Muirfield is the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, founded 1744 at Leith — the golf club whose members drafted the original thirteen Rules of Golf, the document that most of the modern rule book traces back to. The club moved to Musselburgh in 1836, then to its current site in Gullane in 1891. It is the second oldest organised golf club in the world by documented founding date, behind the Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh (1735).
The course itself is a clockwise routing on the front nine, anti-clockwise on the back — which means whatever wind direction you draw, half the round will play with it and half against it. That symmetry is part of what makes the course so highly regarded by players: there is no hidden side, no avoiding the conditions. Old Tom Morris had a hand in the layout; Harry Colt revised it in the 1920s; the result is one of the cleanest, fairest championship tests in Scotland.
Visitor access is restricted. Tuesdays and Thursdays only. Handicap certificate required (men 18, women 24). The two-rounds-with-lunch package — £395 in 2026 — is the traditional way to play, with a jacket and tie required at the lunch table. The clubhouse is austere, formal, and resolutely unimpressed by anyone who isn't there to play. That suits the place.
Hosted the Open Championship sixteen times. The 1972 Open here produced one of the most-discussed moments in the championship's history: Lee Trevino chipped in from off the 17th green, a shot that ended Jack Nicklaus's and Tony Jacklin's chances simultaneously and won Trevino the title. The 2013 Open produced Phil Mickelson's career-defining final round. Memorable for different reasons depending on who you ask.
