Kingsbarns Golf Links

Kingsbarns is a course that should not work, but does. The land — a strip of clifftop east of St Andrews — only opened as a golf course in 2000, when the developer Mark Parsinen and the architect Kyle Phillips set out to build a new links that would feel as if it had been there for a century. By the time it opened it was already being talked about in the same conversation as the genuinely old courses on the same coast.

Every hole has a sea view. The course routes along the cliffs, through small valleys, and out to a series of clifftop greens that catch the wind from every angle. The 12th, played from a clifftop tee back along the coast, is the photographed hole. The 15th and 16th are the holes that decide most cards. Conditioning is consistently among the best in Scotland — the maintenance budget is significantly higher than most clubs', and it shows.

The visitor green fee is £295 in 2026. There is no ballot — tee times can be booked up to 12 months ahead via the club website. Caddies are recommended and worth the £60 plus tip. Annual host of the Dunhill Links Championship in October. For visitors planning a Fife trip, Kingsbarns pairs naturally with the Old Course as a confirmed anchor round — a backup if the ballot fails, an exceptional round in its own right if it doesn't.