2025 Scotland - first timer father/son trip report

[McMunch]

Excellent. Your pictures brought back many memories. How lucky to hook up with some members. Sorry you didn't play well.

 

Love Panmure. Was last there in '23 and think the Hogan sign is new since then.

In June '26 we have a 36 hole day already booked- Panmure/ Carnoustie Championship Course. We take caddies that day because we're old and we take the Carnoustie caddies to Panmure. Had my first Irn-Bru at the Carnoustie halfway house when I mentioned to my caddie that I never had one.. Orange color and tastes like bubble gum. 

 

You're going to love Crail.  

[scott_Donald]

The panmure pics have got me wanting to put my name down for the away match there….

 

i never have done it as the panmure lot love to have a drink! 

[Yoshifan151]

Yesterday afternoon we got out at Crail Balcomie. The wind was just insane, probably blowing 25-30 the entire time. Wedge shots into crosswind would blow 90 degrees from the initial trajectory which reminded me of the video game spin you could get on the old TW PGA Tour games. Golfers were routinely playing from parallel holes with how much the wind would move the ball over lol. We got paired with a lovely twosome who were up from southeast England for a week playing a few rounds.

The course was very fun and unique, with perhaps the craziest routing next to Elie so far, with a majority of the holes intertwining with each other, and the last 4 on a separate area of the property about a 200 yard walk along the coast. Green complexes had some large humps and slopes on holes, but nothing super crazy like a few of the other tracks. They rolled very nicely as well and the entire course played firm and quick.

Play was honestly not too bad, I struck the ball considerably better than Elie and Panmure, but had troubles getting the ball into the hole so score wasn't good. Trying to gauge how much the wind would affect wedge shots and even putts was tough, sometimes you play for some and it doesn't react, and vice versa. Some good bird looks but couldn't get em to drop. Unfortunately my allergies were terrible as well so I was a zombie after the round. Only so much you can really do so you just gotta have fun and enjoy the course architecture and views, which we did. 41/40 for an 81.

Today is Carnoustie with about half the wind, and my allergies are still lingering a bit but hopefully I have enough energy to get through the day as this will be a real test of golf. Of course we didn't get the 2 day ballot for Monday so we'll pit stop to get our singles entries in and try for the Tuesday 2 day.

 

1 tee

 

1 approach

 

1 green

 

2 tee

 

2 approach

 

2 approach/green

 

3 tee

 

3 green

 

4 tee

 

4 green

 

5 tee

 

5 approach/green

 

6 tee

 

7 tee

 

7 approach

 

8 tee

 

8 approach

 

8 green - shared with 11

 

9 tee

 

9 approach

 

10 tee

 

10 approach

 

11 tee

 

11 approach

 

11 green

 

12 tee

 

12 approach

 

12 green

 

13 tee

 

13 green

 

14 tee

 

15 tee

 

15 approach

 

16 tee

16 green

 

 

17 tee

 

17 approach

 

18 tee

 

18 green

[hammergolf]

9 hours ago, Yoshifan151 said:

Yesterday afternoon we got out at Crail Balcomie. The wind was just insane, probably blowing 25-30 the entire time. Wedge shots into crosswind would blow 90 degrees from the initial trajectory which reminded me of the video game spin you could get on the old TW PGA Tour games. Golfers were routinely playing from parallel holes with how much the wind would move the ball over lol. We got paired with a lovely twosome who were up from southeast England for a week playing a few rounds.

The course was very fun and unique, with perhaps the craziest routing next to Elie so far, with a majority of the holes intertwining with each other, and the last 4 on a separate area of the property about a 200 yard walk along the coast. Green complexes had some large humps and slopes on holes, but nothing super crazy like a few of the other tracks. They rolled very nicely as well and the entire course played firm and quick.

