Major honours
St Andrews Links is golf's spiritual home and, unusually, not a private club at all but effectively common land. A 1552 charter from the Archbishop confirmed local residents' right to play golf on this ground, a principle that survives today through the St Andrews Links Trust, which operates seven courses and lets anyone enter a ballot for the Old Course. The Society of St Andrews Golfers, founded here in 1754, became the R&A and long governed the rules outside America; in 1764 it merged short holes to cut a round from 22 to 18, creating the worldwide standard. The Old Course plays par 72 at roughly 7,313 yards — modest on paper — but seven huge double greens, Hell Bunker, the Road Hole bunker, Swilcan Bridge and the Valley of Sin behind the 18th still test the world's best. It has hosted The Open 30 times; at the 150th in 2022, Cameron Smith won at 20-under 268.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
It competed with Prestwick for the birthplace of The Open and, after taking over hosting rights in 1873, became the rotation's anchor and pushed Prestwick off the list after 1925. Its rivalry today is with Muirfield, with a long debate over which is Scotland's supreme test.