Scotscraig Golf Club

Scotscraig Golf Club was founded in 1817, so golf historians currently reckon it's the 20th oldest golf club in the world. The club is situated at Tayport in the north of Fife, a mere ten miles from St Andrews, the "Home of Golf".

James Braid redesigned the present gently undulating Scotscraig layout in 1923 and it measures 6,669 yards from the back tees with par set at 71. There’s plenty of heather and gorse to catch the wayward shot, not to mention the ever-present coniferous plantations. Scotscraig doesn’t sit exactly beside the coastline so it is one of those enigmatic courses, which are hard to categorise, as it is neither true links nor heathland or even moorland, but instead is an interesting combination of them all.

Scotscraig is a test of accuracy rather than length and it will reward the player who plans each stroke with the next one in mind. The large rolling greens and well-positioned bunkers will present a serious challenge to all golfers. Since 1984, the course has been chosen as one of the local venues to host Final Open qualifying when the Open is held at St Andrews.

Needless to say, Scotscraig Golf Club has a great deal of history and a mere 17 years after its formation, their 1834 gold medal had to be played at St Andrews because the Scotscraig course had been ploughed up. The following year, the members had to play their autumn meeting at Montrose and thereafter the club seemed to disappear for half a century.

Club fortunes turned around when land on which the original course was built was sold to Admiral Maitland-Dougall in 1887 and the club was reconstituted under its original name. The Admiral was a formidable golfing force in those days, winning no less than sixteen Royal & Ancient Spring and autumn medals over the Old course at St Andrews. The first hole at Scotscraig is named ‘The Admiral’ in his memory. A merger with the Newport Golf Club took place in 1890 and a new clubhouse was erected in 1896 to accommodate the enlarged membership. The course was extended to 18 holes in 1904 and then James Braid later altered these when the members bought the course outright nearly twenty years later.

As golfers are spoiled for choice when choosing where to play on the east coast of Scotland, Scotscraig often gets overlooked for other more illustrious places in Fife or nearby Angus. This is a big mistake as the hospitable Scotscraig Golf Club can hold its own against the more renowned local courses.

Celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2017, the club announced a renovation project to return all the greenside and fairway bunkers to their original size and remove and control extensive areas of gorse. The first round of improvements had been completed the previous year, involving the reconstruction of twenty-one greenside bunkers and a redesign of the 4th green.

The second stage saw twenty-six fairway and approach bunkers rebuilt in a more natural form and new bunkers introduced on the 11th, 12th and 16th holes. The fairway bunkers were all changed so that they’re now rough-edged, adding visual appeal to these hazards. Plans are now in place to plant heather and marram grass round some of the bunker faces to enhance their natural appearance.