Alasdair Keir
Club SecretaryAlasdair spent twenty years in hospitality in Edinburgh before joining Ardmoor in 2009. He handles tee times, memberships and every question you can think of.
130 years of links golf · East Lothian
Played by the wind. Kept by the people who love it.
Eighteen holes of true links turf between the dunes and the North Sea — a members’ club that still welcomes visitors, teaches juniors and restores the clubs our founders played with.
1894Founded on the dunes
18Holes of true links
6,842Yards from the back tees
640+Playing members
True links turf
Fescue fairways, firm and fast, the way the game began.
Visitors welcome
Weekday tee times for guests and visiting societies.
Workshop on site
Fitting, regripping and hickory restoration by our own team.
Open all year
Winter greens are rare here — we play the full course most days.
Questions we hear at the starter’s hut.
Straight answers from the Secretary’s office. If yours isn’t here, call us — we’d rather talk it through than have you arrive unsure.
Yes. Visitors are asked to hold an official handicap index of 28 or below for men and 36 or below for women. Bring your certificate or the app on your phone — the starter may ask to see it.
Visitor tee times open twelve months ahead. Summer mornings fill first; weekday afternoons in spring and autumn are the easiest to find and, in our opinion, the best light of the year.
Tailored golf trousers or shorts, collared or mock-neck shirts, and soft-spike shoes. In the Members’ Lounge after 6pm we ask for a jacket; the Bar and Terrace are smart-casual all day.
Groups of 12 to 40 players are welcome on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Secretary will put together a day that suits you — coffee and bacon rolls, 18 holes, and a two-course dinner is the classic format.
Applicants play a round with two members of the Committee, then complete a short application. There is no fixed waiting list for Country and Junior categories; Full membership opens a limited number of places each spring.
We have premium rental sets for right- and left-handed players, electric trolleys, and two buggies reserved for players with a medical need. Please reserve them when you book.
Yes, from April to October. Our caddies know every burrow and bump on the course. Book at least 48 hours in advance — the Secretary will match you with someone suited to your game.
Very likely. Bring them in or send photos first. Our workshop re-shafts, re-whips and re-grips hickory clubs with period-correct materials so they can be played, not just displayed.
The workshop, Links RoadFounded 1894 · Ardmoor, East Lothian
Ardmoor Links. Nine fishermen, a borrowed field, and a lot of wind.
The club was founded in the spring of 1894 by nine men from the harbour who had watched the game grow along the coast and decided they would rather play than watch. They laid out nine holes on common grazing land between the village and the dunes. The sheep kept the fairways short. The wind did the rest.
The second nine came in 1921, routed by the club’s first professional, who walked the ground for a whole winter before cutting a single hole. Most of his greens are still where he put them. We have been careful about that. A links course is not something you improve; it is something you look after.
What we are today: a members’ club of a little over six hundred golfers, a small academy, and a workshop behind the pro shop where clubs are fitted, repaired and — when they deserve it — restored. We welcome visitors most weekdays, because a links is meant to be shared.
What we are not: a resort. There is no spa, no conference centre, and no piped music on the terrace. There is a bar with a view of the 18th green, a kitchen that knows what to do with local crab, and a locker room that smells faintly of leather and linseed oil.
If that sounds like your kind of place, come and play it. Then stay for a drink and ask one of the members about the 11th. Everyone has a story about the 11th.
— Alasdair Keir, Club Secretary
The way we look after it
Links golf, without the shortcuts.
We don’t water the fairways green for photographs, and we don’t soften the bunkers for scores. The course plays the way the ground and the weather decide — our job is to keep it honest, and to help you enjoy it.
130+Years on the dunes
18Original green sites kept
640+Playing members
1,200+Hickory clubs restored
The people at Ardmoor
The team who look after your round.
Small staff, long service. Most of our team have been here longer than the current clubhouse carpet — and that is saying something.
Duncan Muir
Head Professional & Club MakerA PGA professional for thirty-four years, Duncan runs the academy and the workshop. He learned hickory work from the club’s previous professional and has restored over a thousand clubs.
Fiona Galbraith
Academy CoachFormer county champion and PGA-qualified coach. Fiona leads the junior section and the short-game school, and has a gift for making the wind feel like an ally.
Explore the club
Start with the links.
Four ways into Ardmoor. Pick one and the Secretary will do the rest — tee times, coaching, fitting or a full society day.
Everything at Ardmoor
Filter by what you want from your visit.
Every service is arranged personally by the Secretary’s office. We don’t publish fees online — send an enquiry and you’ll receive a written proposal within one working day.
12Ways to enjoy the club
Membership
Full Playing Membership
Unrestricted play seven days a week, voting rights, locker and priority competition entry.
Membership
Country Membership
For golfers living more than 50 miles away — a real home club by the sea, without the weekly commute.
Play
Visitor Round — The Links
Eighteen holes on the championship layout, Monday to Friday, with a starter briefing on the 1st tee.
Play
Twilight Round
Late tee times from May to August, when the wind drops and the light turns gold over the Forth.
Academy
Private Lesson with a PGA Professional
One-to-one coaching on the range and on the course, built around the shot you actually need to fix.
