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— Center of the Golfing Universe —

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Authentic Links Golf with 160 Years of History at a Bargain Price.
Located in the Geographic Center of Eastern Scotland’s Historic Golfing Crescent.
Photo courtesy Stirling Golf Club

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Leven Links Golf Course
The Promenade, Leven, Fife
Scotland KY8 4HS UK
Tel: +44 (0)1333 428 859
E-mail: secretary@leven-links.com
WEB SITE: LEVEN LINKS

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          There is but one place in the world that lays claim to the title “The Home of Golf”. That place is St. Andrews Old Course on the east coast of Scotland northeast of Edinburgh. Although golf has been played at St. Andrews for hundreds of years (perhaps since the middle of the 16th century), golf probably did not originate at St. Andrews, and possibly not in Scotland or even on the island of Britain. Nevertheless, organized golf — i.e. golf with established rules — can be traced back to St. Andrews.           Golf first became popular in St. Andrews and spread outwards from there, first to other sandy links land along the local coastline north and south, especially along the extensive shoreline of the Kingdom of Fife, the eastern Scottish peninsular county bounded by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, and the Firth of Forth to the south. Along the sandy links land of the Fife Coast are numerous golf courses, including several of the oldest in the world. And among these is Leven Links Golf Course.
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HISTORY OF THE COURSE: Leven Links Golf Course traces its beginnings to 1846, when a portion of “wasteland” along the firth was used for golf and probably for other recreational and agricultural activities. At that time, golf was no sacred activity, and the golf course was public land just as useful for racing horses, grazing sheep, or hunting birds.
          The original 9 holes expanded to 18 in 1868 — to match the standard golf course length established up the road in St. Andrews in 1764. Coming from St. Andrews to design the original nine holes at Leven Links was Old Tom Morris, one of the fathers and evangelists of modern golf. His son, Young Tom Morris — another of the pantheon of early golfing gods — won the first tournament held at Leven Links when it debuted its 18-hole layout in 1868.
          In 1909 the course changed again, this time handing over its eastern yardage to neighboring Lundin Links — another of the pearls of venerable links courses strung along the Fife Coast — and taking over a football field north of the golf course in Leven.
          For the last 100 years Leven Links has changed

Old and Young Tom
Morris OF ST. ANDREWS,
father and son pioneers
of organized golf. Both
 were involved at the
 "modern" beginnings
of  Leven Links 140+
years ago.

little: the railway line that used to bisect the course went out of service in 1969 and has been dismantled; a third course, Scoonie Golf Club, opened in 1951 on park land north of Leven Links. Leven Links has hosted tournaments for over 150 years.
          Since 1978 the links has been a regular qualifying course for the British Open whenever the Open Championship occurs at St. Andrews, the next set for 2010.

THE COURSE AND SOME NOTABLE HOLES: Oddly, Leven Links Golf Course is the home course for two golf clubs: Leven Golfing Society and Leven Thistle Golf Club. But the course welcomes visitors, too, who become temporary members of one of the two clubs for the day they play and have access to that club’s clubhouse. Both clubhouses border the course at the intersection of the 1st tee and the 18th green. The course is an unusual kind of out-and-back links, with the front nine wrapping around the back nine counter-clockwise, and the back nine looping clockwise inside the front

The clubhouse of the Leven Golfing Society, one of two clubs that
share THE Leven Links Golf Course.

nine. The resulting eighteen-hole layout — shaped a little like the windings of a paper clip — insures that both nines are affected by the prevailing winds at several angles, some holes playing into the wind, some against, some with cross winds from the left, and some with cross winds from the right. The course is not long: 6,506 yards (par 71) from the championship tees, and only 6,250 yards and 5,775 yards from the men’s (par 69) and the ladies’ (par 73) tees respectively. Being a classic links, Leven Links has not hills, few trees, and little water. The hazards here are the traditional ones: the natural links hazards of sand bunkers (including many pot bunkers) and dense rough (including gorse and other devilishly thorned thickets). Being an old course designed before James Braid introduced the dogleg to the lexicon of golf architecture, Leven Links offers few holes that are not dead straight. The sometimes-fierce coastal winds and frequent rains of the Fife Coast provide the variable hazards that change the challenge from day to day (and hour to hour) at Leven Links. In short, there are great golfing challenges at Leven Links. Here are four of them:

Hole 18, “Scoonie”, 457 yards, Par 4, #9 Handicap: One constant challenge, however, is the Scoonie Burn — a creek like a moat protecting the 18th green — that greets golfers at the end of their round. The 18th is the signature hole at Leven Links: its considerable length (457 yards) requiring two long, accurate shots to reach the green over the meandering creek.

Hole 4, “Sea”, 434 yards, Par 4, #2 Handicap: long, straight, and narrow, extending to the northeast with the Firth of Forth forming the natural out-of-bounds to the right and a line of thick rough serving as the left border the length of fairway. With prevailing crosswinds affecting play, the drive and approach shots need to be long, low and straight to reach the green in regulation.

Hole 12, “Silverburn-S”, 476 yards, Par 5, #1 Handicap: Parallel to Hole 4, this short par-5 requires care, especially when the crosswind is coming in from the sea. Overshooting the green can be rewarded with a swim in the burn (creek) that serves as the border between Leven Links and Lundin Links.

Hole 13: “Seg”, 471 yards, Par 4, #3 Handicap: Between Holes 4 and 12, but playing in reverse (southwest), this long par-4 is edged by the old railroad right of way on the right, and lined with a series of sinister pot bunkers along the left. Prevailing west winds and crosswinds conspire to keep the drive and approach shots from keeping straight, making the hole play even longer.

THE REGION: Depending upon whom you ask, Leven is either just within or clearly outside the unofficial and borderless East Neuk of Fife. The East Neuk carries with it the prestige of association with charming fishing villages like Anstruther, Crail, Pittenweem, and Elie. If within the Neuk, Leven (population about 8,000) plays Cinderella to these other better-publicized Fife coastal towns. If outside the East Neuk of Fife, Leven is a hidden and unpolished

Anstruther's old sea front is a popular
goal for visitors to the Fife Coast.

gem of a place awaiting your discovery. The town and its surroundings have suffered in recent decades from the removal of the railway that formerly crossed Leven Links and continued around the coast to St. Andrews, and by the closure of local collieries and the virtual cessation of the port of Levenmouth. Energy production — associated first with coal production and then with the preparation of oilrigs for offshore drilling — dried up around Leven, and left the local economy reeling. Ironically, a new Fife Energy Park is building large wind turbines on land that formerly was used to build oilrigs and mine coal.
          Most visitors will avoid Leven to visit nearby locations with more cultural or visual appeal:
     • Culross, Scotland’s Williamsburg: a living village virtually unchanged from the 16th, 17th,
         and 18th centuries.
     • Dunfermline with its important Abbey, the Westminster Abbey of Scotland, and resting
         place of many Scottish monarchs, including Robert the Bruce.
     • Fishing Villages of the East Neuk of Fife: the charming, picture postcard seaside towns
         of Elie, Crail, Pittenweem, and Anstruther.
     • St. Andrews, The Home of Golf with the Old Course, but also with important castle and
         cathedral ruins, a great university, some worthwhile museums, and excellent shopping.
 

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Want to learn about other courses throughout the British Isles
including some of the greatest tests of golf in the world? See our
SCOTLAND, IRELAND, ENGLAND, and WALES
Course Guides for more information.
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