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From our Directory of the most recommended golf courses
Crail Golfing Society
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Old Tom Morris laid out the original nine holes at Balcomie in 1895, there's now 18 holes, and in 1998 a second course, Craighead Links, was opened. It's a good day's worth of great golf on the North Sea, just 15 minutes south of St. Andrews.Situated on the eastern edge of Fife. The two courses offer great views of the Forth and Tay estuaries, and is routed overlooking the North Sea. Classic links courses, interesting layouts, excellent conditions, and a reasonable alternative value-wise to the more expensive courses in the area. Craighead was designed by Gil Hanse from the US, who also had a hand in the new Castle Stuart course near Inverness in northern Scotland. Craighead seems a bit like the Muirfield layout, on a bit of a bluff high above the water, tall fescue lined fairways, on rolling terrain. Balcomie's the classic course, a must play, and from the white tees is a short 5,861 yards, par 69, 70/122 ratings. Craighead is more of a modern course in design and length, it plays to 6,728 yards from the whites, par 71 with a SSS of 74.
Published by: nickr
Posted by: Mike Loures
Aug 18th, 2010
If you visit the clubhouse and have a pint you may never want to leave this brand new building. Balcomie is cool, fair, lots of terrain and great views. Fun to play. Craighead looks wide open and easy but the greens are sloping and some elevated making it tougher than it looks. Both courses make you think. Only 10 miles from of St. Andrews and well worth the trip.
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Posted by: Bill Bauman
Aug 16th, 2010
The Crail Golfing Society, founded in 1786, has two great golf courses: Balcomie and Craighead. Balcomie is a classic Tom Morris designed links course wrapping around a small peninsula poking into the north sea, just 20 minutes south of St. Andrews. Balcomie does not get the respect it deserves, I suspect because of it's proximity to the St. Andrews links courses. It's only a par 68 with four par 3's on the back nine. But boy are they great holes! At first Balcomie looks confusing because of some parallel fairways on the front. bit it quickly sorts itself out as you move to the 204 straight uphill, over the gorse par 3 13th. It is the #2 handicap (or stroke index) hole on the course, and it plays to a par 4 for women. A par here means you are playing well. This is where the course really reveals itself to be playable, and a lot of fun. Craighead is only 12 years old and was designed as more of an American course, although it plays like a links course. Strategically placed bunkers and wide open fairways make for a fun round of golf. Save some time for the clubhouse, which was just refurbished a year ago and offers great drinking/dining vistas overlooking the back of Balcomie and the North Sea. A pint and a plate of fish and chips will complete a wonderful day on one of Scotland's best kept secrets.
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Posted by: mickr
Jul 20th, 2010
If you are looking for 'classic, fun-to-play links golf' you can't do much better than Balcomie, and Craighead is a tremendous, more modern links...a day pass at the club is ~L75 during the week, so not cheap but probably a quarter of Kingsbarns rates
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Posted by: McNally
Jun 19th, 2010
Having played Crail a number of times, I recently read where it may have been the setting for Michael Murphy's Golf in the Kingdom course, Burningbush . There's a cave that's tucked in sort of under the 13th green and on the trail from the 14th green to the 15th tee, where there's a sign at the entrance of the cave that indicadtes that King Constantine I, King of Scotland, might have been killed in the cave by Danish Vikings in 874,l and quite possibly the inspiration for the book and for the character Shivas Irons, which is certainly plausible. It's a fun course all the way around, more challenging than you'd expect, great views especially from the 14th hole through the finish, and fantastic 19th hole and clubhouse overlooking the North Sea. Not the panache of the Old Course or St. Andrews, but it's got its own special charm, now even more than before.
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Posted by: jymorton
Nov 11th, 2009
Standing on the first tee, some 150 feet above the green, the entire layout at your feet, the view is fantastic. It clearly shows that the North Sea will be a factor to be contended with from start to finish and the hilly terrain, well it's not a usual flattish links course, a treat to play, historica layout, fantastic setting. Thoroughly enjoyale round.
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Posted by: joes
Aug 28th, 2008
The very old golf course of Crail was quite the experience, and I would play that again as our first course as it is on the way, sort of, to St. Andrews from Edinburgh. Very nice warm up course and it is easy to walk.
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Aug 20th, 2008
Old Tom Morris designed these links, 7th oldest in the world. Total yardage is 5922 with a par 69, but two of the par 4's measure 459 and 442, so it's a bit decieving. It's a treeless landscape rolling out to the sea, and the views out to the North Sea are fantastic.
Posted by: joes
Aug 12th, 2008
Well all things considered, our flight over was fine. No real problems, just 6 1/2, but we managed to get on the road to Crail in a reasonable amount of time. So as we are leaving the parking lot of the rental agency, a bus hit us, but that is what you expect from a country that drives on the wrong side of the road. John J. had not gotten his job assignment to keep saying “Keep left lad”, so a bus sorta of bumped us a little. Well we did ok after that little encounter and we were off to Crail. No real problems except we had to detour a bit, but we found our way, were early for our tee time and all was good. So photos are included of Crail. Crail is about 10 miles South of St. Andrews, through some winding roads. Crail is where the idea of metal inserts for holes first came into use. I discovered on the first hole not to hit you second shot into traps, or you can make double very quickly, thank you very much. Jack had multiple encounters with the Scotish heather and has most decidedly determined to hit the ball in the fairway as much as possible. On the last four holes we either hit tee shots or second shots without a clue where the green was. Not where the flag was, but the entire green. The fog rolled in off the North Sea and you had no idea where you were going. Scores weren’t too bad, 79-86. The greens were smooth but a little slow. A good warmup golf course.
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Posted by: nickr
Jun 14th, 2008
This is a great first day course if you're playing in the Kingdom of Fife. Fantastic North Sea views, interesting layout, one of the oldest courses in the world, and the pub att the 19th has commanding views across the course and sea
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