Lundin Golf Club

For lovers of links courses, especially those harking back 100 years, Lundin is not to be missed. While the terrain is not quite as delightfully rumpled as Brora, there are few level lies on this course. However, the star of the layout are the greens - they are as pure to putt as anything you’ll find in Scotland.

The opening holes run closest to the sea (beware the people using the course to access the beach, they have priority) with elevated greens and an annoying little burn providing most of the trouble. Hole 6 brings us that classic Scottish hole - the blind tee shot (not the last time you’ll see that). Hole 12 is an uphill par 3 where missing right will require a difficult recovery from a steep slope. Hole 13 is a par 5 that features a large tree guarding the approach shot on the left. While this hole is a bit out of character with the rest of the course, the view is worth it. The downhill par 3 14th leads into a series of short par 4s and finally the long uphill finishing hole.

Lundin is certainly on my list of courses to play again.

Getting an authentic experience when you travel can be difficult, especially in places that rely heavily on tourism. They inevitably start delivering an overly sanitized, digestible product to their detriment.

Lundin Golf Club, however, is a near-perfectly authentic Scottish links. The course, laid out east-west, is a quaint joy to play, with a mix of seaside holes dating to the mid-1800s and some later James Braid work that mixes in mostly seamlessly. Even the somewhat-outlier par-5 13th, atop a plateau on the course's northern boundary, has the benefit of giving golfers a look over the entire rest of the course.

With a friendly membership and reasonable green fees (£100 max in 2020), it is hard to beat Lundin for true Fife flair.

Most tourist golfers when they are in the area, head for nearby Kingsbarn or the courses at St. Andrews. If they don't include this course on their to-do list, they've missed out.
It's been used as a qualifying course for the British Open. That should give a pretty good indication of the quality of the course itself.
Another point in its favor is the lack of the crowds you have wade through at the other more well-known courses in the area. The course is so quiet that often twosomes or even singles are permitted. You won't find that at the Old Course even if you are lucky enough to get on.