St Andrews Golf Courses - St Andrews Old Course Hotel

The Links of Carnoustie is generally accepted as one of the ultimate tests in golf. The British Open returned here in 1999, with Scotland's Paul Lawrie winning a 4-way play-off, which included Frenchman Jean van de Velde, who needed only a 6 on the par-4 last for victory. Ben Hogan won here in 1953, and the par-5 6th Hole at Carnoustie was officially renamed after him in 2003 as Hogan's Alley, because of the Champions strategy of driving between the fairway bunkers and out-of-bounds, to set up winning birdies. Carnoustie once again will host the British Open in 2007.

“Six miles south of Scotland’s Old Course at St Andrews is the new Kingsbarns Golf Links, so splendiferous in its concept and execution that we felt compelled to declare it our first ever Best New International Course” – Golf Digest, 2001.

Kingsbarns is a relatively new but classic links set against the rugged coastline of the North Sea in the most famous stretch of golfing terrain in the world. The land in East Fife is perfect for golf and Kingsbarns makes great use of the sandy soils, ridges and hollows. Glorious sea views, deep, revetted bunkers, smooth, undulating greens and the picturesque Cambo burn make for an attractive but stern test of golf which requires excellent shotmaking.

The course is now included within the end of PGA European Tour season Dunhill Links Championship!

The St Andrews Castle Course is a modern links championship course laid out on a cliff-top 2 miles from the town of St Andrews, bordering the Fairmont St Andrews on St Andrews Bay.

Routed on 2 loops of 9 holes, each loop starts at the clubhouse, and heads for higher ground, before descending for the final 3 holes of each 9, alongside the coastline. Clever mounding and sculpting of fairways by MacLay Kidd (architect of the acclaimed Bandon Dunes on the west coast of Oregon) means that many of the holes are sheltered from one another, and also from tee to green, placing a premium on straight and strategic driving.

The feature hole is the par-3 17th, played across a ravine on the edge of cliffs, all into the prevailing wind from St Andrews.

Opened for play in 1914, the St Andrews Eden is a course of character but slightly less testing and more forgiving than the three courses lying on the seaward side.

The Eden Tournament, inaugurated in 1919, remains one of the major amateur British golfing events. Every year over 250 golfers play for the Eden trophy in the second week of August.

First opened in 1897, the championship St Andrews Jubilee is the most testing course on the links. Created on a narrow strip of land between the New Course and the sea, the Jubilee was originally a 12 hole course intended for ladies and beginners.

In 1988 the re-design of the Jubilee to championship standard was carried out by Donald Steel. The teeing grounds were raised, not only providing wonderful views of the Links, but also exposing the golfers to the winds which sweep in from the bay. Mr. Steel's redesigned course was 6,805 yards and a real test for all golfers.

The course was officially opened when Curtis Strange, the US Open champion, drove a ball from the first tee in September 1989.

In 2003 the Jubilee was the proud host of the British Mid-Amateur Championship and in 2004 was a qualifying course for the Amateur Championship, played that year on the Old Course.

Opened in 1895 and laid out by Tom Morris, the St Andrews New Course is considered by many as one of the best courses on the links. The course was the second course to be built in St Andrews, in response to increasing demand for golf from locals and from the visitors who were flocking to the town in increasing numbers on the recently constructed railway.

The construction of the New Course was paid for by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club as part of an arrangement under which the club was allocated the right to certain starting times on the Old Course. These arrangements were enshrined in the first Act of Parliament concerning the Links which was passed in 1894 and was the forerunner of the current Act of 1974 which specifies how the links are to be run.

The New Course is a classic links course which uses the natural features of the land to create a great golfing challenge. It also has, in the great St Andrews tradition, shared fairways and even a double green at the 3rd and 15th holes.

Located as it is in the shadow of its illustrious neighbour, the New Course can be considered one of St Andrews' best kept secrets.

“I fell in love with it the first day I played it. There's just no other golf course that is even remotely close” - Jack Nicklaus

“Without a doubt I like it the best of all the Open venues. It's my favourite course in the world” - Tiger Woods

The Old Course at St Andrews, host to the British Open Championship 27 times - and generally considered the benchmark against which all greats like to measure themselves.

Players should watch out for first tee nerves here more than anywhere and other than that, there’s the Swilken Burn, the Road hole and Hell bunkers to keep the interest over what must be the best course in the world to play on.