When Jack Nicklaus calls a course’s first hole “the best opening hole of golf in the world,” you can bet the place belongs in the World Top 100 conversation. At Machrihanish Golf Club, the opener — Battery — is risk‑reward golf at its purest: play conservatively and you’re left with a demanding second; take the bold line over a long sweep of white sand and the hole can turn into a short‑iron — or even wedge — approach.
That one tee shot gets the fame, but Machrihanish’s ranking isn’t built on a single postcard moment. It’s the run of holes — especially a front nine that unfolds like a masterclass in classic links design — that makes the course more than a pilgrimage for architecture devotees. Machrihanish proves itself over and over, hole after hole, in every wind.
On the cusp of its 150th anniversary, Machrihanish has an origin story that reads like a Scottish golf primer. Like many clubs, it began with less than a full 18. The original course was 10 holes and known as the Kintyre Club, after the peninsula it occupies. A few years later, the club brought in Old Tom Morris, who fleshed out the routing into a full 18 while establishing that unforgettable first tee position, tucked between what is now the pro shop and the Atlantic.
Part of the charm of Machrihanish is the setting — and the effort it takes to reach it. On the map, the course sits closer to Northern Ireland’s great links than it does to many of Scotland’s marquee courses, and getting to this corner of Argyll still feels like something of an expedition. That remoteness has long appealed to those looking for an escape. Paul McCartney found his own version of it here during the height of Beatlemania in the 1960s.
Even the club’s identity fits the place. If there were a World Top 100 for logos, Machrihanish would have a case: its badge is a simple oystercatcher — black and white, with a bright orange beak — native to these shores. Like the course itself, it’s understated, unmistakable, and perfectly at home on the edge of the Atlantic.
