The first thing Elie asks of you is faith. You stand on the opening tee before a massive hill, and you play over it without seeing the fairway or the players ahead. In the starter's hut, someone has already looked for you, through a periscope that once served aboard the Royal Navy's HMS Excalibur. Cameras now give an easier view, but the periscope is still there, and it is worth asking to put your eye to it and look out over the holes ahead. Golf has been played in Elie for more than four hundred years, back into the 1500s. The Golf House Club came in 1875 and took its name from a simple distinction: it was the first club in the area with a formal clubhouse. The course, largely the work of Old Tom Morris in 1895, spills out of the town and onto links land along the Firth of Forth. The routing weaves intricately through the property, and the sea breaks open four times, on the third, the sixth, the 10th, and the 15th. Each reveal lands like news, as if the course wanted to remind you where you were. It is one of the most beautiful settings in Fife, and in all of Scotland. On paper Elie looks almost stubborn. There are sixteen par 4s and only two par 3s, and the whole thing tops out at just 6,273 yards. A scorecard reader might call it a pushover, or call it redundant. The course answers with variety from one hole to the next, with diverse topography, and with design features that ask real questions. It is an authentic links full of quirks and adventurous shots, and it never pretends otherwise. The greens tell you how old this place is. It is one of the oldest courses in the UK, and when these greens were made, green building was a rudimentary idea, the putting surfaces following the lay of the land. What some of them yield is amazing. Gravity is a real opponent here. Eight or so greens pitch away from the player, and you feel the ground leaning against you as you walk up to them. A boy named James Braid grew up playing these links, and the course was instrumental in making him. He went on to win five Open Championships and to design some of the UK's finest courses, among them Panmure, Carnoustie, Brora, and Dunbar. Before all of that, he learned the game here, beside the Firth of Forth. Elie has no championship history, and golf has a strange habit of giving that kind of history great weight. The course has never been loudly celebrated for it, but anyone in Fife who wants to play a true links should come and see it. The town is an idyllic place, quieter than nearby St Andrews, with a great beach and plenty of holiday homes, a fine spot to stay if you want a calmer corner of Fife. Near the end comes one more pleasure. Beside the 17th green stands a pub called The 19th Hole. Locals often stop there for a beer before playing the last, or wander down to visit after the round, letting the day at Elie stretch on a little longer before they head for home.