Scotland Trip Report - May 2017

[Clambake]

Having benefited from the many opinions here in planning my Scotland trip, I'd like to share a few thoughts and a bunch of photos. In his thread, schapma1 does a very thorough job of his planning and experience, and since much of my experience is similar I'm not going to be very word heavy here. Just a few notes to help fill in from our experience. My trip was as a solo golfer traveling with my non-golfing (but very patient) wife. Fortunately she likes the game even though she doesn't play, so that gives me a lot of latitude. She's a keeper.

 

Our short itinerary: 5 days in Edinburgh, then 5 days in St. Andrews, 2 days in Inverness, 2 nights in Ft. William, 2 nights on Loch Lomond, 4 days in Troon, and a final day in Glasgow. In all that time, I only played 7 courses, as we also made sure to enjoy many of the delightful sights throughout the country. Courses played were:

• North Berwick - Delightful and slightly quirky in a good way. Quite a historic place, and the staff and members there could not be more delightful and helpful.
  
• Carnoustie - Hard but not as tough as I feared. Played it in heavy rain and wind (only bad weather day on a course).
  
• Old Course - Everything it's cracked up to be. A privilege to walk the fairways.
  
• Castle Course - Despite its rep, I liked it quite a bit. It gets knocked for its heavily contoured greens, but I found them a nice change from the generally flat greens throughout the country. On a lot of courses, if the caddy suggested a foot or two of break, that was considered a "big breaking putt".
  
• Royal Dornoch - Best course I've ever played. Not a weak hole on the course.
  
• Prestwick - Like Berwick, it is quirky in a positively enjoyable way. It was probably the most fun course I played, and throw in its amazing history and it is a "must play".
  
• Royal Troon - Excellent overall. The first half dozen holes are pleasant but don't make you say "wow", and then you hit a stretch with some of the best holes on any course anywhere. The last couple holes are a bit anticlimactic, but it still is a great course.
  

Regarding driving in Scotland, I've never driven on the "other" side of the road before and found it very easy to get used to. Our car had an excellent GPS that never steered us wrong, which helped reduce the anxiety and let me focus on the road. But I was comfortable after a couple hours on the road. And I give a huge recommendation to Arnold Clark for car rental. I heard about them in Ferguson's book, and they were probably the best car rental place I've ever dealt with. Price was about 2/3 of what places like Hertz and Enterprise charged, the cars are in great shape and well equipped, and the service was excellent.

 

Overall, ours was a fantastic trip, one of the best we've ever had. Scotland is endlessly interesting, with stunning scenery overlaid with a fascinating, and sometimes bloody, history. The golf was outstanding, challenging ever club in the bag, requiring you to explore shots that you don't often try and on the typical US courses. And most important of all, the people are welcoming, genuinely friendly, always helpful, and never short a story or a joke. We started planning our next trip before we were on the airplane home.

 

On to some photos. First, fascinating Edinburgh, with views down Princes Street from atop Calton Hill, the castle, wandering through an old cemetery, and the Scott Monument (there are statues and monuments everywhere).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golf at North Berwick. It's an easy train ride from Edinburgh, with the train station dropping you just a short block from the clubhouse. The course is just filled with quirky little features from its original design, like this old stone sheep pen wall edging the green:

 

 

 

On to the delightful town of St. Andrews, with a view over the town from St. Rules Tower:

 

 

 

One of the most famous views in golf, looking back up the 1st and 18th fairways on the Old Course:

 

 

 

The bar at the Dunvegan is a must stop destination for any golfer. The walls are fully covered with photos of pretty much everyone who's anyone in golf.

 

 

 

Likewise, the Jigger Inn alongside the 17th Road Hole is a required drinking stop. If the weather is nice, enjoy a pint on the patio and watch as the golfers saunter by.

 

 

 

The 1st and 18th fairways on the Old Course look pretty flat and uninteresting in midday, but when you play it you discover the undulations that are very apparent during the setting sun:

 

 

 

Another shot on the Old Course, on #3 if I remember correctly. Again, it is anything but flat.

 

 

 

Although the private golf courses throughout the country are welcoming to visitors, the R&A....not so much.

 

 

 

While in St. Andrews, a must see is the British Golf Museum, a nice trove of historical golf memorabilia. The feathery golf ball from Allan Robertson below may well have been made by Old Tom himself. Robertson was a leading ball manufacturer at the time, and Old Tom started an apprenticeship under him at 14, sewing the pouches and stuffing with goose feathers. The advent of the gutta percha ball ultimately led to Morris starting out on his own. Robertson hated the things as they'd be the downfall of his business, and one day he caught Tom playing with one (given to Tom by a member) and fired him on the spot.

 

 

 

The red belt was the prize for the original Open championship held at Prestwick. Robertson was considered by far the best golfer in Scotland, known as "The Champion Golfer". When he passed away, what later became known as the R&A decided they needed to determine the new champion golfer, and a tournament was held with three rounds over Prestwick's 12 holes. The Prestwick members commissioned this belt for a whopping £25 which would be awarded to "The Champion Golfer", the origin of the phrase now used when the R&A presents the trophy to the winner of the Open Championship.

