The King’s Course, Gleneagles Hotel, Scotland

The great James Braid won five Open Championships at the expense of his rivals in the Great Triumvirate – Harry Vardon and John H. Taylor – before designing the King’s Course at Gleneagles which opened in 1919. Of the more than 200 courses he would go on to design, the King’s is considered to be Braid’s parkland masterpiece. You’ll find links-style pot bunkers, heather and gorse combined with inland characteristics like trees and forests, a slower surface; plus numerous elevation changes several of them considerable. The first is a good example. Take one or two clubs extra (depending on the wind) to reach “Dun Whinny’s” elevated green whose front is guarded by a bunker twenty feet below the surface! Gleneagles is also home to the Queen’s Course and the PGA Centenary Course where the 2014 Ryder Cup will be decided. A visit to the estate is very often combined with golf and sightseeing in St Andrews, or it can serve nicely as the first part of a trip that includes the Highlands.