Play was honestly not too bad, I struck the ball considerably better than Elie and Panmure, but had troubles getting the ball into the hole so score wasn't good. Trying to gauge how much the wind would affect wedge shots and even putts was tough, sometimes you play for some and it doesn't react, and vice versa. Some good bird looks but couldn't get em to drop. Unfortunately my allergies were terrible as well so I was a zombie after the round. Only so much you can really do so you just gotta have fun and enjoy the course architecture and views, which we did. 41/40 for an 81.

Today is Carnoustie with about half the wind, and my allergies are still lingering a bit but hopefully I have enough energy to get through the day as this will be a real test of golf. Of course we didn't get the 2 day ballot for Monday so we'll pit stop to get our singles entries in and try for the Tuesday 2 day.

 

1 tee

 

1 approach

 

1 green

 

2 tee

 

2 approach

 

2 approach/green

 

3 tee

 

3 green

 

4 tee

 

4 green

 

5 tee

 

5 approach/green

 

6 tee

 

7 tee

 

7 approach

 

8 tee

 

8 approach

 

8 green - shared with 11

 

9 tee

 

9 approach

 

10 tee

 

10 approach

 

11 tee

 

11 approach

 

11 green

 

12 tee

 

12 approach

 

12 green

 

13 tee

 

13 green

 

14 tee

 

15 tee

 

15 approach

 

16 tee

16 green

 

 

17 tee

 

17 approach

 

18 tee

 

18 green

You got much better weather than the last time we played it. What direction was the wind blowing? We had a SW wind last time and it made the par 3s play tough! Hit 3wd on #6, #13 and 18. #5 was downwind and one guy in our group hit his drive just short of the green. It was howling! Fingers crossed you can get the ballot before you leave.

Edited June 29 by hammergolf

[Yoshifan151]

46 minutes ago, hammergolf said:

You got much better weather than the last time we played it. What direction was the wind blowing? We had a SW wind last time and it made the par 3s play tough! Hit 3wd on #6, #13 and 18. #5 was downwind and one guy in our group hit his drive just short of the green. It was howling! Fingers crossed you can get the ballot before you leave.

So by SW you mean blowing towards that way? I think it's normally referred to where the wind comes from? Lol anyway we had the opposite of you, it was coming from the southwest, pretty much blowing face on into the range. So no par 3s into the wind, just crosswind. 4 and 5 were absolutely painful though, drives right into it and approaches blowing directly to the water.

So TOC ballot, we failed 8 times, no luck for tomorrow or Tuesday, just terrible. I'm 27 and dad is 14 for singles tomorrow, maybe he will get on but we'll see. Either way this trip has been absolutely amazing so far, if we get on it'll be icing on the cake.

[hammergolf]

23 minutes ago, Yoshifan151 said:

So by SW you mean blowing towards that way? I think it's normally referred to where the wind comes from? Lol anyway we had the opposite of you, it was coming from the southwest, pretty much blowing face on into the range. So no par 3s into the wind, just crosswind. 4 and 5 were absolutely painful though, drives right into it and approaches blowing directly to the water.

So TOC ballot, we failed 8 times, no luck for tomorrow or Tuesday, just terrible. I'm 27 and dad is 14 for singles tomorrow, maybe he will get on but we'll see. Either way this trip has been absolutely amazing so far, if we get on it'll be icing on the cake.

At 27 and 14 hopefully you have a chance. Fingers crossed you get it. Would be a great way to finish the trip! Sounds like your wind was the exact opposite of ours. Man playing 4 and 5 into and left to right wind isn’t much fun…  

[Yoshifan151]

We had an amazing day today at Carnoustie. Weather was great, about 15-20 mph wind in our face on the first 7 holes, calming down a bit then picking back up on 14 until the end. It was very sunny as well and got nice and warm at the turn.

My dad planned to take a buggie/cart which requires a caddie, but he ended up just walking and kept the caddie. After feeling so dead yesterday he had me take the caddie instead. The caddie was awesome, gave some great tips on club selection I wouldn't have thought of and great reads as well. Very calm as well so it was hard to even get mad after a bad shot. Ask for Neil who works for the grounds team, I can't recommend him enough!

