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July 2019 - Scotland Wedding/Golf Trip Report (lots of pics)


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This will be super lengthy, will take multiple posts, and I might jump around some. Plenty of golf, but a lot of non golf, too. Will also add photos. Feel free to ask any questions as well. Hope you all enjoy.

 

**Planning/Scheduling**

This trip was over a year in the making. What had originally started out as a normal vacation to Scotland morphed into an elopement/honeymoon/vacation for us. We had never been to Scotland, so we were sort of winging this whole trip. The first idea that we (read: I) came up with was to get married on the Old Course on a Sunday when it's open to the public. She was totally on board and this was the original plan, until we got to thinking about how much of a crapshoot the weather could be. It would have been awful to plan to get married by the Swilcan Bridge only to have it be monsooning that day. So after searching our google machines, we found the perfect spot for us near Aberdeen in Peterhead at the Buchan Ness Lighthouse. This place is right on the North Sea and is about a 10 minute drive to Cruden Bay. We could get married outside and if the weather was bad, we had an indoor space, just in case.

 

Once we squared away the wedding location, we figured out our locations for the rest of the trip. This wasn't too much of a hassle as we sort of knew where we wanted to be. We arrive into EDI on Sunday morning the 14th, so we chose Dundee to stay in that first night. It wasn't quite a halfway point, but was close enough. I think it's the 4th largest city in Scotland, so it seemed like it would be a cool spot for a night. We found an AirBnB there. The next few days (Mon-Wed) would be spent at the wedding location in the cottage next to the lighthouse up in Peterhead. For the next leg of the trip we decided we wanted to be in St. Andrews. For Thursday through Sunday night, we found an AirBnB on North Street. Seemed like a good spot, private apartment, centrally located, and appeared to be a short walk to The Old Course. It checked all of the boxes. Then for the last 4 days of the trip, we wanted to be in Edinburgh. We found an AirBnB apartment on Lawnmarket St. that looked really neat. It was at a place called The King's Chamber at Riddle's Court that is near the top of The Royal Mile. I think there used to be Royal parties in this apartment back in the day. Anyway, it was in Old Town Edinburgh and seemed perfect. (To be clear, we decided on locations well in advance. We booked the lighthouse in late 2018, but we didn't actually book our AirBnB's until around March 2019. I'm not sure how much that limited our options, but there seemed to be plenty of availability.)

 

Now that we knew where we were going to stay, it was time to start figuring out where I wanted to play golf! I am a very lucky man and there are many, many reasons I married this woman. One of the many reasons is that she does not care that I play golf and she encourages me to do so. I know quite a few people on this board and they can all attest to how great she is in regards to my golf and travel. She just wants me to be happy and that is all I can ask for. That's my FIGJAM moment. Ok, back to the golf scheduling. I've been obsessed with Scotland golf courses since thinking about this trip, so I have done nothing but check out course reviews and read anything/everything related to the subject. I read Golf in Scotland by Allan Ferguson, A Course Called Scotland by Tom Coyne, and searched the interwebz and GolfWRX incessantly. When the NLU guys did a trip there last summer, that made me become even more obsessed with golf in Scotland. I figured I would play one round near Aberdeen, 2-3 rounds in St. Andrews, and 1-2 rounds while in Edinburgh. Four to Five rounds seemed reasonable on a two week trip and I heard no complaints from the roommate.

 

Cruden Bay was a course that caught my eye right away. I think it was on Graylyn Loomis' course reviews site where I originally saw photos of it. I knew I wanted to play here and she told me I should play it on the morning of our wedding on 7/16 while she was getting ready for the big day. Sounds good to me! I booked this round back in October 2018. While in St. Andrews, I wanted to play The Old Course, Kingsbarns, and Carnoustie. Last August, I struck out on the advanced singles ballot for TOC, so I did not have a guaranteed tee time heading into this trip. The plan was to line up in the queue at 2am on the Friday and Saturday I'm there. I was able to snag a tee time for that Sunday 7/21 at Carnoustie. You can't just book online as a single, but I reached out to them in October to see what they had. They had nothing for me and told me to contact them in January to see what availability they had. So I fired off an email to them in January and they had an opening with another threesome. Boom, booked. Kingsbarns was easier to book as they had something for me in October, so I booked that for Monday 7/22. And for my last round of the trip, I knew I wanted to play North Berwick. I had seen and read enough to know this is the spot where I should end my golf journey. I made a tee time for Wednesday 7/24 back in October as well. So my golf schedule was set:

