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A Photo Tour of Scotland’s greatest, and lesser known golf courses

Published

10 years ago

Jul 15, 2016

As the Home of Golf, Scotland houses some of the greatest, and oldest golf courses in the world. While you certainly know its world-famous courses, such as St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Muirfield, you may know a bit less about the courses highlighted in this article.

When booking your first, or next golf trip to Scotland, make sure to consider one of the beautiful options from this photo tour, or from our list of the 10 underrated courses in Scotland (and Ireland).

Enjoy our tour through golfing history, as we’ll provide brief information about each of the facilities, and of course, some beautiful imagery.

Prestwick Golf Club

Located in South Ayrshire, Scotland, Prestwick Golf Club opened in 1851 and hosted the first Open Championship in 1860. The club has hosted 24 Open Championships since, but none since 1925. Old Tom Morris — who hit the first shot in Open history here — was the “Keeper of the Green, Ball and Club Maker” at the club, according to Prestwick’s website, and he designed the original 12-hole layout, of which 6 holes are still used in the 18-hole layout of today.

Prestwick is just down the road from Royal Troon, host of the 145th Open Championship, and parts of the course are only 500 yards away from each other.

Click here to book your Prestwick Experience.

Royal Dornoch Golf Club

Royal Dornoch, located in Dornoch, Scotland, was founded in 1877 as Dornoch Golf Club, although according to its website, golf was being played in Dornoch since 1616 and possibly earlier. The original 9-hole course was made into 18 holes in 1886 under the vision of Old Tom Morris, and the club gained the “Royal” dignity from King Edward VII in 1906. Today, the club has two courses: the Championship and the Struie Course. The Championship course was ranked No. 1 in Scotland by Golf Digest in 2016.

Click here to book a tee time at Royal Dornoch.

Royal Aberdeen Golf Club

Located in Aberdeen, Scotland, Royal Aberdeen was founded in 1780, and is known as the sixth-oldest golf club in the world. Originally named the Society of Golfers at Aberdeen, the club was given the “royal” treatment in 1903. According to its website, the first golf hole — named the Queen’s hole — was at Aberdeen, and can be traced back to 1625.

Royal Aberdeen has two courses called Balgownie and Silverburn, with Silverburn being an 18-hole setup with 9 par-threes. Click here to book a tee time.

Royal Aberdeen Back Nine
Royal Aberdeen Front Nine

Brora Golf Club

Brora Golf Club, located 20 miles North of Dornoch in Sutherland, was designed in 1923 by James Braid, and is home to the headquarters of the James Braid Golfing Society. Braid, of course, was one of Scotland’s greatest golfers as the five-time winner of the Open Championship and is a renowned course designer. The club sits on the Kintradwell Bay, with the Sutherland foothills providing a backdrop.

Click here to reserve a tee time at Brora.

Trump International Golf Links — Scotland

Donald Trump’s Trump International (Scotland), which opened in July 2012, is located in Aberdeen and the course is designed by Dr. Martin Hawtree. Although it does not have the history and tradition of some other clubs on this list, it does have breathtaking scenery as it winds through Great Dunes and the coastline of the North Sea.

Click here to book a tee time at Trump’s course in Scotland.

Royal Troon Golf Club

Home of the 145th Open Championship, Royal Troon Golf Club is located in Ayrshire, Scotland, and was created in 1878 as Troon Golf Club. James Dickie, apprentice to Old Tom Morris, laid the first course layout with six holes, some of which are still used today, according to its website. Troon picked up the “Royal” prestige in 1978. Since its beginnings, Troon’s Old Course has hosted the Open nine times; Troon has a second, much shorter course named “Portland,” which was designed by Alister MacKenzie.

Royal Troon Front Nine
Royal Troon Back Nine

Castle Stuart Golf Links

Home to the 2016 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, Castle Stuart Golf Links is located in Inverness, and is notable for its majestic views of the Moray Firth. Since the course opened in 2009, it has already hosted four Scottish Opens (2011, ’12, ’13 and ’16).

Click here to book a tee time at Castle Stuart.

Trump Turnberry

Trump Turnberry is located in Ayrshire, Scotland, and is owned by Donald Trump. The Ailsa course — named after the Marquess of Ailsa — originally opened in 1906, and has hosted the Open Championship four times. All 18 holes have seen changes since Trump acquired Turnberry in 2014. The property also has two other courses — one named Kintyre, and a nine-hole course named Arran.

From its website: The Kintyre course will play as a composite course until 2017, combining 14 holes from the Kintyre and 4 holes from the Arran course. Click here to book a tee time at Trump Turnberry.

Bonus: St. Andrews (Old Course and Town)

The Swilcan Bridge. Hell Bunker. The Road Hole. The Rusacks Hotel. The Dunvegan. The Jigger Inn. Any other questions?

The Old Course at St. Andrews, which was established more than 600 years ago, is iconic and influential for so many reasons. When in Scotland (as a golfer, or even otherwise), you owe it to yourself to stroll through the town of St. Andrews and the grounds of the Old Course — that’s if you cannot secure a tee time. As public property, it’s not uncommon to see families, dog walkers and pedestrians walking right through the course. You’ll see people walking right down the fairway in our photos, but that’s because the course is closed on Sundays.

Learn how to book a time at the Old Course here.

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Photos from the 2025 Tour Championship

Published

9 months ago

Aug 19, 2025

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site this week for the final event of the 2025 FedEx Cup Playoffs: the Tour Championship

30 players will tee it up this week at East Lake, looking to get their hands on the Tour Championship as well as the FedEx Cup, which comes with a paycheck of $10 million. So far, we have plenty of photos for you to peruse, including Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Viktor Hovland WITBs.

Check out links to all our galleries below, and be sure to return throughout the week as we add more photos from Atlanta!

General Albums

WITB Albums

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See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.

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Photos from the 2022 PGA Show

Published

4 years ago

Jan 28, 2022

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX was on site for the golf business’s annual winter rite: the PGA Merchandise Show.

While the weather was less than cooperative for demo day, there were no such difficulties inside the Orange County Convention Center. This isn’t to say there weren’t significant figurative headwinds influencing this year’s Show, but those are widely discussed elsewhere. Our duty here was merely to document, and that is what we did to the tune of more than 1,500 photos, below.

Enjoy!