I've been thinking about this idea for a while...I live in Scotland and am a member of Dunbar Golf Club in East Lothian (a fine links course not far from Muirfield, North Berwick, Gullane et al.) as well as Machrihanish Golf Club in Argyll on the remote Kintyre Peninsula (which I think is one of the great links courses in the world), and it occurs to me that perhaps there might be an appetite for a SoSH golfing pilgrimage to Scotland which I could perhaps help facilitate. I've organised trips like this before, and it'd be nice to give something back to some of the people who make this forum such a special place to me.
There are obviously many different forms a golf trip to Scotland can take, so I thought I'd create this topic as a way of gauging both general interest in the concept of a trip like this and also ideas about the type of itinerary different people might want to undertake. Different types of trips might be classified as follows:
1) The Whirlwind: Try and play as many great courses and tick off as many big names as possible - this can include any combination of Troon, Turnberry and maybe Prestwick in the west; Muirfield and maybe North Berwick plus Gullane No. 1 in the southeast; St. Andrews (Old plus maybe New and/or Castle courses) and Kingsbarns in Fife plus Carnoustie just to the north of Fife; Royal Dornoch, Castle Stuart and maybe Nairn in the north; maybe Royal Aberdeen, Trump International and Cruden Bay in the northeast. This type of internary involves a lot of travel, a lot of golf and not much else; I know from experience you can also get pretty exhausted trying to see as much of Scottish golf in one go as possible, but it can also be intensely rewarding.
2) The Regional: Instead of trying to see all of Scotland, base yourself in one or two locations and explore those one or two regions in greater depth. This could mean basing yourself in St. Andrews and play lesser-known gems like Elie, Crail, Lundin Links and Panmure in addition to the St. Andrews courses plus Kingsbarns and Carnoustie, or it could mean visiting a more remote location like Kintyre and playing Machrihanish and Machrihanish Dunes several times each plus the sporty but beautiful Dunaverty. This type of itinerary isn't one for the box-tickers, but I think a one- or two-station trip like this can offer a depth and richness of experience that The Whirlwind cannot, plus there's less travel involved and therefore more relaxed nights in the pub or hotel bar, etc.
3) The Competition: A variant of The Regional, but centered around an actual tournament. For example, every July - usually during the week of the Open Championship - there's a four-day open competition from Tuesday to Friday at the wonderfully quirky Cruden Bay in Aberdeenshire: you start with 36 holes of strokeplay qualifying on the Tuesday and Wednesday, then over the last two days there are three flights of matchplay for the top 16 scratch scores, top 16 net scores for low handicappers who haven't qualified for the scratch event, and top 16 net scores for high handicappers. If you keep winning you might get to play two rounds on the Thursday and two rounds on the Friday, but there are also consolation 18-hole strokeplay tournaments on both Thursday and Friday if you fail to qualify for the matchplay or get knocked out on the Thursday. This year's entry fee for the Cruden Bay event was £100; when you consider that a single round at Cruden Bay for non-members normally costs £100, and that you're guaranteed at least four competitive rounds for that price by entering the tournament, it's a pretty amazing deal. I played in the Cruden Bay event a few years ago and absolutely loved it, and you can book-end the event with trips to Royal Aberdeen, Murcar and/or Trump International (I even snuck away in the afternoon one day for a second round at Peterhead); there's also a similar event called the Carnegie Shield at Royal Dornoch (the final of which is actually taking place today) which you could use as a base from which to play courses like Brora, Golspie and Tain, as well as literally dozens of one-day strokeplay tournaments across the country over either 18 or 36 holes which you could work into a broader itinerary.
4) The Tourist: Less golf, more castles and whiskey distillery tours, etc. Not my cup of tea - or particular area of expertise - but if people want to spare some time away from the golf course and instead see some of non-golfing Scotland (e.g., have a day in Edinburgh), that can be arranged as well.
Obviously these types of trips aren't mutually exclusive - you can have a bit of each if that's what people might want. And much would depend upon how long the trip would be; obviously you can do more in two weeks than you can in one. In any case, the idea is that everyone would make their own way to Edinburgh or Glasgow airport and then meet up to travel together in rental cars (large or small) toward the first stop on the tour.