The course was awesome, tough but fair. It's similar to Panmure in the sense that it's quite straightforward and not super tricky, what you see is what you get. The rough wasn't super crazy so you could find and play wayward balls. These were the truest rolling greens, not quite as fast as some of the others but they rolled so pure. They were also one of the most receptive to hit into, and not rock hard like many others.

Play was a tale of 2 nines. Off the tee was excellent all day, only 1 wayward shot with 7W on hole 3. Front 9 approaches I wasn't fully closing my face so shots were missing front right. Some great up and downs but some bogeys. I ended up with a great par on 6 after being in the burn and hitting my 3rd out of it to the right greenside. Back 9 I started with a good bird on 10, solid 2 putt pars on 11-16, a tough 3 putt bogey from short front on 17 and a clean 2 putt par on 18. The back 9 was the most solid golf I played the entire trip. 41/34 for a nice 75. This was also the only course I didn't play off the back tees because I had no idea how it was going to go considering I was still pretty dead the entire morning lol. Did the yellows at ~6600 par 70 vs whites at ~7000 par 72.

 

Again some pics refuse to upload for some stupid reason...

 

Hotel from 1 tee

 

1 tee

 

1 approach

 

1 green

 

2 tee

 

2 approach

 

3 tee

 

3 approach - hidden burn right before the green

 

4 tee

 

4 approach

 

4 approach/green - massive green shared with 14

 

5 tee

 

5 green

 

6 approach

 

Lucky lie in the burn! 

 

6 approach/green

 

6 green

 

7 tee

 

7 approach

 

7 green

 

8 tee

 

8 green

 

9 after tee

 

9 approach

 

9 green

 

10 tee

 

10 approach

 

10 green

 

11 tee

 

11 green

 

12 tee

 

12 approach

 

12 green - large hump splitting the green just left of the flag

 

13 tee

 

13 green

 

14 tee

 

14 approach

 

14 green

 

15 tee

 

15 green - pic won't upload but the green dips down just before, so it sits below the fairway quite a bit

 

16 tee

 

16 green

 

17 tee

 

17 landing zone

 

17 approach

 

18 tee

 

18 approach

 

18 green

Edited June 30 by Yoshifan151

[scott_Donald]

Is pic one not the hotel? I thought carnoistie had a few clubs sharing the course….

[tad950]

1 hour ago, scott_Donald said:

Is pic one not the hotel? I thought carnoistie had a few clubs sharing the course….

As I recall, the brown structure on the right, in the last pic, is the pro shop/clubhouse.

[hammergolf]

4 hours ago, Yoshifan151 said:

We had an amazing day today at Carnoustie. Weather was great, about 15-20 mph wind in our face on the first 7 holes, calming down a bit then picking back up on 14 until the end. It was very sunny as well and got nice and warm at the turn.

My dad planned to take a buggie/cart which requires a caddie, but he ended up just walking and kept the caddie. After feeling so dead yesterday he had me take the caddie instead. The caddie was awesome, gave some great tips on club selection I wouldn't have thought of and great reads as well. Very calm as well so it was hard to even get mad after a bad shot. Ask for Neil who works for the grounds team, I can't recommend him enough!

The course was awesome, tough but fair. It's similar to Panmure in the sense that it's quite straightforward and not super tricky, what you see is what you get. The rough wasn't super crazy so you could find and play wayward balls. These were the truest rolling greens, not quite as fast as some of the others but they rolled so pure. They were also one of the most receptive to hit into, and not rock hard like many others.

Play was a tale of 2 nines. Off the tee was excellent all day, only 1 wayward shot with 7W on hole 3. Front 9 approaches I wasn't fully closing my face so shots were missing front right. Some great up and downs but some bogeys. I ended up with a great par on 6 after being in the burn and hitting my 3rd out of it to the right greenside. Back 9 I started with a good bird on 10, solid 2 putt pars on 11-16, a tough 3 putt bogey from short front on 17 and a clean 2 putt par on 18. The back 9 was the most solid golf I played the entire trip. 41/34 for a nice 75. This was also the only course I didn't play off the back tees because I had no idea how it was going to go considering I was still pretty dead the entire morning lol. Did the yellows at ~6600 par 70 vs whites at ~7000 par 72.

