When Jack Nicklaus calls the first hole of a course “the best opening golf hole in the world,” you can bet the place belongs World Top 100 conversation. IN Machrihanish Golf Clubthe opener – Battery – is risk-reward golf at its purest: play conservatively and you’ll have a demanding second; get the bold line over a long sweep of white sand and the hole can turn into a short iron approach – or even wedge.
That single photo gets fame, but Machrihanish’s ranking isn’t built on a single postcard moment. It’s the string 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 buffs. Machrihanish proves himself over and over again, hole after hole, in every wind.
On the eve of its 150th anniversary, Machrihanish has an origin story that reads like a Scottish golf primer. Like many clubs, it started with less than 18 full. 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 completed the fairway on the full 18 while setting up that memorable first position, located between what is now the pro shop and the Atlantic.
Part of Machrihanish’s charm is the setting – and the effort it takes to achieve it. On the map, the course is closer to the great links of Northern Ireland than to many of Scotland’s cobbled courses, and getting to this corner of Argyll still feels like an expedition. This remoteness has long attracted those seeking an escape. Paul McCartney found his own version here during the height of Beatlemania in the 1960s.
Even the identity of the club suits the country. If there were a World Top 100 for logos, Machrihanish would have a case: his badge is a simple oyster — black and white, with a bright orange beak — native to these shores. Like the course itself, it is understated, unmistakable and perfectly at home on the edge of the Atlantic.