 

• Cruden Bay 7/16

• The Old Course 7/19 or 7/20

• Carnoustie 7/21

• Kingsbarns 7/22

• North Berwick 7/24

 

Outside of the wedding and golf, we had no set plans for the trip. We just like to do what we want, when we feel like it, so having a trip full of "plans" just isn't our jam.

 

A lot more coming soon.

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Very nice. Thx for sharing

Sounds like a great gal .... and a superb trip. I loved my time in Scotland in 2012 and also the Coyne book. Loved St. Andrew's, TOC, KB and Carnasty.

My wife and I golfed on our honeymoon (24 years ago) a few times on the RTJ Golf Trail in NW Florida. We'd rented a beach house right on the ocean in the Panhandle

Look forward to the pics and more info

My wife didn't come on my Scotland trip and now wants to go there

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**The Trip**

 

**Dundee** - We took the redeye flight from Dulles to Edinburgh. If you can splurge on direct flights, you should do it. It was actually an easy 7 hour flight for us from the east coast. We landed at 10:30am and were in our rental car by noon. Customs was surprisingly very efficient. The rental car place gave us a Nissan Qashqai (never heard of it but seemed like a Murano?) that was super roomy. It was only a 90ish minute drive to Dundee, so off we went. I'll just say this - driving on the left is dumb and I hate it. I didn't get us killed, so that was a bonus. Anyway, we made it up to Dundee, checked into our AirBnB, and went to check out the city. We actually really enjoyed ourselves there. We live in Washington, DC proper, so we are used to being able to walk everywhere. There were plenty of restaurants and bars within walking distance and it was a quaint little city. We found ourselves in a local pub watching the Wimbledon men's final AND the Cricket World Cup final. Most everyone was into the tennis, but we started chatting up a few of the folks watching the cricket. I know not a single thing about cricket, but it seemed enjoyable to watch with many adult beverages lol. When it ended in a tie, I asked the guys what happens next. None of them had any idea and they had never seen a tie before! Even listening a bit on the TV, I could tell the announcers weren't sure either. I had no idea a tie could be so rare in cricket. It seemed like it would be like having the Super Bowl and not knowing what to do if it ended up being tied after 4 quarters. We did some more bar hopping and didn't get cheated on our fun in Dundee.

 

**Peterhead** - Monday we headed up to Peterhead to get settled in at the lighthouse cottage. It was about 100 miles (2 hours) to get there. Once we saw the lighthouse and the views, our jaws dropped. The place was absolutely gorgeous. The cottage sits right on the edge of the North Sea. So scenic. It's a pretty secluded spot, too. We felt very good about our decision to get married there since we essentially picked it based on photos. We walked around the town some and just took everything in. You really do feel like you're on the edge of the world in this town.

 

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The view from our deck of Skerry Rock and the North Sea.

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Cruden Bay - I had an 8:30am tee time on Tuesday morning. I got there at about 8, got checked in, and met my caddie, George. I went out as a single, which was fine with me. The starter and my caddie were legit upset for me because of the heavy fog (or haar) that had consumed the course. They had only seen it that bad a handful of times. It didn't really matter to me as I was just excited to be there and the views were amazing even if I couldn't see more than 150 yards in front of me. I'm only a 17 cap, so I didn't have high hopes for scoring well on this trip as links golf is new to me. I struggled a bit on the front 9 and went out in 48. The highlight was making birdie on the 8th hole. It was playing about 230ish and I hit my driver (obv not a long hitter lol) to about 18 feet and two putted. I missed my putt by just a few inches on the left. It was funny because I walked off thinking I made par and didn't realize it was a par 4 until after the fact. I've never had an eagle before so that would have been cool. The back 9 went better for me as I made pars on 12, 14, and 15 for a 43. I was really happy with a 91 in my first round in Scotland. The course was so fun to play as there are elevated greens, blind shots, greens that sit in a bowl, etc. There are so many nuances and different types of shots that you can play here. It was just a lot of fun. The dunes are something else. The scale and size of them is hard to comprehend until you're there. The views on this course are absolutely stunning as well. The walk up to the 9th tee box is a beast, but the payoff is worth it. You can see the whole course and a lot of the coastline. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any of these views during my round, but everyone there told me to come back the next day if the weather was clearer, just to walk around and take photos. Below are some photos from my round. I didn't take a lot as the views just were not that clear. The last photo is pretty much how the day felt with the lack of visibility. It's still one of the most enjoyable golf courses I've ever played.

