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The Machrie Golf Course is located on Islay, in Scotland. The word "machrie" is a corruption of the Scottish Gaelic machair, which means more or less the same as "links" did on the east coast of Scotland.[1]
The course is 6,254 yards long and is a links style golf course. It is rated 20th in Scotland by Top 100 Golf Courses in the World. The course was designed by Willie Campbell in 1891 and was intentionally made long, at least by 19th Century standards, to attract golfers to Islay. The course is unusual in that it layout crosses the dunes instead of running alongside them like most links courses do, which results in multiple blind shots.
The Machrie Links hosted a famous match in 1901 between James Braid, John Henry Taylor and Harry Vardon for a prize of £100, reputed to be the largest prize of its kind at that time in the British Isles. Harry Vardon called Mount Zion, now the 17th hole, but originally the first hole, "the hardest hole I have seen".
The Machrie Golf Links is the home of the Islay Golf Club, an amateur golf association which leases the course from the Machrie Hotel, the owners of the course.