 

Again some pics refuse to upload for some stupid reason...

 

Clubhouse from 1 tee

 

1 tee

 

1 approach

 

1 green

 

2 tee

 

2 approach

 

3 tee

 

3 approach - hidden burn right before the green

 

4 tee

 

4 approach

 

4 approach/green - massive green shared with 14

 

5 tee

 

5 green

 

6 approach

 

Lucky lie in the burn! 

 

6 approach/green

 

6 green

 

7 tee

 

7 approach

 

7 green

 

8 tee

 

8 green

 

9 after tee

 

9 approach

 

9 green

 

10 tee

 

10 approach

 

10 green

 

11 tee

 

11 green

 

12 tee

 

12 approach

 

12 green - large hump splitting the green just left of the flag

 

13 tee

 

13 green

 

14 tee

 

14 approach

 

14 green

 

15 tee

 

15 green - pic won't upload but the green dips down just before, so it sits below the fairway quite a bit

 

16 tee

 

16 green

 

17 tee

 

17 landing zone

 

17 approach

 

18 tee

 

18 approach

 

18 green

That’s a great round there! 15, 16, 17, and 18 are a tough finish. Birdie on #10 is really good!

[Yoshifan151]

8 hours ago, scott_Donald said:

Is pic one not the hotel? I thought carnoistie had a few clubs sharing the course….

Whoops yes that's the hotel, @tad950 is correct.

[Yoshifan151]

6 hours ago, hammergolf said:

That’s a great round there! 15, 16, 17, and 18 are a tough finish. Birdie on #10 is really good!

Yeah those are some tricky finishing holes, especially 14 playing as a long par 4 from the yellows vs a short par 5 from the whites.

[McMunch]

Yes. The White Building is the hotel. The brown building right is the proshop/ practice facility (no range)

The Golf Clubs are all across the street from the hotel. I think there are 3. One of our caddies was a member and we went there for lunch.

Edited June 30 by McMunch

[Yoshifan151]

They do have simulator bays inside connected to the pro shop to warm up on, I want to say they were GCHawk? For sure an overhead Foresight LM but not 100% sure on their models. They let you use these 30 min prior to your tee time, looked like they had 6 or so bays as well.

[Yoshifan151]

Well it's official, we're not getting on TOC. My dad waited all day from 8-5:30 and got down to #3, and we both got waitlisted pretty high for tomorrow. That's 0/8 on the 2 day ballot and 0/12 for the singles ballot, waitlisted every time for a combined 0/20, absolutely trash. I guess you gotta pay big bucks to some authorized clown operator if you really want to get on because even with 8 days!!! of trying there's garbage odds. Oh well, at least the rest of the trip was more incredible than I could've imagined. It's just a shame to have the allure of TOC fade away, why bother when you can just book other incredible tracks online and not gamble with terrible odds.

[italianstallion]

3 minutes ago, Yoshifan151 said:

Well it's official, we're not getting on TOC. My dad waited all day from 8-5:30 and got down to #3, and we both got waitlisted pretty high for tomorrow. That's 0/8 on the 2 day ballot and 0/12 for the singles ballot, waitlisted every time for a combined 0/20, absolutely trash. I guess you gotta pay big bucks to some authorized clown operator if you really want to get on because even with 8 days!!! of trying there's garbage odds. Oh well, at least the rest of the trip was more incredible than I could've imagined. It's just a shame to have the allure of TOC fade away, why bother when you can just book other incredible tracks online and not gamble with terrible odds.

That’s so unfortunate even #14 didn’t get out for you today. The rest of your trip has been absolutely incredible so don’t get too down about it. Someday you’ll have to come back and pay the tour operators and check it off the list, but for now you’ve had enough spectacular golf to hold you over. 