 

 

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Good stuff CJ :-)

Looks like a superfun rota!

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F.T.

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Bah! You call that fog? That's nothing. :D

 

Congrats and it sounds like you had a good trip. Looking forward to the other pictures.

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While I was playing golf, the roommate went into town to get her nails done and run some other errands. Our ceremony was at 4pm and the weather cooperated for the most part. It was still a bit cloudy, but the fog had mostly cleared, thankfully. And there was no rain! The ceremony was perfect. We had the registrar performing the service and we hired two photographers that doubled as our witnesses. It really was just us on this wedding adventure. We took a bunch of photos around the lighthouse but we also headed up to Slains Castle for more of a photo shoot. For those unfamiliar, this castle was the inspiration behind Bram Stoker's Dracula. The castle, fields, and cliffs made for some cool photos. Overall, it was the perfect day for us. This is just a sample photo from the day. We haven't gotten the final package yet, but we have loved what we've seen so far.

 

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Peterhead is not a very big town and there's not a lot to do. We did visit their local prison, which has turned into a museum with a tour. Back in the 80's the inmates took over the place and started a riot due to the awful living conditions. They took one of the guards hostage at knife point onto the roof. That same guard is still there today! He wrote a book about his experience and was selling copies of that. Just hearing the stories about what went down and then getting to shake the hand of the man who experienced it all was really cool. If I was in this area on a guy's trip, I'm pretty sure we'd just be playing golf at Cruden Bay, Royal Aberdeen, and Trump International. There's not much else up here outside of hiking and seeing some cool views of cliffs. Oh, but we did go back to Cruden Bay to check out the views and take photos. It was MUCH clearer than when I played golf. I couldn't see the water meet the beach in the fog. Here are some photos. You can see Slains Castle in the background of the first pic, way in the distance.

 

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Congrats on the permanent foursomes partner... no wait that sounds a bit dodgy...

Congrats on the full-time caddie... no wait that sounds patronizing to the missus...

Ach, nice golf course pics! :-)

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F.T.

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**St. Andrews**

 

Since I did not have a guaranteed Old Course tee time, I was researching beforehand about other options about how to get a tee time. I came across this site called Ballot Buddy. I think I probably saw someone on this forum post about it. Anyway, this guy who runs the site basically organizes folks trying to play TOC as singles and gets them to enter the 48 hour ballot together. He has a bunch of statistics on the website that show the best time to go, most busiest days for the ballot, least busy, etc. It's really good info. For a few months, I had email correspondence with a few people who I'd ultimately be entering the ballot with. One of the guys stepped up and entered the 4 of us. We realistically thought we had a maybe 10% shot at best at being successful. At 4:30pm on Wednesday, I checked the St Andrews app and saw that we were successful on the ballot and had a 12:50pm tee time on Friday! I was super pumped! This was also good because I really did not want to camp out at TOC at 2am. So at least coming into town, I knew I'd be playing TOC.

 

I cannot say enough about how much I love this town. Just stepping foot onto the grounds you know it's a special place. After we checked into our AirBnB, we walked over to the courses to check things out. I am pretty sure I could sit behind the 18th green and 1st tee box all day, every day. It is the best amphitheater I've seen at a golf course. There's a definite buzz and energy around that scene at all times. It's incredible.

