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As with other historical lists, this one reflects the records that we have, rather than the reality of what may or may not have happened.
Some may find it strange that this list is very different from the list of Oldest Golf Societies. This is largely because all the oldest golf clubs except those at St Andrews, Earlsferry and Fortrose had to move late in 19th century to locations where they could create an 18-hole golf course. In golf history, space was of paramount importance.
Only the Royal & Ancient and Musselburgh clubs were able to develop and play continuously over their original golfing grounds. All the other clubs of the 18th century and all the other 18 oldest golf clubs had to relocate, if only a mile or two, to establish the courses that they play today.
Kingsbarns and Scotscraig returned to their original golfing grounds, having been unceremoniously turfed off the land by tenant farmers who ploughed the courses up, leading to the demise of both clubs for many years. In Montrose, the golfers play near the original links but not exactly where the first links, called the Mid-Links, was located.
Recently it has become clear that parts of the current Fortrose golf course play over the area used by the Fortrose golfers at the end of the 18th century, which means the course is older than the club.
The course list is also different from the list of Oldest Golf Sites, for several reasons. Sometimes, the early records are court or parish minutes, which do not document the precise location of the golf.
The right to play golf on the links was enshrined in the 16th century Burgh records of St Andrews (1552) and, reputedly, at Elie (1589) and play is recorded at Musselburgh from 1672, but not with the precision needed to prove these activities were on today's course, though they almost certainly were. Therefore the courses at St Andrews, Musselburgh, Elie go back further than the index dates suggest, and they can rightly claim to be the oldest golf courses still played.
Bruntsfield Links 1695 Oldest course in world where you can play golf for free
There are no longer any golf courses at all on Leith Links in Edinburgh, Sauchope in Crail, Glasgow Green in Glasgow, Burntisland Links at Burntisland, Ward Hill at Cruden Bay, West Links/Hedderwick Links at Dunbar nor the East Links at North Berwick. This is because they could not expand to 18 holes in the late 19th century, when this became the standard for a golf course.
For detail of Edinburgh and East Lothian, see below
The lack of space to create 18-holes also applied to the early English clubs such as Blackheath and Manchester, forcing them to move as well. An interesting (and recent) exception is Royston (1869), only a few years outside this list.
Pau is in southern France, The Curragh is in Eire and Westward Ho! is in south-west England and are not shown.
It may be surprising that there are courses outside Scotland among the oldest 18 extant courses. These courses, though established later, were located where there was enough room for 18 holes. They were founded by visiting Scots and local interest in golf did not come until much later. This was also the case at at Wimbledon Common, founded in 1865, and therefore just outside this list, as are Haddington (1865) and Brook Common (1865).
The Golfers Yearbook of 1866 lists 38 clubs playing 23 courses. (The average' bogey' for the course records is 5.21 per hole.) Of these, five clubs and eight courses no longer exist, including many of the oldest courses. At the turn of the 20th century, the number of clubs and courses would rise rapidly. In 1888, the Golfing Annual lists 197 clubs playing about 126 courses, though some courses are not named. By the end of the century this would be over 2,000 clubs, on over 1,000 courses.
You can play all the courses listed here out-of-season for £1,000.