Academy
Links Short-Game School
Two days on bump-and-runs, pot-bunker escapes and putting from off the green. Six players per group.
Academy
Junior Section
Saturday-morning coaching for ages 8 to 17, from first swing to first handicap.
Workshop
Club Fitting on the Range
Irons and wedges fitted outdoors, into the wind, on real turf — not off a mat in a shop.
Workshop
Hickory Club Restoration
Re-shafting, re-whipping and re-gripping of hickory clubs with period-correct materials — made playable again.
Workshop
Regripping & Repairs
Grips, ferrules, loft and lie adjustments and shaft replacements — usually ready the same day.
Play
Caddie Service
Local caddies who read the wind, know every burrow and will tell you honestly which club to hit.
Club life
Society & Company Days
Coffee, eighteen holes and dinner overlooking the 18th — arranged around your group from start to finish.
Nothing matches these filters yet — ask us, we can usually arrange it.
Most asked for
The Ardmoor essentials.
Where most people start — chosen by the Secretary’s office from a year of enquiries.
SignaturePlay
Visitor Round — The Links
Eighteen holes on the championship layout, Monday to Friday, with a starter briefing on the 1st tee.
PopularAcademy
Links Short-Game School
Two days on bump-and-runs, pot-bunker escapes and putting from off the green. Six players per group.
Only at ArdmoorWorkshop
Hickory Club Restoration
Re-shafting, re-whipping and re-gripping of hickory clubs with period-correct materials — made playable again.
SummerPlay
Twilight Round
Late tee times from May to August, when the wind drops and the light turns gold over the Forth.
Club life
Society & Company Days
Coffee, eighteen holes and dinner overlooking the 18th — arranged around your group from start to finish.
Workshop
Club Fitting on the Range
Irons and wedges fitted outdoors, into the wind, on real turf — not off a mat in a shop.
Open nowMembership
Country Membership
For golfers living more than 50 miles away — a real home club by the sea, without the weekly commute.
Play
Caddie Service
Local caddies who read the wind, know every burrow and will tell you honestly which club to hit.
Letters from the clubhouse
Notes from members and visitors.
We don’t edit these for tone. Golfers are honest people, especially after 18 holes in a stiff westerly.
★★★★★
“I have played links golf on three continents and Ardmoor is the one I come back to. The greens run true even in a gale, and the starter gave us the best advice of the week: ‘Keep it low and keep smiling.’”
Graham W.Visitor, 4 visits
★★★★★
“Duncan restored my father’s set of hickory clubs from the 1920s. They came back with a handwritten note on each club’s maker. I played the Sunday hickory round with them and couldn’t stop grinning.”
Hamish R.Country member
★★★★☆
“Superb course, genuinely friendly members, and the crab sandwiches deserve a mention of their own. One star off only because the practice ground is a little short for the longer hitters.”
Peter L.Society organiser
★★★★★
“The short-game school changed my scoring more than any lesson in twenty years. Fiona had us playing bump-and-runs with a 7-iron by lunchtime on day one. Scores down four shots by the end of the season.”
Ian McK.Full member since 2019
★★★★☆
“We came for a company day of 28 players and everything ran on time. Clear communication from the Secretary before we arrived. Only note: book the twilight slot — the evening light is extraordinary.”
Martin D.Company day, 28 players
★★★★★
“I’m 74 and have been a member for 41 years. The course is in better shape now than at any point I remember, and they’ve never once tried to make it into something it isn’t.”
Robert C.Life member
The Secretary’s office
Write to the SecretaryPlay it once. Then play it in every wind.
Tell us when you’d like to visit, how many are in your group and what kind of golf you enjoy. We’ll come back within one working day with a written proposal — no obligation.
Heritage · Hickory · Archive
The clubs our founders played, back on the course.
Every first Sunday from May to September we play a hickory round. The clubs come from our workshop; the scores are kept in the same leather-bound book since 1904.
The first professional
Photographs from the club archive show the man who routed our second nine, walking the ground for a whole winter before cutting a hole.
The Spring Medal
Plus-fours, tweed and hickory. Our oldest competition has been played every spring except during the war years.
The Keir Salver
Presented in 1911 and still contested each August. Engraved with 104 names — one of them twice as long as all the others.
Is Ardmoor for you?
You check the wind forecast before the weather forecast.
01
You’d rather hit a 5-iron along the ground than a wedge into the sky — and you enjoy that it works.
02
You think a course should look the way the weather made it, not the way a brochure wants it.
03
You like a clubhouse where the conversation is about the 11th hole, not the menu.
04
You want to be treated as a golfer, whether it’s your first visit or your fortieth year as a member.
Members and visitors of every age — the one thing they share is a love of the game played on the ground.
Contact
Find us on Links Road.
Visit the clubhouse, write to the Secretary or call during office hours. The starter’s hut opens at dawn.
Ardmoor Links Golf Club
- Address
- Links Road, Ardmoor, East Lothian EH32 0QZ, Scotland
- [email protected]
- Phone
- +44 1620 842 316
Secretary’s office
Mon – Fri08:30 – 17:30
Saturday08:00 – 13:00
SundayStarter only