Scotland · Links Golf
Both have hosted the Open and both are hard, but they're hard in opposite ways. Muirfield, on the East Lothian coast, runs in two loops that turn back on each other, so the wind never sits behind you for long and you can see what's coming the whole way round. Carnoustie keeps more hidden: burns cross the fairways where you don't expect them, and the closing stretch has ended more rounds than the rest of the course combined. Muirfield is the fairer test. Carnoustie is the one that finds out what you do under pressure.
| Detail | Muirfield | The Carnoustie Championship Course |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Muirfield | Carnoustie |
| Region | East Lothian | Angus |
| Holes | 18 | 18 |
| Par | 70 | 72 |
| Architect | Old Tom Morris | Not recorded |
| Established | 1744 | Not recorded |
We only compare courses that both meet Birdied's quality bar for a public page and sit in the same country, and every pair here is chosen by hand rather than generated. The table shows only facts we actually hold: a row appears when we have the detail for at least one of the two courses, and a fact nobody has given us is left out rather than guessed at. Ratings and round counts come from the rounds our members log, so they change as people play.