[jatrain]

@Yoshifan151  Since you played both, thoughts on Carnoustie vs New Course?   I currently have an empty day where I plan on trying for the Old Course but as we know the chances of that are minuscule.  Original plan was to then try to play the New, but I have been thinking about trying to get on Carnoustie.

 

If you had a choice between the two, is there one you’d significantly favor over the other? 
 

Thanks!

[hammergolf]

1 hour ago, Yoshifan151 said:

Well it's official, we're not getting on TOC. My dad waited all day from 8-5:30 and got down to #3, and we both got waitlisted pretty high for tomorrow. That's 0/8 on the 2 day ballot and 0/12 for the singles ballot, waitlisted every time for a combined 0/20, absolutely trash. I guess you gotta pay big bucks to some authorized clown operator if you really want to get on because even with 8 days!!! of trying there's garbage odds. Oh well, at least the rest of the trip was more incredible than I could've imagined. It's just a shame to have the allure of TOC fade away, why bother when you can just book other incredible tracks online and not gamble with terrible odds.

Man that SUCKS! Hopefully enough people complain and they change the process. I would send an email to them and let them know how ridiculous the new process is. The new process allows people to enter on a whim who just happen to be in town and DON’T EVEN HAVE THEIR GOLF CLUBS!!!! They need to revert back to the old que system so people who are really dedicated to playing and make the sacrifice, to achieve it. I can’t prove this, but it certainly looks like they are selling more times to providers now. If you look at the ballot results there are very few open ballot times. In the past half of the times were allocated to the 48hr ballot. I feel for you brother. 

[hammergolf]

2 hours ago, Yoshifan151 said:

Well it's official, we're not getting on TOC. My dad waited all day from 8-5:30 and got down to #3, and we both got waitlisted pretty high for tomorrow. That's 0/8 on the 2 day ballot and 0/12 for the singles ballot, waitlisted every time for a combined 0/20, absolutely trash. I guess you gotta pay big bucks to some authorized clown operator if you really want to get on because even with 8 days!!! of trying there's garbage odds. Oh well, at least the rest of the trip was more incredible than I could've imagined. It's just a shame to have the allure of TOC fade away, why bother when you can just book other incredible tracks online and not gamble with terrible odds.

I actually just looked at the ballot results for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Of the 69 tee time available each day only 9 tee times were allocated to Open ballot requests! So barely over 10% of the tee times are being given to Open ballot entries. That number is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than what it was in the past. They used to select twosomes from the ballot and keep the other two spots open for walk up. What they are doing now is combining twosomes from the ballot to make a foursome so the number of single slots are essentially in the single digits. Not only does this limit the amount of tee times that get allocated to groups from the ballot, but it also makes the single process very limited. There is absolutely no way that is RANDOM!!! I feel for all of you who have not had the chance to play it. 

[Messma]

1 hour ago, jatrain said:

@Yoshifan151  Since you played both, thoughts on Carnoustie vs New Course?   I currently have an empty day where I plan on trying for the Old Course but as we know the chances of that are minuscule.  Original plan was to then try to play the New, but I have been thinking about trying to get on Carnoustie.

 

If you had a choice between the two, is there one you’d significantly favor over the other? 
 

Thanks!

I’ll go ahead and chime in here since I played both less than a month ago. While I really like the New Course, I would definitely pick Carnoustie. I feel like Carnoustie is getting overlooked a little considering all of the strong options in the area. I left Carnoustie considering it to be a bucket list course, which I did not necessarily think of it that way going into the round. It is a fantastic course and, imo, second to only the old course in that area. 

[Yoshifan151]

1 hour ago, jatrain said:

@Yoshifan151  Since you played both, thoughts on Carnoustie vs New Course?   I currently have an empty day where I plan on trying for the Old Course but as we know the chances of that are minuscule.  Original plan was to then try to play the New, but I have been thinking about trying to get on Carnoustie.

 

If you had a choice between the two, is there one you’d significantly favor over the other? 
 

Thanks!

