You’d think "oldest" would be a simple thing to prove. It isn't. In the world of golf, people get incredibly heated about who hit a ball into a hole first. If you ask a local in Fife, they’ll point toward the iconic Swilcan Bridge at St Andrews. Ask someone in East Lothian, and they’ll swear by the turf at Musselburgh Links. Honestly, the answer depends entirely on whether you care about when the grass was first walked on or when the first legal document was signed.
The oldest golf course in the world is officially the Old Links at Musselburgh. That’s according to Guinness World Records. They have the paperwork. But history is rarely as tidy as a record book.
Golf didn't start with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It started with bored Scotsmen hitting pebbles with sticks on common land. Because these were public areas, people were likely playing "golf-like" games long before anyone thought to write it down. We have to look at the 1500s and 1600s to find the real roots of the game, and those roots are tangled deep in the salty soil of the Scottish coast.
The Legal Battle for "Oldest" Status
Musselburgh Links has a documentary paper trail that is hard to beat. There is evidence of golf being played there as far back as 1672. Sir John Foulis of Ravelston, a Scottish accountant who apparently loved his leisure time, recorded in his account book that he played golf at Musselburgh on March 2, 1672. That specific date is the "smoking gun" for historians.
But wait. There’s a catch.
Mary, Queen of Scots, reportedly played at Musselburgh even earlier, in 1567. Some historians claim she was criticized for playing golf so soon after her husband, Lord Darnley, was murdered. If that’s true, we’re looking at the mid-16th century. However, skeletal records from that era are a bit fuzzy. It’s more of a persistent historical account than a verified ledger entry.
St Andrews, the "Home of Golf," usually loses the "oldest" title on a technicality. While the game has been played on the Links at St Andrews since the 1400s—so long that King James II had to ban it in 1457 because it was distracting men from archery practice—the course itself has changed. It was remodeled. It grew. Musselburgh, meanwhile, sits in the middle of a horse racing track and has remained remarkably static in its layout.
Why the 1457 Ban Changes Everything
If you want to understand the timeline of the oldest golf course in the world, you have to look at why the government hated it. In 1457, the Scottish Parliament under James II issued an Act: "And at the fute-ball and golf be utterly cryit doune, and nocht usit."
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They wanted men practicing their longbow skills for the inevitable wars with England.
This tells us two things. First, golf was already popular enough by 1457 to be a national nuisance. You don't ban a sport that only three guys are playing in a backyard. Second, it was being played on "links" land—the sandy, coastal strips that weren't good for farming but were perfect for hitting balls. St Andrews, Leith, and Musselburgh all claim this early heritage.
But St Andrews is the one that survived as the ultimate pilgrimage site. Even if Musselburgh has the oldest "continuous" record, St Andrews has the soul of the game. It’s where the 18-hole standard was actually born. Before that, courses had however many holes fit the land. St Andrews had 22 holes originally. They combined some in 1764, and suddenly, 18 became the magic number for the rest of human history.
The Architecture of Antiquity
What does it feel like to play a course that hasn't changed in centuries? It's cramped. It's weird.
Musselburgh Links is only nine holes. It’s surrounded by a racecourse. You literally have to cross the horse track to play. This is not the pristine, manicured experience of a modern PGA Tour stop. It’s raw. The bunkers aren’t strategically placed by a high-paid architect; they are where the wind blew the sand or where sheep huddled for warmth hundreds of years ago.
The Evolution of the Hole
Ever wonder why a golf hole is 4.25 inches wide?
You can thank Musselburgh for that too. In 1829, the club workers at Musselburgh invented the first circular hole cutter. Before that, people just kind of hacked a hole in the ground with a trowel or a knife. The size of that original cutter—four and a quarter inches—became the mandatory standard for the Royal & Ancient Golf Club (R&A) in 1891.
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- Musselburgh: The record holder for documented age.
- St Andrews: The site of the 1457 ban and the 18-hole standard.
- Kinghorn: Another ancient site claiming play since the 1500s.
- Montrose: Boasts golf heritage dating back to 1562.
The "Other" Old Courses
We can't talk about the oldest golf course in the world without mentioning the Blackheath Gents. Down in London, Royal Blackheath claims a founding date of 1608.
