The Oldest Course on Earth!
“Welcome to the oldest golf course on the planet and indeed most other planets... as far as I’m led to believe.”
The Society of Golfers show up regularly to play the oldest golf course on earth, complete with hickory sticks & plus fours.
If you like digging into a bit of golf history, time to take some divots! Musselburgh Links, The Old Golf Course is the oldest existing golf course in the world!
Contrary to popular conceptions, golf did not initially tee up in St Andrews but here on Edinburgh’s Bruntsfield Links and Leith Links where merchants and other city professionals were taking up the new-fangled sport that had arrived in Scotland from the Netherlands.
As the game became more popular, golfers found themselves cheek-to-jowl with cattle, sheep and archery practitioners, not a very healthy combination. Just east of the city, Musselburgh was an easy horse & carriage ride for the elite, who had taken to the game in droves.
By 1847, a rail service facilitated travel for Edinburgh golfers escaping the overcrowded city parks.
Putting out on the 1st. It takes a few holes to learn how to swing those whippy hickeries.
TIMES ROMAN
Established by the Romans in the 1st century, Musselburgh is Scotland’s oldest town. Beyond Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth lay ‘Pictland’ and the Romans decided the costs of a prolonged campaign against the fearsome, painted Picts outweighed any economic or political benefit.
They built a bridge across the River Esk at Musselburgh as part of the route to Edinburgh. Through the centuries, that bridge has been reconstructed many times using the original Roman foundations. You can walk across it today. Interestingly, some historians source golf back to the Roman sport of ‘Paganica’ which was played using a crooked stick and a stuffed leather ball not dissimilar to early Scottish ‘featheries’.
A LIVING MUSEUM
“Golf as we know it was played in Musselburgh as far back as the 15th century.. but probably much earlier.”
The court of Mary, Queen of Scots took readily to golf and played at Musselburgh when her entourage was in Edinburgh
It is evident that Mary, Queen of Scots played here in 1567. Old Tom Morris, Willie Park Snr & Jnr and Mungo Park contended golf’s earliest 'Open Championships’ when Old Prestwick, the original Open venue, became difficult for the galleries.
In 1886, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers relocated to this stretch of hoary linksland. They were hotly pursued by Bruntsfield Golfing Society who played at Musselburgh whilst waiting on their new parkland course to open at Cramond on the northeast side of Edinburgh.
Playing ‘gowf’ on Bruntsfield Links.
THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
Between 1874 and 1889 Musselburgh hosted the Open Championship on no less than six occasions. Old Prestwick hosted the first ‘Open’ but it became difficult to get the crowds safely around that hilly 12-holer. Musselburgh was much flatter and therefore safer.
Prestwick became difficult to move galleries around the steep-sided dunes so the Open Championship moved to Musselburgh
Members of the British Golf Collectors' Society strut their funky stuff at the oldest course in the world.
GOLF’S FIRST HALFWAY HOUSE
Mrs. Forman ran the pub until her death in 1888, aged 84. Her daughters took over and the Inn remained in the Forman family well into the next century.
At the far corner of the course where it turns towards the sea at the 4th green, there’s a white building that served the likes of Old Tom Morris and Willie Park a pint of warm, frothy beer through a hole in the wall. Mrs Foreman’s Public House operated for more than 200 years and golfers would stop at the 4th for a pint and a quick snack, the world’s first ‘Half-Way House’.
“They say her food was good too, Welsh Rarebit being the speciality of the house. ”
GOLFING ANTIQUITY
The Old Links at Musselburgh is a precious piece of golfing antiquity and I highly recommend you go along and play its exhilarating 9 holes. It’s ridiculously cheap and if you want the complete experience, hire a set of hickories although I warn you now, it’s a whole new, or should I say ‘old’ ball game!
Today, the course is surrounded by Musselburgh Racecourse and on race days, access can be limited. For more information, visit www.musselburgholdlinks.co.uk.