All things considered, I'd go with Carnoustie, but it's not by a massive margin or anything. The New course was very fun and had some nice scenic holes, especially 9. It also had some more Scottish quirkiness to it compared to Carnoustie. But Carnoustie is a great test of golf, which I do enjoy as a 2 cap, and a lot of history. You really can't go wrong with either. Also the price difference is a big one, £150 for the New vs like £310 for Carnoustie. Not sure how that may come into play for you.

Edited June 30 by Yoshifan151
Typo

[Yoshifan151]

1 hour ago, hammergolf said:

Man that SUCKS! Hopefully enough people complain and they change the process. I would send an email to them and let them know how ridiculous the new process is. The new process allows people to enter on a whim who just happen to be in town and DON’T EVEN HAVE THEIR GOLF CLUBS!!!! They need to revert back to the old que system so people who are really dedicated to playing and make the sacrifice, to achieve it. I can’t prove this, but it certainly looks like they are selling more times to providers now. If you look at the ballot results there are very few open ballot times. In the past half of the times were allocated to the 48hr ballot. I feel for you brother. 

 

55 minutes ago, hammergolf said:

I actually just looked at the ballot results for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Of the 69 tee time available each day only 9 tee times were allocated to Open ballot requests! So barely over 10% of the tee times are being given to Open ballot entries. That number is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than what it was in the past. They used to select twosomes from the ballot and keep the other two spots open for walk up. What they are doing now is combining twosomes from the ballot to make a foursome so the number of single slots are essentially in the single digits. Not only does this limit the amount of tee times that get allocated to groups from the ballot, but it also makes the single process very limited. There is absolutely no way that is RANDOM!!! I feel for all of you who have not had the chance to play it. 

Yeah I may send them an email, especially like you said the option for the die hard golfer is no more, anyone can apply and just rent clubs. I can't remember who in the thread said they talked to an employee that said rental club usage was through the roof. I just thought at least one of us would've made it on with 20 separate attempts across 8 days (not including the advanced lottery from last year as well).

[scott_Donald]

9 hours ago, Yoshifan151 said:

They do have simulator bays inside connected to the pro shop to warm up on, I want to say they were GCHawk? For sure an overhead Foresight LM but not 100% sure on their models. They let you use these 30 min prior to your tee time, looked like they had 6 or so bays as well.

 

we are about to get planning done fro similar at RAGC. all the old buddy duddies won't let us have a full range so this seems to be the next best things... I usually hit at the net if I have time and some chips and putts but so used to just teeing off cold and duffing my first shot!

[buckI]

2 hours ago, Messma said:

I’ll go ahead and chime in here since I played both less than a month ago. While I really like the New Course, I would definitely pick Carnoustie. I feel like Carnoustie is getting overlooked a little considering all of the strong options in the area. I left Carnoustie considering it to be a bucket list course, which I did not necessarily think of it that way going into the round. It is a fantastic course and, imo, second to only the old course in that area. 

I will pile on to this and agree on Carnoustie over New as did @Messma.   Great layout and even though we played the last four holes in heavy wind (into us!) and a downpour I thoroughly enjoyed the course and can not wait for another crack at it.    I will say it was the hardest course to deal with on booking.    Either way you will enjoy the experience.

[jatrain]

6 hours ago, Yoshifan151 said:

All things considered, I'd go with Carnoustie, but it's not by a massive margin or anything. The New course was very fun and had some nice scenic holes, especially 9. It also had some more Scottish quirkiness to it compared to Carnoustie. But Carnoustie is a great test of golf, which I do enjoy as a 2 cap, and a lot of history. You really can't go wrong with either. Also the price difference is a big one, £150 for the New vs like £310 for Carnoustie. Not sure how that may come into play for you.

Thanks to you, @Messma, and @buckI for the replies.  The biggest thing for me is that on trips like this I want to have fun and as a 8 wasn’t sure if I’d get beat up too much.  The price difference does push me over my (arbitrary) budget, which isn’t really that big deal of as I planned to do it anyway if I got on the Old Course.  The New does have a draw for me as I’ve heard good things how it is reminiscent of the Old Course and I didn’t get to play it on my trip last year (closed all week for a Club event).

