The 10 oldest golf courses in the world

In a world where golf has come to be defined dominated by politics, multi-billion-dollar deals, synthetic clothes and AI-designed clubs, there's a certain beauty in going back to the game's true roots.

That, of course, means paying a visit to the places where the game first started. Just like going to watch a football match in an historic stadium, anyone who's played a classic golf links will tell of the near-primal feeling it generates in a player, and few sports are able to take you back through time and convey such a sense of history simply through the act of playing them in the right place. 

However outside of the world's oldest course, The Old Course at St Andrews, not a lot of people know about the other oldest courses in the world – nor the iconic names (and sometimes literal royalty) that graced their turf. 

Figuring out the oldest golf courses in the world is a surprisingly tricky prospect, and a subject that's a matter of constant ongoing research and archaeology. This is mostly due to the difficulty of pinpointing exactly when a course officially becomes a "course", so to speak. While most of these clubs and courses as we known them now were founded in the 18th and 19th centuries, golf has been played on rough outlines of many of these links since well before then.

Conversely, the oldest golf clubs in the world, England's Royal Blackheath and Edinburgh's Royal Burgess Golfing Society, have been around since the mid 1700s at the earliest. Many of these clubs were nomadic for much of golf's early history, however, and the courses that home them now are in many cases much younger. It's all a bit confusing.

For the sake of this list, however, we're looking at the oldest established golf courses in the world, meaning these courses have been in continuous use and home to a resident club since their inception through to the present day. 

As such, it likely won't surprise you to hear that all of these courses are links courses – nor will it surprise you to learn that they're all in Golf's spiritual home of Scotland. For those curious, the oldest golf course outside of Scotland is France's Pau Golf Club, which opened in 1856. Royal North Devon became England's first official golf course eight years later (although residents of Fleetwood will argue their course is actually the oldest in England).

Sadly, only two of these historic tracks remain on the Open Rota. But that doesn't mean every golfer who's able shouldn't endeavour to play them at some point. Here, then, is your full guide to the world's most historic links, and how you can score yourself a round in these most magical of settings.

10. Carnoustie Golf Links

Founded: 1839

Carnoustie is one of many courses you'll find on this list that may well be far older than it officially states. While the golf club we know was founded in 1839, there are records of golf being played somewhere in the town as early as 1527. The problem is that this likely didn't take place on the grounds where this world-renowned course now lies, but rather on the nearby Barry Links.

Home to one of the UK's greatest and most fearsome finishing holes, it was at Carnoustie, in the depths of the Barry Burn that snakes twice across its 18th, that Jean Van De Velde's Open Championship hopes famously evaporated in 1996. Countless other great rounds have met their doom here over nearly two centuries, and Carnoustie remains one of the world's most revered links as a result. 

How to play it: Tee times publicly available, green fees between £220-£330 in high season.

9. West Links, North Berwick Golf Club

Founded: 1832

North Berwick feels every bit a spiritual successor to The Old Course at St Andrews, boasting a near identical (but slightly shorter) 18th hole and providing a similar test of archetypal links golf. North Berwick Golf Club itself is far younger, having been founded in the early 1830s, but age of the actual course itself is up for debate.

A fleeting mention in parish records mention golf being played on the 'Toune links', east of where North Berwick sits, as early as 1602, and it's possible Golf was being played on the common land somewhere in this general vicinity throughout the 1700s. However North Berwick itself notes that golf on the "terrain which in time would be expanded to become the West Links" began with the club's foundation in 1832, which is why we're playing it safe and keeping it at ninth on this list.

How to play it: Tee times publicly available, green fees between £220-£320 in high season.

8. Scotscraig Golf Course

Founded: 1817

Scotscraig is the only other course on this list, and indeed in Scotland, to have the distinction of being founded by the St. Andrews Society of Golfers, later to become the R&A. The reason for its creation? They simply wanted to play more golf. We don't blame them.

The society found its new home in Scotscraig, where six golf holes lay in a rough layout on the site of what was then also a racecourse. This was plowed up in the 1830s for farming, however the club returned to the site in the late 1880s and began work building it into the 18-hole links we know today.

How to play it: Tee times publicly available

7. Kinghorn Golf Course

Founded: 1812

Not to be confused with Kingsbarns, which we'll get onto in a minute, Kinghorn is an historic Tom Morris design that now forms a vital part of Fife's  collection of historic links. 

Morris plotted Kinghorn's links in the 1890s, establishing a nine-hole layout that would grow to become the full course we know today, however definitive evidence of golf being played on the land goes back as far as 1812 and probably well back into the 18th century. 

There's evidence of golf being played somewhere in Kinghorn as far back as the early 1600s, but we can't be sure if it took place on exactly the same spot. Either way, this short but fun par 65 links is well worth checking out, with green fees set at a measly £16 for adults. 

How to play it: Tee times publicly available, green fees between £14-16.

