Islay (Machrie Hotel & Golf Links)

Few courses anywhere demand that you simply surrender to nature the way Machrie does. Set on the wild Atlantic edge of Islay — the southernmost of the Hebridean islands, off Scotland's west coast — this is links golf in perhaps its most elemental, uncompromising form. The course winds through a vast duneland of towering sandhills, many of them blocking sightlines entirely, meaning blind shots are not an occasional quirk here but a defining feature of almost every round. First-timers play it on instinct and faith; returning visitors treat the local knowledge they've accumulated like a private treasure.