Cheap Golf in Aberdeen: The Local's Guide to Budget Rounds

Aberdeen doesn't get talked about as a golf city the way St Andrews or East Lothian does, and that suits the locals fine. Because while the famous names — Royal Aberdeen, Murcar, Trump International — sit at the top end of the price sheet, the city quietly runs some of the best-value municipal golf anywhere in Scotland. One flat council fee gets you onto a genuine links inside the city boundary. Add the clifftop courses a short drive up and down the coast, and Aberdeen is a place where you can play serious golf on a serious budget without ever feeling short-changed.

This piece is about the cheap end. For the full picture across all price points — the championship links, the Deeside parkland, the day trips to Cruden Bay — see the Aberdeen golf guide and our Aberdeenshire on a budget round-up.

The Sport Aberdeen council courses — one flat fee

This is the thing that makes Aberdeen different. The city's council courses are run by Sport Aberdeen on a single flat green fee — the same price whether you play the seaside links or the parkland inland. There's no membership, no handicap certificate, no visitor surcharge. You book online, turn up, and play. The fee is around £35.60 in summer and drops to £22 in winter, and it's identical across all the council courses: King's Links, Hazlehead, Balnagask and Auchmill.

That's a remarkable arrangement. For roughly the cost of a couple of cinema tickets, you get a full 18-hole round on maintained turf in a city that also happens to host one of the oldest and best links courses in the world next door.

King's Links — from £22

The pick of the council estate. A genuine links laid out on the dunes between the city and the North Sea, on the same stretch of coast as Royal Aberdeen's Balgownie links a little to the north — and a fraction of the price. Firm turf, real wind off the sea, and the kind of humpy, running golf that links purists travel for. Par 70. If you only play one cheap round in Aberdeen, play this one. Course details and tee times →

Hazlehead — from £22

West of the city centre in Hazlehead Park. Tree-lined parkland, more sheltered than King's Links and a gentler test, which makes it the friendlier option for beginners, juniors and social fourballs. Par 70, and the same flat Sport Aberdeen fee — £35.60 summer, £22 winter. There's a shorter nine-hole layout in the park too if you just want a quick loop. Course details →

Booking Sport Aberdeen courses: sportaberdeen.co.uk

The clifftop value up the coast

Aberdeen sits on a coastline of dramatic, cheap, under-the-radar links. Two are worth the short drive.

Stonehaven — from £22

Fifteen miles south, a clifftop links perched above the harbour town, with holes that play along the edge of the sea stacks. It's short — par 66 — and quirky, with a couple of blind shots that locals love and visitors curse, but the setting is genuinely spectacular. Green fees run from £22 in winter up to around £85 on a peak summer weekend, so play midweek or off-season and it's one of the best-value scenic rounds in the country. Course details →

Royal Tarlair — around £20–£30

Further afield — an hour up the coast at Macduff — but worth flagging because it's astonishing value. A clifftop links with one of the most photographed short holes in the north-east, playing across a rocky chasm to the sea. Green fees are around £20–£30. Confirm the current visitor rate with the club before you drive up, but as a budget clifftop round it's hard to beat. Course details →

The value clubs a step up

If you want a members' club round without the seaside-links wind, the parkland belt around Aberdeen has plenty under £50.

• McDonald Golf Club, Ellon — mature parkland, £40 midweek and £50 at weekends. Well-presented and welcoming to visitors. Details →
• Inverurie Golf Club — a tidy parkland test in the Garioch, around £50. Details →
• Aboyne and Banchory, out on Royal Deeside — two of the prettiest inland rounds in the region, from £40 and £45 respectively, both with reduced twilight rates in the evening. Worth the drive for the river-valley scenery alone. Aboyne → · Banchory →

Tips for keeping costs down

Play the council courses in winter. The Sport Aberdeen fee drops to £22 from around November to March. The wind off the North Sea is honest about the season, but a bright, cold morning on King's Links is one of Scottish golf's underrated pleasures.

Go midweek at Stonehaven. The clifftop courses charge their top rate at summer weekends. A Tuesday or Wednesday round is a fraction of the price and far quieter.

King's Links is walkable and bus-served. It sits at the north end of the beach esplanade, a short bus ride or a long walk from the city centre — no hire car required. Hazlehead is on First Aberdeen bus routes heading west.

One flat fee means no nasty surprises. Because Sport Aberdeen charges the same across its courses, you don't need to second-guess weekend premiums or visitor surcharges. What you see is what you pay.

The bottom line

Aberdeen's reputation is built on the expensive stuff — Balgownie, Murcar, the Trump course north of the city. All of it is worth playing if the budget stretches. But the everyday truth is that this is a city where a proper links round costs £22 in winter and £35.60 in summer, on a flat council fee that doesn't punish you for being a visitor. Add the clifftop courses down the coast and the Deeside parkland inland, and Aberdeen quietly offers some of the best cheap golf in Scotland.

Stays Nearby

Where to stay near Aberdeen

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Browse all Aberdeen-area courses on our finder → or see courses under £30 in Scotland →.

Related: the cheapest golf courses in Scotland · what municipal golf in Scotland actually is · 20 best cheap courses under £30 · cheap golf in Edinburgh · cheap golf in Glasgow.