Muirfield — The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers
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The Course
Muirfield is home to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers — the oldest golf club in the world — and operates with a formality and attention to tradition that is unique even among Scotland’s great courses. The course itself, redesigned in its current form by Harry Colt and Tom Simpson, is widely regarded as the fairest links examination in championship golf: every bunker catches the shot that deserves catching, every green rewards the approach from the correct angle, and the routing — two concentric loops, the outer running clockwise and the inner anticlockwise — ensures that the wind is faced from a different direction on almost every hole.
The course has hosted sixteen Open Championships — more than any other Scottish venue — and has produced some of the championship’s most celebrated moments. Nicklaus won his first Open here in 1966. Trevino’s miraculous 1972 chip-in on the 71st hole. Ernie Els’s near-miss in 1987. Nick Faldo’s precise, metronomic 18-under in 1992. Phil Mickelson’s collapse in 2013. Muirfield produces drama because it is designed to extract the full range of shot-making and decision-making that the game demands.
The setting is relatively austere by Scottish links standards — no dramatic headlands or sea views, just the Firth of Forth in the distance and the East Lothian sky above. But the golf makes up for any scenic deficit many times over. The conditioning is immaculate, the rough maintained to a precise height that makes the penalty for missing the fairway clear but not arbitrary, and the greens are among the fastest and truest in Scottish golf.
Access & The Club
Muirfield accepts visitor groups on Tuesdays and Thursdays only. Individual visitors must book well in advance through the club secretary. The experience is formal — a jacket is required in the clubhouse at all times — but the welcome, once you are there, is genuine and the lunch that follows golf in the traditional style is part of the occasion. Arriving at Muirfield is unlike arriving at any other golf club in Scotland.
- Visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays only — book six to twelve months in advance for prime dates
- A jacket is required in the clubhouse at all times — pack accordingly
- The concentric routing means wind is faced from every direction — assess it carefully on the first tee
- The bunkers are deep and steep-faced — avoid them entirely; par from one of Muirfield’s bunkers is a genuine achievement
- Lunch in the clubhouse after golf is part of the tradition — do not skip it
- Stay at Greywalls Hotel adjacent to the course — the only hotel in Scotland with a direct view of an Open Championship course
Greywalls Hotel, Gullane
Sir Edwin Lutyens’ country house, adjacent to the 9th green of Muirfield — the only hotel in Scotland with a direct view of an Open Championship course. A beautiful, intimate property with outstanding food and a garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll. The definitive East Lothian golf base for visitors to Muirfield, Gullane, North Berwick and the other exceptional courses nearby.