The first tee at Royal Aberdeen sits under the clubhouse window, and the opening fairway runs straight at the North Sea as if the golfer had no choice in the matter. In a sense there isn't one. The Balgownie links is a traditional out and back course, and the going out is the part people remember longest. After that first plunge toward the water, the next eight holes run parallel to the shore, through a low corridor pinned between long ridges of sand. The eastern ridge is enormous, a breathtaking sea wall of wind-blown sand. Many regard this as the finest first nine in golf, and some would set it beside holes two through ten at neighbouring Murcar as among the best stretches in links golf. The fairways wind through the dune slack and demand precision. Thick rough and native sea grass wait for anything careless, and blind shots turn up often enough to keep a first-timer humble. It is exhilarating and it does not let up. The club is far older than the ground it plays on. It began in 1780 as the Society of Golfers, among the oldest clubs anywhere, and its members played over a strip of public common land between the Don and the Dee, close to the town. In 1815 they became the Aberdeen Golf Club. In 1886, with the common grown too crowded, they decided to cross the Don to Balgownie, and the new links opened in 1888. Prince Leopold had granted patronage more than thirty years before the royal title finally arrived in 1903, which tells you something about patience in this part of Scotland. So does the rule about lost balls. The five-minute limit on searching was made here in 1783. It has since been cut to three, so the rough is worth avoiding. Many hands shaped the place. Brothers Robert and Archie Simpson laid out the first version, and later the flamboyant Tom Simpson worked on it. J. H. Taylor made changes, and James Braid lengthened the course and bunkered it again. In more recent years Donald Steel and Martin Hawtree raised and recontoured a few greens. Those surfaces stand slightly apart from the simpler greens elsewhere, a small argument between eras played out under your putter. At the far end, the ninth green and tenth tee sit so close to Murcar that golfers have been known to wander on and keep playing the wrong course. The tenth turns you home with a blind tee shot over a pair of aiming stakes on a grassy ridge, and the back nine climbs onto higher ground. The views of the sea open up there, and the protection falls away. These holes take the full force of the wind and are probably the harder half. They jump burns, ditches and grass-covered walls, and the par threes are first class. The eighteenth is a brutal par four of more than 400 yards. A good drive settles into a hollow, leaving a long second across a swale to an elevated green perched in front of the clubhouse, close to where the round began. Famous finishes have happened here. Tom Watson beat Ireland's Des Smyth in a sudden-death play-off at the 2005 Senior British Open. Great Britain & Ireland beat the United States 14-12 in the 2011 Walker Cup. Justin Rose took the 2014 Scottish Open by two from Kristoffer Broberg. Jovan Rebula beat Robin Dawson 3&2 in the 2018 Amateur final. Even so, Balgownie slips under the radar, perhaps because the Granite City's horizon belongs to oil platforms and offshore turbines. Those turbines are a promise, though, of near-constant wind over a course kept in excellent links condition. The club is still tending its future. It has reinforced the great eastern dune and made the slope on the beach side more gradual to lessen the impact of storms. And on 1 September 2026, the Aberdeen Ladies Golf Club, founded in 1892, officially merged with Royal Aberdeen after a vote taken in 2018. The two clubs had long shared Balgownie and the shorter Silverburn course, and now they are one. Bring a jacket and tie if you mean to linger in the lounge or the dining room.