Scottish Courses

Carnoustie	Gleneagles	Kingsbarns	The Eden
The Jubilee	The New Course	The Old Course

The Old Course

The Old Course at St Andrews is one of the oldest golf courses in the world, and the oldest in Scotland [citation needed]. The Old Course is a public course over common land and is held in trust by The St. Andrews Links Trust under an act of Parliament. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) club house sits adjacent to the first tee and many people think that they own the course, but they are just one of many clubs that have playing privileges on the course, along with the general public.

There is no real knowledge of when golf was first played over the grounds that now constitute the Old Course. The earliest written evidence is a license issued in 1552, which permitted the community to rear rabbits on the links and "play at golf, futball, schuteing ... with all other manner of pastimes." The course evolved without the help of any true architect for many years. Originally, it was played over the same set of fairways out and back to the same holes. As interest in the game increased, the whins were cut back to allow for two fairways. All the greens were also increased in size and two holes were cut.