18
72
1850
Links Course
Old Tom Morris, Alister MacKenzie
Visitors welcomed
No club is more storied than St. Andrews, and the Old Course is its crown jewel and living museum. The game's earliest club and first organized course first was made up of twenty-two holes, eleven each way using the same greens twice (those working the front eleven were given precedence over those coming home). The next step in the evolution of the golf course was to make the greens sufficiently large to accommodate players moving in either direction. Over time the number of holes was whittled down to the eighteen that went on to become the standard for every other club. The Honourable Company at Edinburgh is actually a decade older than the Royal and Ancient, but St. Andrews took the lead owing in part to its claim to the first eighteen. St. Andrews offers a special combination of a historical setting and a great game of golf.