Royal Aberdeen (Balgownie Links)

Royal Aberdeen is the sixth-oldest golf club in the world, beginning in 1780 as the Society of Golfers of Aberdeen. Initially played on the Queens Links, which abuts downtown south of the River Don, the course moved to its current location on the north side of the river in 1888. Archie and Robert Simpson designed the first version of the course with James Braid — a common name in these parts — who was hired to lengthen and re-bunker the course.

The majority of the course plays north-to-south, with most of the front nine playing through a low corridor, pinned between linear ridges. The eastern ridge is massive, a breathtaking sea wall of wind-blown sand that calls to mind the northern boundary at Royal Portrush. The first few fairways wind dramatically through the dune slack, forcing precision and threatening misplayed shots with thick rough and native sea grass. It’s an exhilarating start that doesn’t let up, with elements of blindness sprinkled in throughout. Discussion of the course often revolves around the quality of those first nine holes, and although it deserves all its accolades, the second nine is also an extremely good stretch of golf. Starting with the blind tee shot on the tenth, which is played over a pair of aiming stakes at the peak of a grassy ridge, the back nine is an exciting stretch that jumps across a collection of burns, ditches, and grass-covered walls.   

Modern adjustments by Donald Steel and Martin Hawtree pushed up and recontoured a few of the greens, but like so many contemporary projects, they don’t seem to match the simpler surfaces that still exist on the rest of the course. And like so many courses in this part of the world, coastal erosion has become a focus, with the club reinforcing the massive eastern dune and creating a more gradual slope on the beach side to lessen the impact of storms. Royal Aberdeen often slips under the golfing radar a bit, perhaps because of its location in the less-glamorous Granite City — an area whose horizon is dominated by offshore wind turbines and oil platforms. What those turbines signify is a near-constant stream of wind which, along with the course’s excellent links conditions, makes it well worth a visit. 

Take Note…

Neighbors. Murcar Links sits very close to the ninth green and 10th tee at Royal Aberdeen. So close, in fact, that one wouldn’t be blamed for just continuing on to the neighboring course (it’s happened).

Better Together. On September 1, 2026, the Aberdeen Ladies Golf Club (founded in 1892) officially merged with the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club after a successful vote in 2018. Until now, the clubs had shared the Balgownie Links as well as the shorter Silverburn Course. 

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