About the course
Royal Dornoch’s Championship course lies on the edge of the small cathedral town of Dornoch in Sutherland, on a strip of links beside a long sandy beach. At close to 58 degrees north it is one of the most northerly great links anywhere, and in late spring the gorse that frames many of the holes turns the landscape from green to gold.
Golf has been played on the Dornoch links since at least 1616, and the club was founded in 1877. Old Tom Morris visited in 1886 and laid out a full course, shaping many of the plateau greens that still define it, and J.H. Taylor and later George Duncan made further changes. Donald Ross was born in the town in 1872 and became head greenkeeper here in 1895, before emigrating to the United States, where his memories of Dornoch informed much of his work, Pinehurst No. 2 above all.
The routing forms a loose S across two levels of ground. The early holes run along a ridge on the inland side, and the course then drops down closer to the shore, where the middle of the round weaves through low dunes beside the beach.
The fourteenth, known as Foxy, is a long par 4 without a single bunker, its fairway bending first one way and then the other. Wind off the firth can change the character of the course from one day to the next, and the turf is usually firm enough for the ball to roll a long way.
Why we recommend it
Royal Dornoch is the reason many golfers make the trip to the far north, and those who make it rarely regret it. The Championship course is a natural links on the shore of the Dornoch Firth, famous for its raised, crowned greens that punish anything less than a precise approach. About an hour north of Inverness, it deserves at least two nights, with the Struie course, Brora and Skibo all close by.
Photo gallery
| World ranking | 12 |
| Architect | Old Tom Morris, John H. Taylor |
| Year of foundation | 1877 |
| Par Course | 70 |
| Number of holes | 18 |