10 oldest golf clubs in the world challenge

This year, i have decided to play the 10 oldest golf clubs in the world, whilst working in Scotland. Has anyone played them all yet?

If so, how did you rate them for quality? Did they feel like they were old courses when actually playing them?

For those not sure, i have listed them below, of which i have so far played 1,3,4,6 & 7.

• 1735 Royal Burgess Golf Society
• 1744 Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers
• 1754 Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews
• 1761 Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society
• 1766 Royal Blackheath Golf Club
• 1774 Royal Musselburgh Golf Club
• 1780 Royal Aberdeen Golf Club
• 1786 Crail Golfing Society
• 1787 Glasgow Golf Club
• 1791 Burntisland Golf Club

I don't think that list is correct, Alan, maybe for Scotland but there are other clubs in England just as old. Wimbledon Common/London Scottish and Royal North devon, just to name 2 off the top of my head.

The Blackheath golf course is not that old.

What you want to look for is the oldest golf sites. As some clubs, like Blackheath are a lot older than they courses they're based at. And some sites older than the club.

Try this list.

Location

Bruntsfield Links

Montrose is quite nice.

How did I miss the forum post last week, great post!

Just recently heard Machrihanish is a fantastic venue and worth playing. 

Don't get sucked in with Royal Musselburgh. It's Musselburgh Links, which is inside the Racecourse and a 9hole Muni. Royal Musselburgh GC was formed there in 1774 and only moved up the road to its present location in 1925.

Burgess GC(1874-1895), The Honourable GC(1836-1891) & Bruntsfield GC(1875-1895) all played over the Musselburgh Links.

Scotland is the 'Home of Golf' and many interesting and historic courses can be found.

TheLyth

Anyone else ever done any challenges like this ?

I've decided that this year I'm going to play the 10 cheapest golf courses in the UK.

As long as they are no more than a 45 minute drive from my house!

Does that count?

Russ

Some tough courses on this list!

Anyone know if these are 100% correct ? hearing that Fraserburgh is missing 1774c ?

I have only played 3&6. Royal Musselburgh is indeed a pleasant track

Popular post with resurfacing every now and again.

Anyone else done any good with this list ?

I've played Blackheath as I live just around the corner. It is a nice course don't get me wrong but for some reason I was expecting more, probably because of the 'legend' status that it has in these parts. With regards to someones earlier comment about telling their age, I think for me you could tell that the land, and some of the trees etc had been there for a while. Although (and please correct me if I'm wrong, I may need a history lesson) the course as we know it hasn't been established nearly as long as the club. I believe that the club used to play on Blackheath common but eventually moved and took over an Eltham Golf Club due to the common not being suitable anymore? This really can be checked via Google but I'm too busy at work! (He says wile sitting on Golfshake...)

I notice that you say this is a popular posting. This list was taken from my website, Scottish Golf History. It is still the list of oldest 10 continuous golf clubs but I have just updated it for the other non-continuous 18th century societies.

http://www.scottishgolfhistory.org/oldest-golf-societies/

I have also added the oldest golf courses, which are different from the clubs or societies as pointed out above.

Thank you for your interest.

Neil Laird

Fraserburgh dates back to 1777 so should be on this list. Visit website fraserburghgolfclub and go to club history to see original documents of club meeting.