Any (recent) Inverness experts?

[milesgiles]

vaguely looking at july, depending on all the obvious restrictions.. who would be best to make golf enquiries with, the tourist board, the golf pass, individual clubs? Who have you found helpful? I don’t know the area at all. Prepared to take a chance on flights and airbnb so not concerned with that aspect.. cheers for any advices

[Chanceman]

If you can get there without any quarantine restrictions I would be surprised but good luck!!

We stayed in Inverness last year and its a good base for Dornoch and a number of other courses. Apart from Royal Dornoch itself, one of the best you will ever play, my favorite was Fortrose and Rosemarkie which is cheap but very good. There is also Castle Stuart, Nairn, Boat of Garten and Golspie, Tain and Brora. Just call the clubs to find out information as to their availability.

It's a lovely area and Inverness is an interesting place, you'll enjoy it.

[Hawkeye77]

Yep, call or email the clubs. Depending on length of stay, Dornoch is a wonderful burgh to stay in and gets you easy access to Royal Dornoch, Brora and Tain, and you could spend the other part of the trip in Nairn, for example, then you are that much closer to Moray, for example. Gives you less time on the road every day and more time for golf and other things. But you can't go wrong with one base either.

[milesgiles]

^cheers, I’m in the uk so we’ll be able to get there and stay, I’m sure the courses will be open at least. I’ll assume no clubhouses, bars or restaurants, not deal breakers for us..

what im getting at, do you think any/all of those would be up for a haggle on their advertised rates, given the lack of facilities and no American tourists? I’d understand if Dornoch said so what, but the others? No harm in asking, I’ll let you know what they say..

[jonnymc44]

I've been thinking the same. Let me know what they say. My wife's parents live about an hour or so from Dornoch so I'll likely be going up for a holiday once the restrictions are lifted further. We normally go up around August bank holiday anyway, may extend the holiday out a bit longer this year. I've already primed my wife to say I'm going to play Brora, just see whether I can get a few others in at the same time!

[Hawkeye77]

Given that many of them have expressed concern about sustainability of operations the last thing I would do is ask for a COVID bargain on rates - I'd gladly pay them full freight. Just received my order Friday from Brora - they had a nice little merchandise and membership campaign that probably won't scratch the surface of what they need and was happy to help out, albeit in a small way.

 

[milesgiles]

I’ll eat my hat if any name course closes over this. A dozen green staff will keep virtually any course tip top in the U.K., and they have been paid by the government for two months. With no one playing, maintenance will have been minimal. I know American grasses are a lot different and require far bigger crews.

’full freight’ in Scotland is a sh!t ton of cash these days for non Americans.

[Hawkeye77]

Do non-Americans get charged more? My cash is pretty darn precious to me.

Are government payments covering all the lost expected net income? Through the whole season? Not how it is working here, but I have no idea over there. Seems like there would be a lot more at stake than whatever they can get by with for maintenance expense.

 

[milesgiles]

The laid off employees have their wages covered, until next month when I’m certain the courses will be open by. So the loss is loss of income from green fees and a two month deferment in annual subs.

I’ve just had a look seems like the name courses around Dornoch want £100 a day. I’ll stress, this is with no facilities or changing rooms about as far north as you can go on the mainland.

Much as I want to play them, those are American prices. You have higher disposable incomes and also see Scotland more as a golfing trip in a lifetime, whereas I can get there any time I want. So you’re willing and able to pay a lot more than I would.

[Hawkeye77]

Let's just leave it, definitely not going to get into or suggest what anyone is able or willing to pay - I'm not qualified to judge that for anyone but myself. You are certainly entitled to your opinion on whether and how courses are being affected and of course, what you feel is a reasonable charge to play any course at any time. Just hope you get the chance and enjoy it - Royal Dornoch is an awesome golf course, Brora really struck an emotional chord with my daughter and me as far as connection, for lack of a better word. If something other worldly happened and I was "stuck" playing just those two courses the rest of my life I'd still be a happy golfer.