 

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We explored the grounds a bit and walked around the New and Jubilee some. I'm pretty sure I had a perma-grin on my face the whole time. After we did that, we wanted to get some dinner. We headed over to Tailend and had a great meal there. Thankfully we didn't need a reservation, but it was pretty busy. Their fish and chips were awesome. I think the wife got a grilled halloumi crostini. (Side note: she's a vegetarian we we found that Scotland is surprisingly vegetarian friendly. It usually limits our options sometimes, but every restaurant we went to denoted their veggie options.)

 

On Friday morning at about 11, we headed back over to the course. I was fairly anxious and nervous and had zero desire to hit a golf ball to warm up. So we sat behind 1/18 and watched a bunch of groups tee off and finish up before I headed to the starter hut to pay. There were all kinds of tee shots that ranged from straight down the middle, to topped 100 yards, to being sprayed 75 yards left up the 18th fairway. This eased my concerns a bit, but all I was worried about was making contact. At about 12:30, I went down to pay, collected my swag bag, and hit some putts. This is also when I got to meet the rest of my group and my caddie, Martin. At last it was finally our tee time and this is when we realized this was actually happening. The weather was pretty perfect, with a 15mph steady breeze. Stepping up to the tee for the most benign first tee shot ever, on the most famous course in the world was definitely an experience I will always remember. It didn't hurt that I ripped one down the left side of the fairway about 245. It left me about 100 to the flag. I got on and two-putted from 60 feet for par! This would set the tone for the day for me. I had no expectations for score or anything but was able to go out in 44 and came back in at 43 for an 87. My best round ever coming into the trip was an 86, so this had me pretty excited. I only made a mess of two holes as I made double on the 3rd with a three putt and I tripled the road hole. On 17, I pulled my tee shot left and was on the edge of the 2nd fairway. I hit a 7 iron up back into play about 90 yards out in the first cut on the left. Then I caught a bit of a flyer that landed hole high, but bounced over the road, short of the wall. With a crowd gathered around, I put the ball behind my back foot and drilled a wedge into the side of the hill that popped up onto the green and went past the hole about 12 feet or so. It was a pretty awesome shot, all things considered. I promptly 3 putted from there, lol. One guy walking with his dog yelled out that he thought I would flop it onto the green. Riiiiiggghhhttt. Not enough cushion under the ball for my skill level. On 18, I hit another perfect drive. I pulled my approach shot (read: it didn't cut) and hit the left side of the green and then 2 putted from about 100 feet. The putt burned the edge and it snuggled up there to 18 inches. I got a nice applause from people watching from the balcony of the Rusacks hotel, which was a fun feeling. It was such a fun round. My caddie Martin was awesome. He guided me around the course so well and gave me all the proper information that I needed, such as where to miss. His reads on putts were spot on, too.

 

That place is straight organized chaos with all the people out on the course. Each group for the most part had 4 golfers, 3-4 caddies, and other people walking with the group. You'd see groups of 15 people going hole to hole. It was very unique. I'm not one to have someone walk a round of golf with me, but my wife walked with us for the first 9 holes and then met us on the 16th tee box and walked in the rest of the way. I'm very happy I got to experience that with her. She took a lot of pics thankfully and she even got a video of my tee shot on #1 and hitting it out of a fairway pot bunker on the 9th. I was right on the face and somehow got it out and advanced forward. I'll try to post a video of my shot. And we got our Swilcan Bridge pic, too. After we finished the round, we went over to the Dunvegan with two of the guys in my group and their wives for a bunch of food and drinks. We were there for about 4 hours and it was the most unexpected fun we had the entire trip. Everyone got along great and we just meshed well together. I could not have asked for a better experience playing the Old Course. It left me with a bit of a hangover on Saturday, but it was so worth it. Here are some more pics of the day. The last few pics are from Sunday when we went back out to walk around. The Open Championship tee box on 17, a shot of the Road Hole Bunker, and another shot of the 18th green.

 

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Two putt for par on 18. Just grazed the edge.

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Great stuff! :-)

You and missus are setting the bar pretty high for subsequent holidays!

[url="http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTOZNxdsDKajrKxaUCRjcU8eB7URcAMpaCWN-67Bt6QG8rmBUPYW3QAQ7k87BlYizIMKJzEhuzqr9OQ/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true"]WITB[/url] | [url="http://tinyurl.com/CoursesPlayedList"]Courses Played list[/url] |  [url="http://tinyurl.com/25GolfingFaves"] 25 Faves [/url]

F.T.