The story goes that King James VI of Scotland (who became James I of England) moved his court to London and brought his golf clubs with him. His Scottish courtiers needed somewhere to play, so they headed to the high ground of Blackheath. If this is true, it would be the oldest club in the world, even if the course they play on now isn't the original land.
The distinction between a "course" and a "club" is where people get tripped up. A club is a group of people. A course is the dirt. Musselburgh has the oldest continuous play on the same dirt.
What Most People Get Wrong About Scottish Links
Modern golfers are used to lush green fairways and soft greens. Ancient golf was played on "links" land. The word comes from the Scots word hlinc, meaning a ridge or rising ground. This was the "wasteland" between the sea and the arable farmland.
It was never watered. It was never fertilized. It was kept short by rabbits and sheep.
When you play these ancient courses today, you're playing on history's leftovers. The ground is hard. If you hit a ball, it might bounce twenty yards in any direction because of a hummock that’s been there since the Ice Age. This is "rub of the green" in its purest form.
Experts like Tom Doak, a world-renowned golf architect, often talk about how modern courses try to mimic this "naturalness," but you can't fake 500 years of sheep grazing.
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How to Play These Relics Today
The best part? You can actually play them. Most of the oldest golf courses in the world are public or at least accessible to the average person. You don't need a $50,000 membership to walk in the footsteps of Mary, Queen of Scots.
- Musselburgh Links: You can actually rent "hickory clubs" here. If you want the authentic 1800s experience, you play with wooden shafts and a softer ball. It’s frustratingly difficult, but it makes you realize how talented the early champions like Willie Park Sr. actually were.
- The Old Course at St Andrews: It’s a public park on Sundays. No golf is played. People walk their dogs on the 18th fairway. To play it, you usually need to enter a ballot (a lottery) or book a year in advance.
- Montrose Golf Links: Often overlooked, but it’s one of the most natural, rugged experiences in Scotland. It’s currently fighting a battle against coastal erosion—the sea is literally eating the oldest parts of the course.
The Fragility of Golf History
There is a real threat to these sites. Climate change and rising sea levels are hitting Scottish links courses hard. Montrose has already had to move some of its tees because the North Sea is reclaiming the land.
If we don't protect the coastline, the oldest golf course in the world might eventually be underwater. It’s a sobering thought. We think of these places as permanent landmarks, but they are just strips of sand held together by seagrass and tradition.
Practical Steps for the Golf History Buff
If you’re planning a trip to see where it all began, don't just stick to the famous names.
- Book the "Hickory Experience" at Musselburgh. It costs a bit more than a standard round, but hitting a gutta-percha style ball with a wooden cleek is the only way to feel the vibrations of the 17th century.
- Visit the British Golf Museum in St Andrews. They have the actual clubs and balls used in the 1600s. They look like instruments of torture compared to a modern TaylorMade driver.
- Walk the course first. Most of these courses allow spectators to walk the perimeter. Take in the "bunker" shapes. Notice how they are often just natural depressions in the land.
- Check the tide charts. For courses like Montrose or even parts of St Andrews, the proximity to the sea affects the wind and the playability in ways you won't find at an inland course in Florida.
Ultimately, whether Musselburgh or St Andrews holds the "true" title is less important than the fact that they still exist. You can stand on a tee box where a Scottish king or a doomed queen might have stood, looking out over the same gray sea, trying to solve the same impossible puzzle of hitting a ball into a hole. Some things never change.
Actionable Next Steps
To truly experience golf history, start by researching "Hickory Golf" associations in your area. Playing with vintage equipment provides a perspective on course design that modern technology obscures. If you're planning a trip to Scotland, prioritize the "East Lothian Golf Coast." While St Andrews is the mecca, the concentration of ancient layouts like Musselburgh, Gullane, and North Berwick offers a denser, more authentic look at the game's evolution without the heavy commercialization of the larger resorts. Finally, look into the "Greenkeeping Heritage" movements that are working to restore the natural, sheep-grazed turf conditions to these historic sites, as supporting these initiatives helps preserve the physical history of the sport.