Back home from Scotland golf trip

[apex53]

Returned home from Scotland after 7 day trip... In a word: AWESOME! Played, in order, Prestwick, Royal Troon (Championship and Portland), St. Andrews Old and Jubilee, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns. Toughest course was Carnoustie, absolutely brutal and demanding course and if I could go play it again everyday for a week I would... A great course, just a very tough test of golf... Old Course was awesome, the day we played it rained all day with a 20 mph wind... Great "Open Championship" conditions... Royal Troon was incredible... Kingsbarns was by far the most scenic course of the trip... Almost every hole has a view of the North Sea... Caddies were great and, IMO, a must... A once in a lifetime trip for me, I would hope that my friends here on The Sand Trap forum get an opportunity to experience something like it... Scotland, the Scottish people, and the golf courses are outstanding.

[David in FL]

Wow, what a trip.

I'd like to do it someday.......maybe with a tour of one or two distilleries thrown in, just to ward off the chill from those cold Scottish winds!

Did you go as part of a group, or by yourself? Wives/girlfriends, or stag. Did you book it through a golf travel specialist or just do it all yourself? Any insight and lessons learned that would help others who'd like to do the same type of trip?

[apex53]

we had a group of 12 guys that went on the trip... we booked it through a company called Pioneer Golf... they did a great job, everything went very smoothly... we had a driver for the week and a bus/van that we traveled in... our driver picked us up at the airport and handled everything from beer runs to luggage... we all chipped in for a nice tip for him at the end of the week... hotels were great... the hotel where we stayed at Troon was 5 minutes from the golf course... in St. Andrews we stayed at the Rusacks Hotel just to the right of the 18th fairway... not a bad way to start the day by having breakfast and watch golfers tee off on #1 at the Old Course... I would definitely recommend using a guide to help get all the details setup... obviously there is a cost associated with it but it was worth it... on the flight to Scotland I sat next to a guy who was part of a group of 25 people from Ohio and they also used Pioneer Golf... it wasn't cheap by any means but we started planning it two years ago... I passed on a lot of of rounds of golf in the past couple of years to help fund the Scotland trip and it was more than worth it... Hope this helps!

[BirdIsTheWord]

Sweet. But don't say "once in a lifetime", you'll be back. In competition, eh? Right??

[apex53]

Ha! I wish that were the case

[enarhi]

Sounds incredible....did a similar trip a couple years back with family, played Kingsbarns and Carnoustie out of the ones you mentioned...Kingsbarns is amaaazing, ey?

[Iowa Hawkeye]

I'd love to make that trip around Ireland. I know Scotland has the history and I'd love to take that trip too, but Ireland is my homeland so that would be first.

Hopefully I'll be able to do both some day.

[apex53]

Definitely some great golf courses in Ireland... That would be a fantastic trip as well!!!

Kingbarns is such a cool course... One of my friends that went on the trip has also been to Bandon and said that Bandon reminded him a lot of Kingsbarns... Bandon trip is my next goal!