the links. The Society of St Andrews Golfers was formed in 1754 and ten years later the course was reduced from its original 22 holes to 18. In 1834, William IV bestowed royal patronage on the club and The Society then changed their name to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. Significantly, Ladies’ golf began at St Andrews; the world’s first ladies golf club was founded here in 1867. 

’s ladies club was formed one year later.

"There are those who do not like the golf at St Andrews," wrote Bernard Darwin in his 1910 book, 

, "and they will no doubt deny any charm to the links themselves, but there must surely be none who will deny a charm to the place as a whole. It may be immoral, but it is delightful to see a whole town given up to golf; to see the butcher and the baker and the candlestick maker shouldering his clubs as soon as his day's work is done and making a dash for the links."

The St Andrews Old course itself usually isn’t an instant hit, it’s a golf course you have to get to know and love. First timers might be somewhat disappointed. It's also unlikely that the Old course will feel familiar when you play it for the first time (except perhaps the 1st, 17th and 18th). Television pictures tend to make the ground look very flat, but the humps, hollows and ripples in the fairways are much deeper when you get out onto the course, as indeed are the pot bunkers. Dr Alister MacKenzie wrote in his book, 

: “A good golf course is like good music or anything else: it is not necessarily a course which appeals the first time one plays over it; but one which grows on a player the more frequently he visits it.”

Tom Doak’s Little Red Book of Golf Course Architecture

, the author goes a long way towards explaining why the Old course isn’t an instant hit:

“The Old Course would never receive the acclaim it has today if we hadn’t been told for eons how great it is. It is the great golf course that the most players tend to dismiss as overrated after their first round – of course, that has something to do with its fame too. But it seems to me that the two reasons for it are simple: 1) most tourists don’t get to see the most interesting hole locations, which are reserved for important events, and 2) golfers can’t make out the strategies of the holes because the features are so difficult to see.”

However, it goes without saying that every golfer should play this course at least once, preferably multiple times. It sends shivers down the spine when the starter announces your name, setting those first tee nerves jangling. Oozing familiarity with names like the Swilcan Burn, the bridge over the burn—thought to have been built by the Romans—and the Valley of Sin. There are many memorable holes on the Old course, but one in particular, the 17th, the Road hole, is probably 

And a word about the greens: they are the most extraordinary and interesting putting surfaces in the world. There is little definition between where the fairway, fringe and green stops or starts and the fairways are probably faster and certainly more undulating than the average golf club’s greens. And the size of them is absolutely staggering—they are gigantic—occupying more than an acre in some cases. When you are on the green, forget about having the pin tended—take a pair of binoculars instead.

Mother Nature was largely the architect of the Old course, but some credit must be given to Allan Robertson. In 1848, he widened fairways, created the now-famous gigantic double greens and built the infamous Road Hole green. Robertson's protégé, Old Tom Morris, also made further revisions to the Old course down the years.

"If I could be certain that everyone were intimately acquainted with the Old Course at St Andrews," wrote Tom Simpson, "my task, in saying what constitutes a good golf course would be a very simple one. I should just say St Andrews and leave it at that."

So, get yourself in the ballot and keep your fingers crossed. You will definitely remember the Old course experience for the rest of your life. And did you know that St Andrews Links has become the first Open Championship venue to achieve the prestigious 

St Andrews (Old)

No other course has hosted more Opens than the Old Course at St Andrews. Its 29th Open and the 144th Open Championship returned “to the Home of Golf” in 2015.