Anyway, if we were aiming for a 2016 trip, how many of you would be interested, and if so, a) what times of year you would be available, b) which type(s) of itinerary would interest you, c) what courses (if any) do you feel you'd absolutely need to play to make a trip like this worthwhile, and d) how important would it be to you that we keep costs down to make a trip like this possible? I really have no idea whether zero or fifty people might be seriously inclined to take a trip like this, but post your thoughts here and I'll collate everything to see where they take us.
There are obviously many different forms a golf trip to Scotland can take, so I thought I'd create this topic as a way of gauging both general interest in the concept of a trip like this and also ideas about the type of itinerary different people might want to undertake. Different types of trips might be classified as follows:
1) The Whirlwind: Try and play as many great courses and tick off as many big names as possible - this can include any combination of Troon, Turnberry and maybe Prestwick in the west; Muirfield and maybe North Berwick plus Gullane No. 1 in the southeast; St. Andrews (Old plus maybe New and/or Castle courses) and Kingsbarns in Fife plus Carnoustie just to the north of Fife; Royal Dornoch, Castle Stuart and maybe Nairn in the north; maybe Royal Aberdeen, Trump International and Cruden Bay in the northeast. This type of internary involves a lot of travel, a lot of golf and not much else; I know from experience you can also get pretty exhausted trying to see as much of Scottish golf in one go as possible, but it can also be intensely rewarding.
2) The Regional: Instead of trying to see all of Scotland, base yourself in one or two locations and explore those one or two regions in greater depth. This could mean basing yourself in St. Andrews and play lesser-known gems like Elie, Crail, Lundin Links and Panmure in addition to the St. Andrews courses plus Kingsbarns and Carnoustie, or it could mean visiting a more remote location like Kintyre and playing Machrihanish and Machrihanish Dunes several times each plus the sporty but beautiful Dunaverty. This type of itinerary isn't one for the box-tickers, but I think a one- or two-station trip like this can offer a depth and richness of experience that The Whirlwind cannot, plus there's less travel involved and therefore more relaxed nights in the pub or hotel bar, etc.
3) The Competition: A variant of The Regional, but centered around an actual tournament. For example, every July - usually during the week of the Open Championship - there's a four-day open competition from Tuesday to Friday at the wonderfully quirky Cruden Bay in Aberdeenshire: you start with 36 holes of strokeplay qualifying on the Tuesday and Wednesday, then over the last two days there are three flights of matchplay for the top 16 scratch scores, top 16 net scores for low handicappers who haven't qualified for the scratch event, and top 16 net scores for high handicappers. If you keep winning you might get to play two rounds on the Thursday and two rounds on the Friday, but there are also consolation 18-hole strokeplay tournaments on both Thursday and Friday if you fail to qualify for the matchplay or get knocked out on the Thursday. This year's entry fee for the Cruden Bay event was £100; when you consider that a single round at Cruden Bay for non-members normally costs £100, and that you're guaranteed at least four competitive rounds for that price by entering the tournament, it's a pretty amazing deal. I played in the Cruden Bay event a few years ago and absolutely loved it, and you can book-end the event with trips to Royal Aberdeen, Murcar and/or Trump International (I even snuck away in the afternoon one day for a second round at Peterhead); there's also a similar event called the Carnegie Shield at Royal Dornoch (the final of which is actually taking place today) which you could use as a base from which to play courses like Brora, Golspie and Tain, as well as literally dozens of one-day strokeplay tournaments across the country over either 18 or 36 holes which you could work into a broader itinerary.
4) The Tourist: Less golf, more castles and whiskey distillery tours, etc. Not my cup of tea - or particular area of expertise - but if people want to spare some time away from the golf course and instead see some of non-golfing Scotland (e.g., have a day in Edinburgh), that can be arranged as well.
Obviously these types of trips aren't mutually exclusive - you can have a bit of each if that's what people might want. And much would depend upon how long the trip would be; obviously you can do more in two weeks than you can in one. In any case, the idea is that everyone would make their own way to Edinburgh or Glasgow airport and then meet up to travel together in rental cars (large or small) toward the first stop on the tour.
Anyway, if we were aiming for a 2016 trip, how many of you would be interested, and if so, a) what times of year you would be available, b) which type(s) of itinerary would interest you, c) what courses (if any) do you feel you'd absolutely need to play to make a trip like this worthwhile, and d) how important would it be to you that we keep costs down to make a trip like this possible? I really have no idea whether zero or fifty people might be seriously inclined to take a trip like this, but post your thoughts here and I'll collate everything to see where they take us.