From England to Australia, Ranking the Top 10 Royal Golf Clubs
There are 10 courses in the current British Open rota, seven of which are located at “royal” clubs, including this week’s host, Royal Liverpool. The British Royal Family has bestowed the royal title on 59 other clubs around the world, with the majority (38) in the U.K. The first to receive the honor was Royal Perth Golfing Society in Perth, Scotland, in 1833; the last was Royal Port Moresby Golf Club in Papua New Guinea in 2012.
“Clubs are still applying for the title,” says golf course architect Scott Macpherson, who designed the championship course at Royal Wellington Golf Club in New Zealand and wrote a 2013 book on the topic, Golf’s Royal Clubs.
The practice began, Macpherson notes, after the captain of the Perth Golfing Society, Lord Kinnaird, visited King William IV (reign: 1830-37), who had recently taken up the game. William agreed to become a patron of the Society and allowed them to add Royal to their name. That spurred the Society of St. Andrews Golfers to apply for the title and in 1834, they became known as the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Interestingly, neither club owns their own course, which is common in the U.K. unlike in the U.S. Perhaps the most royal of royal clubs is the Royal Household Club, which is located directly behind Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England, and has a sporty nine-holer that dates to 1901.
As more clubs became interested in getting “knighted,” a formal application process began in the late 1800s. Only a reigning monarch can grant the title. King George V bestowed the most (21) during his reign from 1920 to 1936, but Queen Victoria (reign: 1837-1901), Edward VII (reign: 1901-10) and Queen Elizabeth II (reign: 1956-2022) tapped their share of clubs on the shoulders, too.
“A member of the royal family did not have to be a member of the club for it to get the title, but obviously a connection with the club was important,” Macpherson says. “Royal patronage and the royal title are separate honors. There’s a lot of confusion around this. Also, the title is linked to the club and not the course, although there was a time when the quality of the course was a factor in clubs being awarded the royal title.”
Well, it’s certainly a big factor in our listing of the Top 10 Royal Clubs.
10. Royal Troon
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Monarch granting royal status and year: Queen Elizabeth II, 1978
The site of next year’s Open, the club’s Old Course was the setting of the epic battle between Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson at the 2016 Open. Located just up Scotland’s west coast from Prestwick, which hosted the first 11 Opens from 1860-70, the Old Course is a traditional out-and-back links with the inward holes typically playing into the prevailing northwesterly wind. It’s got the shortest hole in the rota, the par-3 8th (“the Postage Stamp”), and the longest, the par-5 6th. Alister MacKenzie reportedly had a hand in the club’s other, shorter links, the Portland Course.
9. Royal Lytham & St. Annes
Location: Lancashire, England
Monarch granting royal status and year: King George V, 1926
Located just across the Ribble Estuary from Royal Birkdale in northwest England, the club’s stunning links course is as difficult an exam that exists on the Open Championship rota. Much of that is due to the plethora of card-wrecking pot bunkers—174, to be exact. The deep fescue and gorse are no bargain, either.
8. Royal Porthcawl
Location: Porthcawl, Wales
Monarch granting royal status and year: King Edward VII, 1909
With no trees or big dunes, the course offers splendid views of Bristol Channel from every hole as it slopes down to the seashore. It’s also fully exposed to the wind, but the holes loop back on one another often and face every point on the compass, so it’s a fair and fun test even in a gale. The club will host the Senior Open Championship in late July.
7. Royal St. George's
Location: Sandwich, England
Monarch granting royal status and year: King Edward VII, 1902
Located about two hours southeast of London along the English Channel, Sandwich, as it’s often called, was the first club to host the Open Championship outside of Scotland in 1894. It’s since gone on to host 14 others—more than any other venue outside Scotland. With severely undulating fairways and a number of blind shots, the course is a tough test, but it’s as beautiful a links course as you’ll ever find with round-pausing views of Pegwell Bay and the white cliffs of Dover.
Royal St. George's was the first club outside Scotland to host the Open.
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6. Royal Birkdale
Location: Southport, England
Monarch granting royal status and year: King George VI, 1951
If having a worthy champion is a sign of a good test of golf, then Royal Birkdale passes the test handily. Perhaps no other club that’s hosted the Open has had such a bold-faced list of champions: Peter Thomson (twice), Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Ian Baker-Finch, Mark O’Meara, Padraig Harrington and Jordan Spieth. Located just north of Royal Liverpool on the northwest coast of England, the layout is classic links course with the holes set between dunes and relatively flat fairways.
5. Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews
Location: Fife, Scotland
Monarch granting royal status and year: King William IV, 1834
The R&A doesn’t “own” the Old Course—the most famous links in the world where Scots have been playing golf for 600 years—but you can be forgiven for having that impression given that the club’s iconic clubhouse behind the 1st tee is so intrinsically linked with the course. The 2,000-plus members do enjoy tee time privileges and club tournaments on it, however, as they do on the six other Links Trust courses in town. All you need to know about playing the Old Course, which has hosted 30 Opens: Left is right and right is wrong.
Timeless St. Andrews Golf Links.
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4. Royal Portrush
Location: County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Monarch granting royal status and year: Queen Victoria, 1892
The highest ranked club on our list that’s part of the Open Championship’s rota, Royal Portrush hosted the 2019 Open Championship—the first Open held outside England and Scotland since Portrush last hosted it in 1951 (it returns in 2025). Located along the steep cliffs of the North Coast, the Dunluce Links takes its name from the 13th-century castle that is visible from the course, appropriately. The strong winds and shaggy dunes can be as diabolical as a mad king. The Valley Course is a little more sheltered and forgiving.
3. Royal Dornoch
Location: Dornoch, Scotland
Monarch granting royal status and year: King Edward VII, 1906
Donald Ross grew up in Dornoch and learned the game on the club’s Championship Course. It seems like anyone who gets to play this beguiling links tucked in the dunes along the arcing bay of the Dornoch Firth becomes a big fan. In fact, there are more American members of the club than local residents. The conditions are always superb, and the fine fescues allow the ground game to flourish. None other than five-time Open champion Tom Watson called it the most fun he had on a course. The other course, the 6,265-yard Stuie, doesn't have a lot to recommend, but then, it’s golf. On a firth in Scotland!
2. Royal County Down
Location: County Down, Northern Ireland
Monarch granting royal status and year: King Edward VII, 1908
With the Mountains of Mourne providing a dramatic backdrop, the Championship Links winds along the shores of Dundrum Bay, but the real eye candy lies inland with the gorse-covered dunes and “bearded” bunkers that line the emerald fairways. It’s been called the finest combination of beauty and challenge in golf. No argument here. The 4,500-yard, par-66 Annesley Links occupy similar dunesland and, with its tricky greensites, serves as an excellent warmup.
1. Royal Melbourne
Location: Black Rock, Australia
Monarch granting royal status and year: Queen Victoria, 1895
No other royal club has two courses so highly ranked. The West Course is a result of giving one of the greatest architects, Alister MacKenzie, one of the greatest sites for golf, the Melbourne Sandbelt. The designer of the East Course, Alex Russell, learned enough from MacKenzie while building the West to produce a worthy complement of his own. In fact, holes from the East are added to the West to create a hybrid layout that is the best of all and has hosted numerous big events, including the Presidents Cup in 1998, 2011 and 2019.
The fantastic Sandbelt at Royal Melbourne.
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