View looking towards the 17th and 18th holes of the Old Course, St Andrews, with the club house o...

The Oldest Golf Courses in Our Rankings

54 ranked courses

Fifty-four of our ranked courses were in play before 1900, and forty of them are links. That is not a selection effect — it is what golf was. Until earth-moving machinery and reliable inland drainage, a golf course was something you found on ground that already drained, which in practice meant the sandy coastal strip of Scotland, Ireland and the north of England. The Old Course at St Andrews has been played since 1552 and is the oldest by nearly three centuries; the rest cluster between 1832 and 1899, in the boom that followed the railways to the coast. Thirty-four are in the United Kingdom, three in Ireland, four on the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, two in Belgium, one in Malta, one in Sri Lanka, one in Canada and eight in the United States, and the American eight show the game crossing the Atlantic and moving inland: Shinnecock Hills (1891) and Garden City (1899) are links, Maidstone (1894) sits on the Long Island shore, and The Country Club (1882), Essex County Club (1893), Myopia Hunt Club (1894), Chicago Golf Club (1895) and Northland Country Club in Duluth (1899) are, with the heathland courses at Royal Antwerp (1888), Ganton (1891), Woking (1893), Peel (1895) and Hankley Common (1897), Royal Malta at Marsa (1888) and Royal Colombo (1879), the only inland courses on this list. Thirty-one are private, twenty-one are semi-private and two are fully public.

— Top 10 Rankings

Top 10 Courses Built Before 1900

Updated

  1. The Old Course at St Andrews
    St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom links Par 72
    5.0
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  2. Royal County Down Golf Club
    Newcastle, County Down, United Kingdom links Par 71
    5.0
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  3. Royal Dornoch Golf Club — Championship Course
    Dornoch, Sutherland, Highland, Scotland, United Kingdom links Par 70
    5.0
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  4. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
    Southampton, NY, United States links Par 70
    4.8
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  5. Ballybunion Golf Club - Old Course
    Ballybunion, County Kerry, Ireland links Par 71
    5.0
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  6. Muirfield
    Gullane, East Lothian, United Kingdom links Par 71
    4.8
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  7. Royal Birkdale Golf Club
    Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom links Par 70
    4.7
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  8. Royal Troon Golf Club — Old Course
    Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom links Par 71
    5.0
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  9. Lahinch Golf Club — Old Course
    Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland links Par 72
    5.0
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  10. Carnoustie Golf Links (Championship Course)
    Carnoustie, Angus, United Kingdom links Par 72
    4.7
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— More Courses

More Courses Built Before 1900

About Courses Built Before 1900

These courses were routed on foot, over ground nobody reshaped, and several still play close to their original lines — which is why architects keep going back to them.

Ranked courses
54
Course styles
links 40 · parkland 7 · heathland 5
Access
private 31 · semi-private 21 · public 2
Opened
1552–1899
Playable without membership
23 of 54

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