 

I’ll probably just leave it up to the golf gods and if I can make it work try to get a last minute spot on Carnoustie as a nice consolation prize to the Old, if that doesn’t work go with the original plan of the New.  Can’t go wrong anyways. 
 

Any stand out food/drinks spots you found up in the Dornoch area?

 

Thanks!

[tad950]

10 hours ago, Yoshifan151 said:

Well it's official, we're not getting on TOC. My dad waited all day from 8-5:30 and got down to #3, and we both got waitlisted pretty high for tomorrow. That's 0/8 on the 2 day ballot and 0/12 for the singles ballot, waitlisted every time for a combined 0/20, absolutely trash. I guess you gotta pay big bucks to some authorized clown operator if you really want to get on because even with 8 days!!! of trying there's garbage odds. Oh well, at least the rest of the trip was more incredible than I could've imagined. It's just a shame to have the allure of TOC fade away, why bother when you can just book other incredible tracks online and not gamble with terrible odds.

Very disappointing. But you and your Dad had an incredible trip. Maybe enter the fall lottery every year, and plan your next trip to Scotland around that. That’s what I do with Masters tickets. Unfortunately I’m 0 for several decades with those. But I’m 1 for 1 with The Old Course fall lottery. 

 

 

 

 

 

[TBD203]

North Berwick yesterday was incredible. Blue bird day. Fresh off the plane I only hit two serviceable drives all day, but wedges and putter worked well enough to scramble to an 88. We’ll take it. 36 at Muirfield today, so naturally I’m in a suit and tie having full Scottish breakfast at the Marine before we head over! 

[Yoshifan151]

2 hours ago, jatrain said:

Thanks to you, @Messma, and @buckI for the replies.  The biggest thing for me is that on trips like this I want to have fun and as a 8 wasn’t sure if I’d get beat up too much.  The price difference does push me over my (arbitrary) budget, which isn’t really that big deal of as I planned to do it anyway if I got on the Old Course.  The New does have a draw for me as I’ve heard good things how it is reminiscent of the Old Course and I didn’t get to play it on my trip last year (closed all week for a Club event).

 

I’ll probably just leave it up to the golf gods and if I can make it work try to get a last minute spot on Carnoustie as a nice consolation prize to the Old, if that doesn’t work go with the original plan of the New.  Can’t go wrong anyways. 
 

Any stand out food/drinks spots you found up in the Dornoch area?

 

Thanks!

You'll be good as an 8. My dad is a 15 and even he said it was not nearly as bad as he thought,  as people commonly call it Carnastie.

As for food up there, we ate at Royal Dornoch, and Mei's Food and The Trawler both in Golspie. All 3 were great and easy recommendations.

[hammergolf]

17 hours ago, jatrain said:

@Yoshifan151  Since you played both, thoughts on Carnoustie vs New Course?   I currently have an empty day where I plan on trying for the Old Course but as we know the chances of that are minuscule.  Original plan was to then try to play the New, but I have been thinking about trying to get on Carnoustie.

 

If you had a choice between the two, is there one you’d significantly favor over the other? 
 

Thanks!

They are both good choices, however I would give the edge to Carnoustie. It gets a bad rap as being brutally tough, but it’s actually very playable. Like any course there, they show their teeth when the wind picks up. 

[McMunch]

10 minutes ago, hammergolf said:

They are both good choices, however I would give the edge to Carnoustie. It gets a bad rap as being brutally tough, but it’s actually very playable. Like any course there, they show their teeth when the wind picks up. 

 

Thought the same about Carnoustie Championship. Difficult in spots but very playable overall. The last 4 holes are tricky especially if you're a little tired. Played it only once on a calm day and the caddies kept telling us stories about what happens when the wind is up.

 

For our trip next June it was one of the harder tee times to get. Pricy as well at $360 per golfer but its a bucket list course that we all want to play again so biting the bullet- again.