Golf Near Edinburgh: Field Notes from Every Course Within 45 Minutes

A running log rather than a list. Times and dates are as they happened. Courses are ordered chronologically across the spring. Green fees are weekday unless noted; drive times are from Tollcross in the city centre.

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Tuesday 4 March. Braid Hills No. 1. 08:42.

Frost on the first tee. The starter, a man in his sixties with a heater pulled up to his knees, nods and hands over a scorecard without being asked. "Six groups out. You'll catch them by the turn." The course is running slower than it looks; the ball sits up on the tight lies and then doesn't move after landing. Views over the Pentlands one side, the Forth the other, the city sitting in the middle looking complicated. A 5-iron on the 7th finishes pin-high. A father is teaching his son on the practice green, both of them in layers that don't match.

Twelve quid. Drive from Tollcross: 14 minutes.

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Sunday 15 March. Carrick Knowe. 10:05.

Flat. Simple. A dog walker cuts across the 3rd fairway and apologises without stopping. The course has the kind of calm that you only get from a muni in the middle of a big city: nobody here is trying to impress anybody. A four-ball ahead of us play in a steady rotation that feels rehearsed. We tip our caps at the ranger who isn't really checking anything. No wind to speak of. The short par-4 7th plays its full length anyway. A bacon roll at the clubhouse afterwards, £3.20.

£15. Drive: 12 minutes.

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Wednesday 18 March. Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society. 11:00.

Members' club, established 1761, currently at Davidson's Mains in the leafier north-west of the city. We are admitted as guests of a member; the secretary calls down to the pro shop and the round is logged before we arrive. The clubhouse is the kind of Edwardian building that has more original features than additions. The course itself is parkland of the most settled type — wide fairways, mature trees, a stream that crosses the 4th and 14th. Membership is wait-listed; visitor access is by phone in advance. £85 visitor fee, which is what you pay for a course that has been pleased with itself for 250 years and intends to continue.

Drive: 13 minutes.

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Friday 27 March. Musselburgh Old Links. 14:10.

Nine holes, because that's all it has. The course sits inside the horse-racing circuit, and the white posts of the rail border two of the fairways. The clubhouse is in a caravan. An older couple are just finishing; the husband says "not bad, not bad" to nobody in particular. Hickory clubs are available for hire; we don't take them up. The 5th hole has a bunker in the shape of a bowler hat. The wind is what it is. £18, three sandwiches.

Drive: 22 minutes.

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Saturday 4 April. Royal Burgess Golfing Society. 09:30.

The other ancient club at Davidson's Mains, separated from Bruntsfield by a hedge and several centuries of polite rivalry. Royal Burgess claims founding in 1735; documented history is murkier than that, but the modern course is properly old. The starter is apologetic about a temporary green on the 8th — "the original is being re-laid; should be back in a fortnight". Course condition otherwise is exceptional. A retired teacher in our threeball walks the front nine in 39 and the back nine in 42 and says nothing about either. Visitor access through phone or member introduction; the Saturday morning slot is rare and worth taking. £95 weekend.

Drive: 13 minutes.

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Saturday 11 April. Duddingston. 11:30.

Parkland right under Arthur's Seat. Buses of tourists stop at the Holyrood gate; none of them know there's a golf course here. The course itself is surprisingly good — contoured, mature trees, a burn that comes into play on three holes. A wedding party is spilling out of the clubhouse as we tee off; somebody's father in a kilt is photographing the 1st tee and we wait. The starter tells us the greens were dressed ten days ago. You can tell. Visitor green fee £55. A Saturday at peak; worth it for the location alone.

Drive: 8 minutes.

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Wednesday 22 April. Mortonhall. 09:00.

The highest golf course in Edinburgh. You can see why on the 14th: the Pentlands rise up like they're yours for the round. The fairways have been cut but the rough hasn't. A couple of retired men are on the 16th with buggies and a thermos. One of them waves. The pro shop is small and smells of waterproofs drying. £55 weekday, which is what you pay for a course that's in this condition with this view. The clubhouse has a coffee machine that costs £1.20 and doesn't get better the longer you wait.

Drive: 18 minutes.

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Sunday 26 April. Ratho Park. 14:30.

A James Braid layout west of the airport, founded 1928. The 8th tee gives the best view of departing aircraft anywhere in the city — every six minutes, a 737 climbing into the cloud over your right shoulder. The course itself is parkland in the gentle Edinburgh-suburbs sense: nothing dramatic, nothing offensive. A large practice ground at the front of the property which on a Sunday afternoon is full of teenagers from the academy. Visitor access by phone; £55 weekday, £65 weekend. The clubhouse soup is excellent and surprises us both.

