Machrie golf course

The Machrie Golf Course, or "The Machrie Links", is located on Islay, in Scotland. The word "machrie" is a corruption of the Scottish Gaelic machair, which means more or less the same as "links" did on the east coast of Scotland.^[1]

The Machrie is an iconic Scottish Championship links style golf course. stretching to 7024 yards from the back tees. An original Willie Campbell design dating back to 1891 it was intentionally made long, at least by 19th Century standards, to attract golfers to Islay. The course was unusual in that its layout crosses the dunes instead of running alongside them like most links courses do, which resulted in multiple blind shots.

The Machrie Links hosted a famous match in 1901 between James Braid, John Henry Taylor and Harry Vardon for a prize of £100, reputed to be the largest prize of its kind at that time in the British Isles. Harry Vardon called Mount Zion, originally the first hole, "the hardest hole I have seen". The links later hosted the Western Isles Open Championship in June 1935.^[2]