The Links Golf Renaissance Nobody’s Talking About
After 35 years covering professional golf—and having carried Tom Lehman’s bag through enough Scottish winds to earn a weather degree—I’ve watched this sport chase money and glamour to every corner of the globe. We’ve built courses in deserts, on cliffsides, inside theme parks practically. And yet, here’s what keeps nagging at me: the best golf in the world remains exactly where it started, on windswept Scottish and English coastlines, played on ground shaped by centuries of ocean and weather rather than earthmoving equipment.
What strikes me about the current moment is this—we’re experiencing a quiet but genuine rediscovery of authentic linksland golf, and it’s happening for precisely the right reason: people are tired of paying $300 to play a 7,000-yard monument to someone’s ego.
The Real Open Championship Isn’t Just About Muirfield
Every golf writer worth his salt circles the Open Championship venues on a calendar—St Andrews, Royal Lytham, Carnoustie. These are the temples. But here’s what the casual fan misses: the linksland coastline from Scotland down through Wales hosts dozens of genuine alternatives that deliver 95 percent of the experience for 30 percent of the price.
The source article profiles five courses that represent this hidden landscape, and I think it captures something important about where recreational golf is heading. The economics of the sport have been troubling for a decade—rounds played are down, courses are closing, and the average golfer increasingly sees the game as inaccessible. Yet linksland offers an answer that doesn’t require cutting quality or lowering standards.
“These are the courses that still host the Open but those particular layouts are difficult – or expensive – to play. The good news is that there are plenty of other options.”
This is the real story. Not the shortage of courses, but the abundance of genuinely playable alternatives that the golf media largely ignores in favor of chasing the next championship venue or celebrity-designed showpiece.
Five Courses Worth Your Time—And Your Money
Gullane No. 3 (Scotland) — Starting at £70 weekdays
I’ve walked this property multiple times, and what impresses me most isn’t any single hole—it’s the sense of place. Gullane as a town is what golf tourism should look like: galleries of shops, pubs, restaurants, all populated by locals who actually play golf and want to talk about it. You’ll find genuine conversation about the day’s round in those pubs, not Instagram performances.
“There are three of them and they all start and end from the edge of a town devoted to the game with shops, pubs and restaurants populated by locals as well as visitors who love to chatter about their latest round.”
The No. 3 course carries unfair baggage as “the lesser of the trio,” but that’s relative thinking. It’s a magnificent test with views across the Firth of Forth that will make you forget about your scorecard. For £125, you can play both No. 2 and No. 3 in the same day—that’s legitimate championship-level golf at less than half what you’d pay at most American resort courses.
Perranporth (Cornwall) — Starting at £60
The only course on this list that sits in England’s far southwest, and it punches well above its profile. Perranporth demands imagination in ways that most modern courses—with their laser-leveled fairways and GPS yardage markers—have trained us to forget. You’ll hit blind shots here. You’ll need to visualize trajectories. That’s linksland golf at its purest.
Elie (Scotland) — Starting at £60 weekdays
James Braid designed this beauty, and having studied Braid’s work across Scotland, I can tell you his “average” layouts are better than most architects’ masterpieces. The starter with a submarine periscope to check the first fairway? That’s not quaint tourist appeal—it’s practical necessity. This is working golf architecture.
Newbiggin (England) — Starting at £30
Don’t let the industrial surroundings fool you. At £30, this represents the greatest green fee value I’ve seen written about in years. North-east England remains criminally underrated by visiting golfers, and courses like Newbiggin remind us that championship pedigree isn’t required to deliver championship-level fun.
Borth (Wales) — Starting at £43
The Cardigan Bay coast gets overshadowed by Royal St David’s and Aberdovey, both magnificent courses with prices to match. Borth is the refreshing alternative—quirky, character-filled, with the real risk that your shot ends up in the estuary or the road, but also more honest about what linksland golf actually is.
Why This Matters Right Now
In my experience, golf goes through cycles. We chase technology, then we chase course design statements, then we chase exclusivity. What we’re witnessing now is a counter-cycle—a return to fundamentals. Players are asking: “Do I want to spend $400 to play a 7,500-yard track where the course is harder than the competition, or do I want to find authentic golf at authentic prices?”
The beauty of linksland is that it answers both questions affirmatively. These courses are genuinely difficult in the way championship golf should be—through wind, undulation, and design intelligence rather than length and conditioning budgets.
“This is what makes linksland golf special: it demands imagination and Perranporth calls for it even more than usual.”
After watching the PGA Tour for three and a half decades, I can tell you something: the best golf isn’t always played by the professionals on the best-conditioned grass. Sometimes it’s played by weekend hackers who’ve traveled to Scottish coastlines, booked a modest hotel, and discovered that championship-level golf doesn’t require championship pricing.
These five courses are proof of that. They deserve more than a passing mention in “value” roundups. They deserve to be understood as the future of accessible golf done right.
