Muirfield

Muirfield is the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers and looks over the Firth of Forth from Gullane. It has hosted the Open sixteen times, most recently in 2013 when Phil Mickelson won; the list before him runs through Els, Faldo twice, Watson, Trevino, Nicklaus, Player, Cotton, Hagen and Vardon. It also held the 1973 Ryder Cup.

What makes it unusual is the routing. Most links run out along the shore and back again. Muirfield is two loops of nine, one clockwise and one anticlockwise, so with the wind holding steady almost every hole presents it from a different direction, and no more than three holes in a row ever point the same way. Jack Nicklaus, who won his first Open here in 1966, called it the best course in Britain.