[Hawkeye77]

Just an FYI, and you probably know this - if you call ask about evening or early morning rates - some courses have one or the other or both, so there are discounts to be had in that fashion. Dornoch Firth Golf Pass, if available, may or may not work (have to do the math and having played it, I wouldn't recommend the Struie course, which is part of the package) - but that kind of locks you into Royal Dornoch, Golspie, Tain and Brora, depending on the math. Even Boat of Garden is 75 pounds, so Royal Dornoch at 100 isn't out there as far as prices (Boat is an example of a course that gives certain club member discounts to folks from "down south" so you never know). Heck, my daughter and my second rounds at Royal Dornoch were 20 pounds each - my caddie for Father's Day, 2018 enjoyed all of our company so much (whole family played that afternoon) when my oldest daughter and I were up at the clubhouse that night sharing a dram or two and enjoying the U. S. Open final round with him and one of his buddies we got invited to play later in the week as his guests - I checked in on Wednesday to see how that worked, found out he had to pay 20 pounds each, and promptly covered that and still arranged caddies for the two of us so we'd enjoy their company again and have a nice walk that evening, so you just never know sometimes where the discounts are going to show up. We ended up because of a family issue, and in retrospect the weather would have been horrible, having to cancel a trip to play Moray Old we were really looking forward to, gladly played another round at Brora and the pro (super guy, just a super guy) retroactively gave us the replay discount even though we technically weren't eligible and didn't even ask about it - remembered us from the day before, found out we were eating lunch on the second day so reminded us to take full advantage of the facilities, look around, etc.

You know the culture far better than me, and I'm sure in England there are plenty of places that are just as accommodating and plan on visiting those hopefully in two years.

[milesgiles]

At the moment there’s no certainty on accommodations, which is ironic because France, my first backup option is actually looking more promising from that point of view. Scotland has a devolved government so make their own laws with regard to the current crisis. Without looking it up I think tourism is more significant to Scotland than England so I’m guessing that pressure will come to bear..

did the St. Andrews ticket last year, they were very helpful in arranging and it was a very smooth trip, with the bonus of no added travel. However, it’s not exactly a traditional Scottish experience, I’m really drawn to a more quaint area which happens to have some exceptional courses. The photos I’ve seen, especially Brora, look tremendous.

even with that Dornoch pass, it’s easily going to be twice the price of S.A and in the circumstances.. I won’t labour the point. But if I can get some positive noises from the clubs themselves (I’m definitely not going to screw them into the floor!) then yes, I’ll try and prebook/prepay some golf and leave some time in the schedule to play it by ear.

Re England..as a southerner it pains me to admit that the friendliest clubs and atmospheres are definitely in the north. The obvious area to recommend is Lancashire’s golf coast, and if you include Hoylake that’s three current Open rota courses and several other top 100 uk courses. Fairly sure they are geared up for international golfers, no direct experience. The other side of the country I’d recommend Northumberland in particular. They will have zero golf tourist expertise by comparison, but super friendly and half a dozen courses in or around the top 200 within 30 minutes of Berwick (the one on the border, not North Berwick ‘tis different)

[thecraw]

All you can do is ask the question. I agree that with "reduced facilities" clubs should certainly be looking at potentially offering a reduced green fee to compensate for the lack of said facilities. At present we don't even have access to toilet/washroom facilities never mind being able to buy food after your round. Changing shoes in a car park and being asked to leave straight after your round isn't what you pay for or expect when shelling out north of £100 for a round of golf. Covid 19 has a lot to answer for!

 

As a side note I see someone above mentioned Boat of Garten is now £75, that is eye watering money. Boat is good and in a stunning location but for me its not a £75 golf experience. Golf in Scotland needs a reality check I fear.

[milesgiles]

That reality check is now here for Scottish courses. All the name ones have been bumping prices 10% every year for the past 6 or 7 years. If they had wiggled a bit on price I’d have already booked, none have, so I’m going elsewhere.

[jonnymc44]

@scott_Donald mentioned in another thread that Royal Aberdeen and a few others might be/are offering a discount on visitor fees this summer, I recall 25% at RA. Check in with him which ones are on the list.

[scott_Donald]

I don't think there is a confirmed list, I just know what was sent to me in an email this week.

[thecraw]

Some clubs may be able to "ride it out" others may have to offer deals. I know Kingsbarns have said they're just going to stay shut all year rather than open to a reduced market. Shows the money they make from their already eyewatering £312 green fee.