Fife Golf Guide: Best Value Courses Beyond the Old Course

Fife is a peninsula, and the golf follows the coast. From the northern tip at Tayport down through St Andrews, then south and west along the East Neuk cliffs to Elie and Lundin, there are approximately 40 courses within the county, the majority of them links or links-adjacent, the majority of them costing under £60.

The Old Course gets the attention, the Open Championship coverage, and the £295 green fee. Everything around it gets significantly less of all three. This guide is about the everything around it.

The St Andrews cluster (under £120)

If you're coming to St Andrews, you have seven courses available through the Links Trust, and five of them cost under £120.

New Course — £120 (peak), £65 (winter)

The best value in St Andrews. Fast greens, excellent layout, open to online booking without a ballot. Plays harder than the Eden or Strathtyrum but not as technically demanding as the Old Course. If this were anywhere else in Scotland, it would be one of the headline attractions.

Jubilee Course — £90 (peak), £50 (winter)

Renovated and lengthened, now considered the hardest Links Trust course after the Old. Good condition, demanding but fair. Worth choosing over the Eden if you want a proper test.

Castle Course — £120 (peak), £70 (winter)

Built in 2008 on elevated ground above the coast, with the best views of any St Andrews course. Polarising design — some find it gimmicky, others love it. The views are non-negotiable.

Eden Course — £55 (peak), £35 (winter)

The accessible option. More inland in character, shorter, gentler. Good if you're playing multiple rounds in a day or starting a Fife trip before moving south along the coast.

Strathtyrum — £40 (peak), £25 (winter)

Shortest of the Trust courses, tree-lined, forgiving. Good for beginners or a casual round. The least links-like of the seven, but enjoyable.

Balgove — £20

Nine holes, par 3. No booking required. Just show up.

The East Neuk links (the ones worth the drive)

The East Neuk is the coastal strip running south of St Andrews — Crail, Anstruther, Pittenweem, Elie. It contains some of the finest and least-visited links golf in Scotland.

Crail Golfing Society — Balcomie Links — £35–50

Crail has two courses. Balcomie is the one to play first — older, shorter, sitting at Fife Ness with holes that run along the rocky coastline and greens that are small and fast and require proper thought to hit properly. The 5th hole (along the cliff edge) and 14th (facing back toward the village) are memorable. Craighead Links, the club's second course, is longer and newer; play Balcomie first.

Elie Golf House Club — £55–70

Elie's starter uses a submarine periscope to check the blind 1st fairway — this is both a genuine necessity (the fairway is genuinely invisible from the tee) and one of golf's more charming eccentricities. The course itself is traditional East Neuk links: fast, undulating, quirky hole routing. The back nine along the shoreline is excellent.

Lundin Golf Club — £50–65

Three standing stones on the course date to the Bronze Age, which puts a round at Lundin into some context. Proper links, 6,376 yards from the back, harder than it looks on the card. Less well-known than Elie, comparably priced, and often easier to book.

Leven Links — £45–55

Leven sits at the southern end of the East Neuk links chain, shared fairways with Lundin in places, exposed to the Firth of Forth. A genuine Open qualifying venue (it hosted Regional Qualifying). Excellent value. Often the best-conditioned course in the area.

Anstruther Golf Club — £25–35

A nine-hole course above the harbour at Anstruther, par 36, modest green fees, and one of those rounds that takes two hours and leaves you happier than courses twice the length. The 5th hole tees from a clifftop. The village below is worth staying in.

The inland Fife courses (undervalued, often overlooked)

Fife has inland and parkland courses that receive minimal coverage but play well.

Ladybank Golf Club — £50–65

Parkland in Fife's agricultural interior, Bill Murray's preferred Fife course before he bought a share of the Kingsbarns. Well-maintained, traditionally designed (Tom Morris in origin, Morris & Hunter redesigned), worth playing.

Dunfermline Golf Club — £35–45

Parkland on the western edge of Fife, near the Forth bridges. Less well-known than the coastal courses but genuinely good and accessible for golfers arriving from Edinburgh.

Aberdour Golf Club — £30–40

Parkland above the village of Aberdour on the Forth coast. Short but interesting. The views across the Forth to Edinburgh from the upper holes are disproportionate to the green fee.

How to plan a Fife golf week

A four-day route for under £250 in green fees (peak season):

Day 1: Crail Balcomie (£45) + Anstruther evening nine (£25) Day 2: Elie (£65) + Leven (£55) Day 3: Lundin (£55) + optional Anstruther Craighead (£40) Day 4: St Andrews Eden (£55) or Jubilee (£90)

Accommodation base: Anstruther, Elie, or Crail. Self-catering cottages in the East Neuk villages are available from around £80/night for a small property — reasonable for a group split between two or more golfers.

Getting around: A car is helpful but not essential for the East Neuk cluster, which spans 15 miles. Cycling between Crail, Anstruther, Elie, and Leven along the Fife Coastal Path is possible and done by some golfers (though you need to carry your bag, which most people find impractical; trolley arrangements can sometimes be left at clubs between rounds).

The honest word on Kingsbarns

Kingsbarns Golf Links, between St Andrews and Crail, is one of Scotland's finest courses — a modern links built on a spectacular coastal site, opened in 2000, and managed to tournament standard. Green fee: £225 peak.

It doesn't appear in the value section of this guide because it isn't value. It is, however, worth the money if you have the money. If you're doing a Fife trip and have one premium round in the budget, Kingsbarns is where to spend it. The stretch of coast it occupies — above a beach, with rock outcroppings in several fairways — is exceptional.

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For the specific details of the St Andrews Links Trust courses: St Andrews on a Budget: Play the Home of Golf. For a full East Lothian comparison: East Lothian Golf Crawl.