Gleneagles golf: the King’s, Queen’s and PGA Centenary courses, the Wee Course, green fees and dress

The King’s Course is James Braid’s, and it opened on 1 May 1919, together with the Queen’s, 5 years before the hotel. Braid, 5 times Open champion, and his assistant Cecil Key Hutchison were hired in 1914 for £120 plus expenses, as the golf history records. The King’s measures 6,471 yards from the white tees through heather and heathland, and every hole has a Scots name: the 13th, Braid’s Brawest, is the one Braid signed as his best, and the 17th, Warslin’ Lea, has the narrowest fairway on the course.

The Queen’s is the short one, 5,965 yards from the whites and par 68, threading the ridges to the north and west of the estate past woods, lochans and water hazards; its front 9 is little over 3,000 yards. The PGA Centenary is Jack Nicklaus’s, 6,815 yards from the whites, opened in 1993 as the Monarch’s and renamed in 2001. It held the Ryder Cup in 2014, which Europe won 16½ to 11½, and the Solheim Cup in 2019, decided by Suzann Pettersen’s putt on the 18th green.

Which to play is a matter of taste, even among the academy’s coaches: 3 of the 4 quoted on its page pick the King’s. Its manager, Matthew Reid, calls it «a genius piece of architecture» that tests every club, and Alex Chalk and Calum Allison choose it too; Andrew Owens prefers the Queen’s, the shortest of the 3, which «can also be forgiving». Beginners and families start on the Wee Course, 9 par-3 holes built from what was left of the old Prince’s Course when the Nicklaus course was laid out.

The day is laid out for golfers. The clubhouse is about 300 yards inside the main gates, with a bag drop at the door, changing rooms with power showers and a steam room, and 80 sets of hire clubs from Titleist, Callaway, TaylorMade, Ping and Mizuno. A basket of balls at the PGA National Academy is included before the round, each course is served by one of the 2 halfway houses, and The Dormy serves breakfast or a morning roll before the round and dinner after it. Auchterarder 70, the room named after the hotel’s original telephone number, looks over the last greens of the King’s and the Queen’s.

Gleneagles was ranked first among the resorts in Golf World’s Top 100 for the UK and Ireland, as its golf page says, and the history behind it is long: in 1921 a match between British and American professionals, played here, is recognised as an inspiration for the Ryder Cup, and the American team slept in converted railway carriages because the hotel was not finished. The 1936 Curtis Cup was halved on the King’s.

Guests who wrote about golf in the Google reviews of Gleneagles collected on 15 October 2026 divide on value. One, in August 2025, called it «unlimited golf at the highest level» and the stay worth every penny; another, in September 2024, wrote only that activities and golf were «VERY PRICEY». A guest in July 2026 could not get a tee time because a large golf event had filled the courses, and played the pitch and putt instead.

The Old Course at St Andrews costs £250 a round from 19 to 31 October 2026, £180 from November to March with fairway mats in use, and £380 in the high season of 2027; the guide’s map of Gleneagles puts it 74 minutes away by car.

Carnoustie’s Championship Course costs £360 from May to October 2026 and £249 in April; in winter its golfers play from mats too.

Trump Turnberry offers a 3-day stay-and-play event on the Ailsa and the King Robert the Bruce; the page we read prints no green fee.