Alright folks, let's talk about Crail. This club was founded in a pub in 1786, a full year before anyone sat down in Philadelphia to write the US Constitution. Eleven gentlemen met at the Golf Inn, formed the seventh oldest golf club on the planet, and got straight to the important stuff. A club minute from 1789 rules that "no member, in particular the Secretary, shall absent himself from the bowl on the pretence of tea drinking." These were serious people. And the golf they left behind is one of the best value days out in the whole of Fife.

\*\*The Basics\*\*

Crail sits at Fife Ness, the easternmost tip of the Kingdom of Fife, ten miles down the coast road from St Andrews and just four miles from Kingsbarns. The club claims the oldest surviving minute books in golf, an unbroken record going back to that founding meeting. Its first Secretary, Stuart Grace, was moonlighting, since he was also Secretary of the R&A at the time. Only six clubs in the world are older, and you can name them all in one breath: Royal Burgess, the Honourable Company, the R&A, Bruntsfield, Royal Musselburgh and Royal Aberdeen.

The original links at Sauchope are now a caravan park, which is a very Scottish fate. The golf moved to Balcomie, where competitions had been played since the 1850s, and in 1894 the club asked Old Tom Morris for his opinion of the land. His verdict: "there is not a better in Scotland." He laid out the first nine, opened in 1895, and came back in 1900 to finish the job. The hickory club he used to hit the opening shot still sits in the clubhouse. His advice to members at the opening ceremony was simple: "when ye're in difficulty tak' your niblick." Still solid advice 130 years later.

\*\*The Golf\*\*

Two very different courses, and together they tell the whole story of golf design. Balcomie is the Old Tom original: par 69 at around 5,861 yards, with a bonkers scorecard of three par 5s, six par 3s and nine par 4s. Four of those par 3s come in the last six holes. Donald Steel reckoned not even North Berwick brings the beach into play more. The opening tee shot from the high first tee is one of the great views in Scottish golf, the par 5 2nd runs along the sand to a green on a rocky point, and then comes the 5th, "Hell's Hole." Sam Torrance called it the hardest par 4 in Scotland. When the wind is up and you're staring at the carry over the beach, you'll understand exactly how it got the name.

The back nine has the signature 14th, a dramatic downhill par 3 from the clubhouse hill with an old stone building behind the green. And between the 14th and 15th you walk past Constantine's Cave, where local legend says King Constantine II was killed fighting the Danes over a thousand years ago. Not many courses make you cross a royal crime scene mid round.

Then there's Craighead, opened in 1998, and here's the fact that makes architecture nerds sit up. It was the first solo design outside America by a young unknown called Gil Hanse. The same Gil Hanse who went on to build the Rio Olympic course and restore half the great venues in the US. He won the Crail job because he wanted to route the course around Danes Dyke, a 1,200 year old wall built to keep out invaders, and it's still in play today. Par 72 at around 6,656 yards, revetted bunkers that get compared to Muirfield's, and no two consecutive holes facing the same way. Members will tell you Craighead is the harder test. Visitors come for Balcomie's history. Play both and settle it yourself.

\*\*The History\*\*

Crail still plays for the Lindesay Medal, dating from 1830, one of the oldest medals in golf. The Ranken-Todd Bowl, presented at Balcomie's opening in 1895, brings the oldest clubs in Fife together every year for a day of local rivalry. In 2018 the Craighead hosted the Ladies' Senior British Open Amateur Championship, and Golf World ranked Balcomie the 50th best course in Scotland in 2025. Not bad for a club that nearly died twice in the 1800s and was down to eight members in 1813.

\*\*Should You Play It?\*\*

Visitors are welcome, booking is online and dead simple, and the club is famously friendly. High season green fees are around £160 on Balcomie and £125 on Craighead, with a day ticket covering both courses at around £220. Read that again. Kingsbarns is four miles away charging £448 for one round. At Crail you get 36 holes, two completely different designs by two legendary architects, and change from half of that.

The clubhouse alone is worth the trip, sat on a rocky ledge with a 270 degree view over the links and the North Sea. Grab a drink, watch groups come up the last, and raise a glass the way the founders did. Their tipple of choice at that 1786 meeting was Mother Duff's Punch, and yes, you can still order it.

\*\*Bottom Line\*\*

Crail is what happens when 240 years of golf history refuses to take itself too seriously. A pub founding, a rule against tea drinking, Old Tom's hickory in the cabinet, a king's cave on the back nine, and a Gil Hanse debut nobody saw coming. It's not the longest golf in Fife and it's not trying to be. It's the most characterful 36 holes on the east coast at a price that makes the big names blush. If you're doing a St Andrews trip and you skip Crail, you've done the trip wrong.

Anyone played both courses? Which one wins for you, Old Tom or Hanse? And did Hell's Hole live up to the name?

  


🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Weekly Spotlight: Crail Golfing Society (Balcomie & Craighead)