Musselburgh Links
Old Starters Building (A new starters building was built in 2011).
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| Coordinates | 55°56′48″N 3°2′11″W / 55.94667°N 3.03639°WCoordinates: 55°56′48″N 3°2′11″W / 55.94667°N 3.03639°W |
| Type | Public |
| Operated by | East Lothian Council |
| Total holes | 9 |
| Tournaments hosted | The Open Championship (six times between 1874 and 1889) |
| Website | musselburgholdlinks.co.uk |
| Par | 34 |
Musselburgh Links, The Old Golf Course in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland, is generally recognised as the oldest golf course in the world, and the oldest on which play has been continuous.
Musselburgh is currently a publicly owned course, administered by East Lothian Council. The course has nine holes, and is a par 34.
Formerly certified as the oldest golf course in the world by Guinness World Records, there is documented evidence that golf was played at the links in 1672, and it is reputed that Mary, Queen of Scots, played there in 1567.
Musselburgh Links was originally seven holes, with an 8th added in 1838 and the 9th in 1870.
Musselburgh was one of the three courses which staged The Open Championship in rotation in the 1870s and 1880s, alongside Prestwick and the Old Course at St Andrews. It was selected because it was used by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and it hosted six Opens in all, the first in 1874 and the last in 1889.
When the Honorable Company built a private club at Muirfield, Musselburgh dropped out of the rotation for the Open.
On 14 July 2010, the course became a temporary heliport, when fog in Edinburgh forced the helicopter used by Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to land in front of the first tee.
The course left a lasting legacy to the game's rules. The four-and-a-quarter-inch (108 mm) diameter of a golf hole was the width of the implement used to cut the holes at Musselburgh; in 1893, the R&A adopted the measurement as a mandatory requirement for all courses.
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