 

 

 

 

 

The Castle Course occupies a spectacular piece of land just southeast of town. Not a links course, it runs up and down the hills above the bluffs fronting the North Sea. The views can be stunning - here's the tee shot on the par 3 17th:

 

 

 

Moving away from golf for a moment, one probably couldn't swing a driver in Scotland without hitting a castle or ruin of some sort. Here are some of my favorites. First, Glamis castle of Macbeth fame:

 

 

 

Also of Macbeth fame, Cawdor Castle near Inverness:

 

 

 

Doune Castle near Stirling, one of the best preserved but unrestored medieval castles. And where much of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed!

 

 

 

Spectacular Eileen Donan Castle:

 

 

 

Protecting Stirling Castle from the siege:

 

 

 

We found the museums in Edinburgh and Glasgow to be amazing. Loved this art exhibit at the Kelvingrove in Glasgow, along with fascinating collections of everything related to the tumultuous history of Scotland. The last shot after the armor is at Culloden Moor, site of the bloody battle where the English defeated the uprising in the final battle fought on British soil. Quite moving with the various markers of the mass graves of the different clans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More beautiful scenery and spots of interest, from the mountains above Glencoe, Loch Ness, the shores of Loch Lomond, and the Wallace Monument near Stirling:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to golf. First up, Royal Dornoch. Hugging a beautiful crescent beach, Dornoch rolls along the dunes through the gorse presenting a challenge on every hole, each with its own character. Although golf has been played on the site for 400 years, Old Tom Morris designed the current layout, and created the crowned greens that Donald Ross went on to copy at his many famous designs (Ross grew up by the course and learned his trade at Dornoch before emigrating to the US).

 

 

 

Prestwick is a delightfully entertaining cluster of quirkiness, a rollercoaster ride of blind shots and devious bunkers, of wide fairways mixed with terrifyingly tight driving challenges. Think Pete Dye started the railroad tie trend? Nope, it was at Prestwick where this was first used, shoring up the enormous fairway bunker "Cardinal" on the par 5 third hole.

 

 

 

And finally, Royal Troon. It was truly fun to stroll these fairways and think of the amazing duel between Mickelson and Stensen less than a year ago. After navigating the more difficult holes and experiencing the many challenges, what those two pulled off seems even more astounding.

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy this little travelogue, and if you've been putting off a trip to this magical place I can only encourage you to get there and experience this amazing place and its people. The phrase "trip of a lifetime" gets thrown around a lot, but with Scotland, it truly applies. I leave you with this parting photo from the Inverlochy Castle hotel lobby - too many Scotch varieties, too little time!

 

 

[GolfRat1]

Thanks for sharing... Awesome trip

[Walter]

amazing!!! thank you for sharing!

I will visit and playing St Andrews and surroundings the end of August and really looking forward!

[Hawkeye77]

Awesome stuff!!!!!!!

 

I don't drink scotch (waiting to try it if we go to Scotland), but I discovered on our recent vacation I like rum. Have some good rum on the way that should arrive tomorrow (and the UK spawned some pirates) so I'll have a bit in honor of this thread!

[Skydiver22]

Great pics... brought back a couple of memories... Thanks

[clp34vmp]

Love this...thanks!. Going for the first time next summer and can't wait.

[TW33]

great pics OP

[jgonz69]

Great photos. Makes me want to go back, even though i was there just last week.

[TW33]

Also, OP- how hard was it to get a tee time at Carnoustie? Did you book before? I'll be playing as a single next May and am trying to get some more information as to whether I need to book before or just show up early on a Friday morning at the course.

[Clambake]

It was easy to get a time at Carnoustie (and everywhere else but the Old Course), but I did book everything about 6 months ahead. I booked for a 2-ball for all the courses, but unfortunately my friend had to cancel at the last moment for medical reasons so I went solo. The day I played Carnoustie, someone could definitely have just walked up and gone out, but the weather had turned a bit nasty and they had some people cancelling. Carnoustie is one of the courses with a not-too-favorable refund policy, however, so unless you're sure you're going to be there you might want to take the risk of just showing up.

 

Carnoustie and most other courses have easy-to-use online booking sites, but for some of the courses I just emailed the booking secretary instead because their sites only made reservations for a 4 ball. In all cases, I found the booking secretary very helpful and easy to deal with, and it was nice to make a personal connection. This was especially helpful when my friend had to cancel, as they went ahead and refunded the green fees even though they had non-refundable policies. Scotland seems to one of those rare remaining places in the world where a pleasant attitude and saying "please" and "thank you" still goes a long ways!

 

I researched best times to go and felt that May looked a great time to go, and this was confirmed by talking with a lot of locals when there. It is late enough in the year that all the interesting sites are open, but is ahead of the summer tourist crowds. The courses aren't very full up yet, but are well out of winter conditions. The gorse was also in full bloom throughout the island, but that would have been over by June. We also had pretty good weather, with only a few rainy days during our 3 weeks. My day at Carnoustie was rainy but all my other rounds were dry, and several of them were played in shirtsleeves, while the others were just cool enough for a pullover. It was a spectacular trip, and I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time!