Auchterarder

Completely overshadowed by the world-famous Gleneagles Resort next door, the village of Auchterarder was offering golf as a sporting amenity to its locals more than thirty years before the arrival of the Caledonian Railway Company’s Grand Design in 1924.

Formed in 1892, Auchterarder Golf Club acquired the services of Ben Sayers to set out a 9-hole course in 1913 and this layout from the 1888 Open runner-up remained in play until a major expansion at the end of the 1970s resulted in the course that’s still in use today.

Measuring a modest 5,750 yards from the back tees, the layout at Auchterarder is arranged with six par threes, four of which are encountered on the back nine – indeed, a round here concludes in a somewhat unconventional manner, with testing short holes played at the 16th (“Gully Brae”) and 18th (“Hame”).