Ladybank

Founded in 1879, Ladybank is a rarity in this part of Scotland: a heathland course tucked among the region's famous links. Old Tom Morris laid out the original holes in the traditional St Andrews style — six played twice and six played once, sharing fairways and greens — and famously won the club's Autumn Meeting that year himself, playing as a visiting "stranger" off a +3 handicap. The course reached its current 18-hole layout in 1962. Narrow, pine-lined fairways and small, contoured greens have made Ladybank a regular Open Championship qualifying venue for St Andrews — used seven times by the R&A — and its heathland turf is rated among the best of its kind anywhere.