Crail Golf Club (Craighead Links)

Overview: Craighead Links is the modern 18-hole course at Crail Golfing Society, set on the Fife coast above the clifftops and facing the North Sea. Gil Hanse shaped the layout to work with the coastal ground, existing medieval revetted walls and the broad views toward May Island, the Bass Rock and North Berwick. The course is a contrast to nearby Balcomie: longer, more expansive and built around a larger set of strategic choices. Fairways move through exposed linksland, with pot bunkers, ridges, swales and sloping greens changing the preferred line from hole to hole. Hanse gives players different angles from the tees, and the best score usually comes from deciding when to use the ground and when to take a more direct line.

History: Crail Golfing Society's long heritage reaches back to the eighteenth century, but Craighead belongs to a later expansion of the property. In the late 1990s, the Society bought Craighead Farm and commissioned American architect Gil Hanse to create a second course beside the historic Balcomie Links. Craighead Links opened in 1998 and was Hanse's first course design outside the United States. The new layout established a distinct identity while remaining tied to the older links through the shared headland, coastal weather and historic golf setting. Its later championship record includes the 2018 Ladies' Senior British Open Amateur Championship and the 2019 Scottish Amateur Championship, both evidence of the course's competitive range.

Did You Know? Craighead's routing deliberately crosses and follows remnants of medieval drystone walling. Hanse treated those old walls as part of the architectural material, using them to frame holes and influence lines of play rather than clearing them away. From the eighth tee, the official course guide also identifies views toward May Island and the Bass Rock, giving the round a sense of the wider Fife coastline beyond the immediate fairways.