Royal Aberdeen Golf Club (Balgownie)

Tracing its roots to 1780 as the Society of Golfers at Aberdeen, Royal Aberdeen is the sixth oldest golf club in the world and moved to its magnificent Balgownie Links, laid out among towering dunes by Archie and Robert Simpson and later remodelled by James Braid, in 1888. The outward nine, running out along the shore past the renowned, heavily bunkered 8th, is regarded as one of the finest in links golf, and the course has hosted the Walker Cup in 2011 and the Scottish Open in 2014, when Rory McIlroy set the course record.