Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, was founded in 1780 and claims to be the sixth oldest

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

club in the world. It was founded as the Society of Golfers at Aberdeen, and became the Aberdeen Golf Club in 1815 subsequently receiving royal patronage in 1903. Royal Aberdeen is best known for hosting the 2005

Senior British Open The Senior Open Championship, or simply The Senior Open (and originally known as the Senior British Open) is a professional golf tournament for players aged 50 and over. It is run by The R&A, the same body that organises The Open Championship. ...

, the 2011 Walker Cup, and the 2014 Scottish Open.

History

Aberdeen can be closely linked to the origins of golf, the earliest reference to a golf hole in Scotland was made in local Aberdeen records dating back to 1625. Royal Aberdeen Golf Club was initially set up as The Society of Golfers at Aberdeen in 1780 making it the sixth oldest golf club in the world. The club continued be known as The Society of Golfers at Aberdeen before forming The Aberdeen Golf Club in 1815. The club continued to play over The Queens Links area of Aberdeen where the original golf hole in 1625 was believed to have been. In 1976 play was expanded over the Kings Links area to the north of the Queens Links. Golf is still played to date on this land at the King's Links Golf Club. The club moved to its present location at Ballgownie Links on the other side of the River Don estuary in 1888. The course gained its royal patronage from

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

in 1903 and subsequently changed its name to Royal Aberdeen Golf Club. The course was originally designed by

Archie Simpson Archibald Simpson (14 March 1866 – January 1955) was an American professional golfer. He was also a golf course designer and a golf club maker. He was runner-up in The Open Championship in 1885 (won by Bob Martin), and 1890 (won by John Ball). ...

and Robert Simpson but was later re-bunkered and lengthened to its current layout by James Braid. Since its expansion Royal Aberdeen has hosted many top golf tournaments both on an amateur and professional level including the Scottish Open,

and the

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

Balgownie

The course runs essentially out and back along the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

shore. The outward nine (which is acknowledged as one of the finest in links golf anywhere in the world) cuts its way through some wonderful dune formation. The inland nine returns south over the flatter plateau. A traditional old Scottish links, it is well-bunkered with undulating fairways. It has an excellent balance of holes, strong par 4's, tricky par 3's and two classic par 5's, with the 8th ( signature hole) protected by nine bunkers. The ever-changing wind, tight-protected greens and a magnificent finish makes Balgownie a test for the very best. It was highly praised by participants in the 2005

Quotes

The eminent golf writer Sam McKinlay was moved to say ''"There are few courses in these islands with a better, more testing, more picturesque outward nine than Balgownie".'' And this from none other than

Bernard Darwin Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin CBE JP (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, was a golf writer and high-standard amateur golfer. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Biography B ...

'' "it represented a huge gap in my golfing education not to have played Balgownie until now, much more than a good golf course, a noble links!"''

Scorecards

The scorecard of the Balgownie course is as follows (all distances are given in yards) Source

Silverburn Course

The Silverburn Course is the second course at Royal Aberdeen Golf Course and measures over a par of 64

Tournaments hosted

During its history Royal Aberdeen has hosted a number of top amateur and professional tournaments, between 1924 and 1980 the club hosted the

Scottish Amateur The Scottish Amateur is the national amateur match play golf championship of Scotland. It has been played since 1922 and is organised by the Scottish Golf Union. It is a "closed" event with entry currently restricted to those who were either bor ...

seven times (1924, 1929, 1933, 1948, 1957, 1970, and 1980). Subsequently, the club hosted the

Jacques Léglise Trophy The Jacques Léglise Trophy is an annual amateur boys' team golf competition between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe. It was first played in 1977, as a one-day match before the Boys Amateur Championship, but since 1996 it has ...

for boys' team golf between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe with Great Britain & Ireland claiming a 12½ to 11½ victory. The club was chosen to host the 2005 The Senior British Open Championship, this was the first time the club had hosted a major championship on any golf tour, the tournament was won by Tom Watson with a 4-under par-score of 280 following a play-off against

Des Smyth Desmond John Smyth (born 12 February 1953) is an Irish professional golfer. He won eight times on the European Tour between 1979 and 2001. He also had a successful senior career winning twice on the Champions Tour and five times on the European ...

. The club was also chosen to host the 2011 Walker Cup between Great Britain & Ireland and the United States, with Great Britain & Ireland claiming a 14 to 12 victory. In 2014 the club hosted the Scottish Open on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

. During the first round of the tournament,

Rory McIlroy Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is the current world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over 100 weeks in ...

set a new course record with a 7-under-par 64. The tournament was won by

Justin Rose Justin Peter Rose, (born 30 July 1980) is an English professional golfer who plays most of his golf on the PGA Tour, while keeping his membership on the European Tour. He won his first major championship at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf C ...

with a total score of 16-under-par. In 2018 Royal Aberdeen was the host club of the Amateur Championship, in which Jovan Rebula of South Africa defeated Robin Dawson of Ireland in the finals, 3&2.

References

External links

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Royal Aberdeen Video
{{Authority control 1780 establishments in Scotland Golf clubs and courses in Aberdeenshire Sports venues in Aberdeen

Walker Cup venues Sports clubs established in the 1780s Royal golf clubs