Gleneagles Hotel Golf Course

Gleneagles sits at the foot of the Ochil Hills in Strathearn, Perthshire, near the town of Auchterarder. Gleneagles Ltd was formed in 1913 to build and run a hotel with golf courses attached, and in 1919 the company engaged James Braid, winner of five Open Championships, to design the King's and Queen's courses, which opened on 1 May that year. The hotel itself did not open until 7 June 1924, five years after the courses, and reopened in 1947 following wartime use. The estate covers 850 acres of lochs and glens and today holds four courses: the King's, the Queen's, the PGA Centenary Course, and the shorter Wee Course, alongside a PGA National Academy. The hotel has 205 rooms and 28 suites, along with a spa, restaurants and bars. Gleneagles is the only venue in Europe to have staged both the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup. The founder's original ambition was for a country house hotel built around a golf course, an idea realised gradually over more than a decade between the company's formation and the hotel's eventual opening. The clubhouse looks out toward the surrounding hills across ground that has hosted golf at the highest level for over a century.