Carnoustie Hotel, Golf Resort and Spa

Carnoustie is a big natural seaside links and is widely considered to be one of the world's most difficult golf courses. In fact, according to the results of a Top 100 survey, Carnoustie is the toughest golf course in Britain & Ireland.

The first record of golf being played across this links land dates back to 1527; a 10-hole course was laid out in 1842 by Allan Robertson. Fifteen years later, in 1857, an 18-hole course was fashioned by Old Tom Morris. James Braid extended the course in 1926 and it has hardly changed since.

The Burnside course at Carnoustie has been used in the past for qualifying when the Open has been held on the Championship course and no less than Ben Hogan entered the tournament this way for the 1953 Open before going on to lift the old claret jug later the same week. What it lacks in its 6,028-yard length is more than made up for by tight fairways, heather, whins, pot bunkers and, as the name suggests, the Barry Burn which wanders through part of the course and features at several of the demanding par three holes. Greens are small, contoured and hard to hold, especially in dry summer conditions or when the wind gets up.

The Buddon course opened for play as an 18-hole layout back in 1981 when Dave Thomas and Peter Alliss laid out the fairways on former Ministry of Defence land, next to the 2,300-acre Barry Buddon rifle range and training area. All the holes are named after battles that have taken place during various war campaigns, in recognition of the near neighbours who have been in residence since the late 1890s. The course lies to the south and east of the property managed by the Carnoustie Golf Links Management Committee