With numerous world class golf courses within a short drive and all of Scotland’s Open Championship courses easily reachable by car, Elie Cottage is a great base for a Scottish golf break. Click on “Golf” to find the great links courses nearby. Scotland – history, tradition and outstanding golf courses. If you’re a golfer, there’s nowhere else on earth like it, and the ancient Kingdom of Fife is the Home of Golf.
Golf was already flourishing here more than 500 years ago, so much so that in 1457 King James II of Scotland felt the need for an Act of Parliament banning football and “ye golf”, because the distractions were keeping his subjects from practising military skills such as archery.
At St Andrews, where King James IV of Scotland purchased golf clubs in 1506, golf was already being played across country centuries before what is now The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews was founded in 1754 by “22 Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Kingdom of Fife”, who presented a silver club to be competed for over the links on May 14 of that year. The course then had 12 holes, ten of which were played both out and in, making 22 holes in all, and it only became the model for the now standard 18 when it was changed ten years later by combining the first four holes into two longer ones.
More than 550 golf courses populate the country from head to toe and golf is broadly considered to be one of the greatest-ever Scottish creations – no mean feat considering that other significant inventions to come out of the country include the telephone, television, bicycle and tarmac.
Here you can find reviews and details of the Scottish courses on the Open rota, all of which are easily reachable by car – St Andrews (15 minutes), Carnoustie (40 minutes), Muirfield (1 hour), Royal Troon (2 hours) and Turnberry (2 ½ hours) and not to mention the 6 outstanding Championship qualifying courses all within 20 minutes.