Royal Dornoch Struie Course

The Struie Course is how most visitors end their day at Royal Dornoch. After a morning round on the Championship Course, those with enough appetite for more golf — and enough time before the light goes — walk across the shared car park and play the Struie. It is the course locals use in winter, on weekday evenings, and whenever they have a guest who would find the Championship's severity more stressful than enjoyable.

The Struie sits inland from the Championship, with mature gorse flanking tighter fairways and a routing that was originally laid out by John Sutherland in 1899 — the same year he was finalising the Championship Course. The layouts were designed together, which gives the Struie an architectural coherence that second courses often lack. The greens have a similar character to the Championship's — raised, falling away, requiring the same running approach that Donald Ross took to America — but the holes themselves are shorter and the rough is more forgiving.

Par is 70 across 6,265 yards. The 6th and 12th are the holes that get discussed: both par 4s of moderate length with subtle dog-legs and green sites that require a precise approach angle rather than just a correct yardage. The closing stretch back to the clubhouse offers views across the Dornoch Firth that the Championship Course, from its seaward perspective, doesn't provide.

Visitor green fee is £95 in 2026 — a fraction of the Championship fee for a round that earns its own interest rather than existing purely as a postscript. For visitors making the long drive north, the standard plan is Championship in the morning (£255), Struie in the afternoon (£95), combined for around £350 plus caddie. Available most days without advance booking when the Championship is fully booked months out.