Royal St. David’s Golf Club, Wales
Beneath a 13th-century castle built to keep the Welsh in check, this rugged links has subjugated eager golfers for 110 years running. And now we plunge into a tract of truly wonderful duneland—tall and short sandhills, ridges and hillocks and hollows, rumpled fairways, hidden greens and long-legged rough, where skylarks breed and 12 varieties […]
Portstewart Golf Club, Northern Ireland
Portstewart, a small town in Northern Ireland, suffered from a large inferiority complex in the late 19th century. Separated by only three miles of rugged Ulster coastline from the neighboring resort town of Portrush, Portstewart had been losing ground to its more fashionable and popular rival since the early Victorian era. When it […]
Castlerock Golf Club, Northern Ireland
Castlerock Golf Club has long resided in the shadow of its illustrious neighbors along Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast— Portstewart and Royal Portrush—but it would be a mistake to overlook this gem, which embodies all the essential charms of links golf. Its fine points include a pure seaside routing, firm greens, ferocious rough and an unmistakable […]
Belvoir Park Golf Club, Northern Ireland
In the early ’90s, when Yanks began descending en masse on Ireland’s mightiest links, they first gathered at the magisterial courses of the southwest (think Ballybunion and Lahinch), then east coast wonders like Portmarnock and the European Club, and more recently, the raw and secluded northwest. But without direct flights to Belfast and scared […]
Tain Golf Club, Scottish Highlands
In a secluded corner of the Scottish Highlands, on nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska, lays a golf course of compelling beauty, fascinating history and beguiling challenge. This is Tain, the oldest royal burgh in Scotland and where the steeply winding streets and medieval walls echo a colorful and ancient past. This is where […]
North Berwick Golf Club, Scotland
The vast majority of golfers, even those natives of the game’s homeland who ought to know better, mention of East Lothian generally brings the knee-jerk response of “Muirfield, magnificent Muirfield.” Yet in historical terms, the present home of the ancient Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers is a Johnny-come-lately upstart on the peerless stretch of […]
Dundonald Links, Scotland
With much of Scotland’s linksland already occupied by some of the greatest venues in golf, few new seaside courses have appeared on the game’s home turf since the early 20th century. That drought was broken in 2000 when the acclaimed Kingsbarns opened on the Fife coast, near St. Andrews. Then, with natives still abuzz […]
Brora Golf Club, Scotland
In 1995 Peter Thomson and his wife, Mary, made a four-and-a-half-hour drive from their home in St. Andrews to the Scottish Highlands. Intrigued by a glowing recommendation from a former caddie, the five-time British Open winner traveled to the seaside town of Brora to play the eponymous course. Without informing the club in advance […]
