Muirfield

Muirfield - Duncur Road - Gullane

Often voted in the top five courses in the world and some say it is Number 1. Muirfield isnt your typical links which pleases less well-travelled Americans but its defense lies in the bunkers and rough.The East Lothian course is regarded by many of the games top players as being the ""fairest"" on the rota of courses used by the R&A for the Open Championship.

Muirfield certainly has a history of producing 'great' champions, the latest being Ernie Els, who lifted the Claret Jug there last year. Jack Nicklaus was also an Open winner here and he was so impressed that he decided to name his own course in Ohio as 'Muirfield Village'.

One of the unusual charms about the Scottish version is that it is laid out in two separate loops, the front nine running clockwise on the outer and the back nine going in the opposite direction on the inner.

Muirfield is the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers whose records date back to 1744 when the Club wrote the original 13 Rules of Golf for the first competition played for the Silver Club.

At the time the Club played on the 5 holes at Leith Links but then moved, in 1836, to Musselburgh's 9-hole Old Course and then again to its current home, Muirfield, in 1891. Muirfield is the only course to have hosted the Open (15 times, the most recent in 2002), the Amateur, the Mid Amateur, the Ryder Cup, the Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup.

Donald Steel, the well-known golf course architect and President of the English Golf Union described Muirfield in the following words-

'Ask a dozen golfers to classify courses and you will get as many different answers but over Muirfield there is absolute unanimity. Some confer on it the accolade of perfection although such eminence is as difficult to define as the perfect round of golf. Personal taste can be the deciding factor but one thing over which few will argue is that Muirfield embraces more of the qualities that a perfectionist seeks in his ideal course.

Architecturally it is a gem. A clockwise outward half encases an anticlockwise inward nine, an arrangement that ensures that players have to make incessant adjustment for wind direction. Jack Nicklaus liked what he saw so much that he named what he considers his home course after it. In terms of producing the best champions it has an impeccable record. Apart from the classic challenge it presents, the delights of its surroundings are attractively congenial and, if for the more humble golfer, the emphasis is on the culinary wonders of its clubhouse, Muirfield is second to none.'

Overview provided by Muirfield Golf Club.