Skelmorlie

Few Scottish clubs can claim a setting quite like this one. Skelmorlie Golf Club sits on the hillside above the village of the same name, on the Ayrshire coast looking out across the Firth of Clyde toward the Isle of Arran and the Cowal peninsula. It is the kind of panorama that makes it genuinely difficult to keep your eyes on the ball — on a clear day, the view stretches to Goatfell and beyond, and the light off the water changes constantly throughout a round.

The course itself is a hill layout in the classic West of Scotland mould, founded in the late 19th century when the Clyde coast was a fashionable retreat for Glasgow's merchant class. That heritage still shapes the club's character today — a small, fiercely proud members' club where the game is taken seriously and the welcome is genuine.

At par 68, this is not a course built around length, and visitors should not mistake that for a lack of challenge. The terrain, the wind off the Firth, and the tight nature of a hillside layout demand precision and course management over power.