6. Kingsbarns

Founded: 1793

A few miles down the road from St Andrews, Kingsbarns is best known in the golf world as one of the triumvirate of historic links that plays host to the Alfred Dunhill towards the end of each DP World Tour season. For history-mad golfers, however, it represents a true living relic amidst Golf's most storied region.

It's not exactly known when golf was first played at Kingsbarns. The Kingsbarns Golfing Society, which after an 80 year period of dormancy was re-established as today's Kingsbarns Golf Club, was founded in 1793 – the earliest recorded instance of the game being played here. However given golf had been played just a short trot away in St Andrews for at least 200 years prior, it's possible the foundations of this historic links is much older.

How to play it: Tee times publicly available, green fees between £300-£400 in high season.

5. Fortrose and Rosemarkie

Founded: 1600s/1700s

Founded in 1793, Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club is the 15th oldest golf club in the world by their own estimation. However the links it calls home has evidence of golf being played there almost 100 years prior: the earliest recorded instance of which comes from 1702. 

Mapped out by the great James Braid, the Fortrose and Rosemarkie links as we know it today sits just north of Inverness and provides a classic test of coastal links golf, jutting out into Rosemarkie Bay before returning again. It's not hugely long, at just under 5,900 yards and 14 par 4s, but it's still a stern test for players of every level.

How to play it: Tee times publicly available, green fees between £110-£125 in high season.

Visit Fortrose and Rosemarkie

4. Musselburgh Links, The Old Golf Course

Founded: 1500s/1600s

Scottish Golf History considers the Musselburgh Links the 2nd oldest golf course in the world, however records are a little patchy on just how far back golf was being played on this small patch of land in East Lothian. 

The oldest definitive evidence of golf being played here comes from 1672, however the one of Musselburgh's claims to fame is that Mary Queen of Scots herself was accused (yes, accused) of playing golf somewhere around the town all the way back in 1567. No direct evidence has ever been found to back this up, and it's uncertain whether Mary even played at this particular course even if she did indulge in a quiet hit, as her grounds at the former Seton House were some way east of the town. 

At any rate, golf has definitely been played on this plot of land for more than 350 years, making Musselburgh's Old Course one of the four oldest in the world – and importantly the oldest course in the world still bring played in its original layout. It also hosted no less than six Open Championships in its heyday.

All of this makes for one of Golf's most unique and historic experiences – and one that's an absolute snip at around £25 for a round.

How to play it: Tee times publicly available, green fees between £24-£26.

Visit Musselburgh Links

3. Elie & Earslferry Links

Founded: 1589

Another course the exact age of which it's sort of hard to get a read on, the Elie links were established in at least the late 1500s, with the 1589 Burgh Charter expressly denoting a a right to play on "the golfing tract" on Earlsferry Mure: the same patch of land on which the modern day links now resides. The first mention of something approaching a modern layout appears on record in 1770, and the great James Braid would go on to learn the game here in the late 1800s. However the course now is radically different to how it would have played back then.

Now the home of The Golf House Club which itself celebrated its 150th birthday this year, Elie remains one of Scotland's most beloved, if underrated links, not just for its grand history but also for its sense of fun. It has no par fives and only two par threes, with Old Tom Morris's design including blind tee shots and par 4s of varying lengths that ensure this coastal links never loses its bite. 

How to play it: Tee times publicly available, green fees between £145-£180 in high season.

Visit Elie Links

2. Montrose Golf Links

Founded: 1562

Montrose, quite confusingly, calls itself the fifth oldest golf course on the world on its own website. However by most accepted standards it's actually the third and quite possibly the second, with records golf having been played on the Montrose Golf Links since 1562. The course itself is now called the 1562 Course to boot. 

This classic coastal links winds out and back from the clubhouse along the coast of Montrose bay, and hosted legendary matches between Old Tom Morris and Bob Dow. It's long, windy, has been extensively redeveloped over the years to stand up to the modern player, and is one of the most challenging courses on this list as a result.

How to play it: Tee times publicly available, green fees between £100-£200 in high season.

Visit Montrose

1. The Old Course, St Andrews

Founded: 1552

Golf's inarguable spiritual home, The Old Course will forever reign supreme as the sport's most historic links. While the fabled Old Course, as it's now known, wasn't handed over to the public for common use until 1552, records of people playing on the public common where the links now lay date back to the early 1400s. So many people played golf at St Andrews in this period, in fact, that then-King James II banned the game in 1457 so young men could focus on archery instead – a rule that would stretch until 1502 when his grandson James IV, himself a golfer, removed it. 

The Society of St Andrews Golfers – the body that would eventually form the R&A – was formed on the links two centuries later, and the rest, as they say, is history.

How to play it: One of the most desirable courses in the world to play, access to the Old Course is subject to a public ballots for non-residents of the local area. You can enter an advance ballot if you know your travel dates far in advance, and enter a daily ballot on the day you wish to play if you've been otherwise unsuccessful. You can also secure a guaranteed tee time through an authorised tour provider or a partner hotel booking.

Visit St Andrews