Drive: 22 minutes.

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Sunday 3 May. Longniddry. 13:15.

Half-links, half-parkland, halfway to Gullane. A crab-apple tree on the 2nd that has been there longer than the club. A group of three Americans are trying to work out how to pronounce the hole names. We let them through on the 6th. They tell us they played the Old Course on Friday "but this is better" — they've said it twice by the 10th tee. They may be right. Wind up and a ball lost on the 14th. £75. Good value for what it is.

Drive: 30 minutes.

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Saturday 9 May. Royal Musselburgh. 10:00.

Founded 1774, the seventh-oldest golf club in the world (depending on how you count). The current course is at Prestongrange House, a few miles east of the original Musselburgh links. Parkland with the surviving stable block of the old country estate visible from the 11th tee. The pace of play is steady; the average age of the field on a Saturday morning is comfortably over 65 and nobody seems bothered. The 18th is a slight uphill drive to a clubhouse with a view back across the firth to Fife. £85 weekend.

Drive: 25 minutes.

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Saturday 16 May. Craigielaw. 08:20.

The starter is apologetic about the divots on the 1st fairway: "corporate day Thursday, not been able to get over them." Modern links (opened 2001) which still plays like it's had two hundred years to settle. A heron on the pond by the 9th that doesn't move. We take a buggy because the 3rd has a hill on it that neither of us fancies this early. Lunch is a bowl of soup and a roll for £8.50. £95 visitor fee, which is a lot, but this is a Saturday morning in May.

Drive: 35 minutes.

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Wednesday 20 May. Kilspindie. 13:00.

The other Aberlady course, half a mile west of Craigielaw, founded 1867. Designed by Willie Park Jr. in 1898 on land that runs out to the bay. Short — under 5,500 yards — and beloved by the local membership for that fact. The pro shop has handwritten notes pinned to the wall about the upcoming open competitions. The 6th tee shot is across a sliver of the bay; on a windless day it is a wedge, in the prevailing south-westerly it can be a 5-iron. We take it cleanly once and lose two balls the second round. £55 visitor fee, which is the right price for a course that knows what it is.

Drive: 35 minutes.

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Friday 29 May. North Berwick West Links. 16:40.

Right on the 45-minute edge. The town is busier than the course. We pick up a twilight tee time at 4.40 because the evening light is long this time of year and the fee drops to under £100. The 13th green ("Pit") is as peculiar as everybody says. The 15th tee shot over the Redan ravine cuts the handicap out of at least one of us. Two rabbits on the 16th fairway who do not move for the buggy, the mower, or our approach shot. We play the last hole into the sun and neither of us sees the ball land. Fine.

Twilight £95. Drive: 42 minutes.

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Sunday 7 June. Dunbar. 09:30.

Old Tom Morris (1856) on the cliff path east of Dunbar town. The course runs along the cliff edge for the back nine, with the firth filling the right-hand side of every tee shot. We share the 1st tee with a pair of cyclists doing the John Muir Way who pause to watch us hit. Heavy mist for the front nine; clears entirely by the 11th, with the Bass Rock visible across the water. The clubhouse is the kind of dignified Victorian seaside building that has had the same clock on the wall since the 1920s. £125 weekend.

Drive: 45 minutes — the absolute outer edge of the brief.

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Thursday 11 June. Haddington. 10:30.

Parkland on the edge of the market town. Quiet in a way that feels almost apologetic. A greenkeeper on the 3rd tells us that the whole of East Lothian will be busy by July and to enjoy "what's left of the reasonable weeks". £40. Pie and chips in the clubhouse for £6. We leave the car park at two, and the traffic on the A1 back into Edinburgh has already started.

Drive: 30 minutes.

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What we'd play first if you only had a weekend

Different needs. The honest two-round shortlist:

• For a first-time visitor wanting one premium round and one cheap round: North Berwick West Links on the Saturday (£140–£190 depending on tee time), Carrick Knowe or Braid Hills on the Sunday for under £20.
• For a local with a friend visiting from England: Mortonhall on the Saturday morning, Duddingston on the Sunday afternoon. Both £55 and both within twenty minutes of the city centre.
• For a properly hilly mid-budget weekend: Mortonhall on the Saturday, Ratho Park on the Sunday. £55 each.
• For a value play: Carrick Knowe + Braid Hills + Musselburgh Old Links across a single weekend for under £45 total.

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Notes kept in a yellow Rhodia pad. Weather varies. Prices occasionally. The lines across these fairways do not.