Gleneagles

The Caledonian Railway was building a hotel and two golf courses on the same ground, and the golf finished first. James Braid's King's and Queen's courses opened on this Perthshire moor on 1 May 1919, the King's at 6,125 yards and the Queen's at only 2,505; the railway did not take its first hotel guests until 7 June 1924. The Queen's was extended to eighteen holes by September 1925. Jack Nicklaus added a third course, which opened in 1993 as the Monarch's and took the name PGA Centenary in February 2001. The Curtis Cup came in 1936, the Scottish Open from 1987 to 1994, and the Solheim Cup in 2019.

Every hole on the King's carries a name. Dun Whinny opens the round, Het Girdle is the short fifth at 161 yards off the white markers, Blink Bonnie the sixth, King's Hame the last. The thirteenth from those same markers runs 448 yards and is called Braid's Brawest, which the resort renders as Braid's best and treats as the designer's signature hole. Add up the white card and you get 6,471 yards; the 6,790 figure is measured from further back. The resort calls the King's an inland links, and the ground under it is heather and heathland, with the Ochil Hills in the view. The 2014 Ryder Cup was played on the PGA Centenary, and an estate this size had the room to hold the crowd.