Muirfield (The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers)

Muirfield is the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, the oldest organised golf club in the world (founded 1744 at Leith, moved to Musselburgh in 1836, then to its current site in Gullane in 1891). Its members wrote the original thirteen Rules of Golf. Most of the modern rule book traces back to the document drafted at Leith and refined here.

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 gave the game one of its most-discussed shots — Tony Jacklin's collapse on the 17th — and the 2013 Open produced Phil Mickelson's career-defining final round. Memorable for different reasons depending on who you ask.