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> @ceejay81 said:

> > @duffer987 said:

> > Great stuff! :-)

> > You and missus are setting the bar pretty high for subsequent holidays!

>

> No joke! I'm pretty spoiled right now. At least she loves Scotland and wants to go back!

>

> Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, and North Berwick are coming up next.

 

I'm bias as NB is my favorite course in Scotland, but that is a cracking way to wind up the golf side of things.

And at least with NB she can stay in Edi - lots of ways to spend a day there :-)

[url="http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTOZNxdsDKajrKxaUCRjcU8eB7URcAMpaCWN-67Bt6QG8rmBUPYW3QAQ7k87BlYizIMKJzEhuzqr9OQ/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true"]WITB[/url] | [url="http://tinyurl.com/CoursesPlayedList"]Courses Played list[/url] |  [url="http://tinyurl.com/25GolfingFaves"] 25 Faves [/url]

F.T.

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My soon to be wife and I are going to Scotland for the first week of our honeymoon. This post got me even more excited, really enjoyed your pictures. We will be there 2 weeks from today and are playing The Old Course, New Course, Castle Course, Kingsbarns and North Berwick. Did you eat anywhere else besides tailend and the Dunvegan? I'm doing the planning for the Scotland portion of the trip and dining is the toughest part.

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> @mci711 said:

> My soon to be wife and I are going to Scotland for the first week of our honeymoon. This post got me even more excited, really enjoyed your pictures. We will be there 2 weeks from today and are playing The Old Course, New Course, Castle Course, Kingsbarns and North Berwick. Did you eat anywhere else besides tailend and the Dunvegan? I'm doing the planning for the Scotland portion of the trip and dining is the toughest part.

 

Don't eat at the Dunvegan, really. It's for golf tourists - with the corresponding vibe - and nowhere I'd go with the missus for a nice meal IMHO.

Take a look at this: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/food-drink/restaurant-reviews/

The Courier has a number of regional editions, so they might not all be Fife related.

I'd also use opentable.com for whichever town you're staying in, the user feedback tends to be more locals than visitors.

Ship Inn over in Elie looked to have a good set up for evening meals (stopped in for sandwich and post round pint, so not dinner). North Berwick has lots of nice bistro/cafe options.

[url="http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTOZNxdsDKajrKxaUCRjcU8eB7URcAMpaCWN-67Bt6QG8rmBUPYW3QAQ7k87BlYizIMKJzEhuzqr9OQ/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true"]WITB[/url] | [url="http://tinyurl.com/CoursesPlayedList"]Courses Played list[/url] |  [url="http://tinyurl.com/25GolfingFaves"] 25 Faves [/url]

F.T.

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Its been a few years since I was in St Andrews, but we enjoyed dinner at the Russell Hotel (The Scores and Murray Park) and Indian food at Jahangir (South Street). The Dolls House was also nice, kind of behind the church in the center of town.

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> @duffer987 said:

> > @mci711 said:

> > My soon to be wife and I are going to Scotland for the first week of our honeymoon. This post got me even more excited, really enjoyed your pictures. We will be there 2 weeks from today and are playing The Old Course, New Course, Castle Course, Kingsbarns and North Berwick. Did you eat anywhere else besides tailend and the Dunvegan? I'm doing the planning for the Scotland portion of the trip and dining is the toughest part.

>

> Don't eat at the Dunvegan, really. It's for golf tourists - with the corresponding vibe - and nowhere I'd go with the missus for a nice meal IMHO.

> Take a look at this: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/food-drink/restaurant-reviews/

> The Courier has a number of regional editions, so they might not all be Fife related.

> I'd also use opentable.com for whichever town you're staying in, the user feedback tends to be more locals than visitors.

> Ship Inn over in Elie looked to have a good set up for evening meals. North Berwick has lots of nice bistro/cafe options.

 

Thank you for the info

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> @duffer987 said:

> > @mci711 said:

> > My soon to be wife and I are going to Scotland for the first week of our honeymoon. This post got me even more excited, really enjoyed your pictures. We will be there 2 weeks from today and are playing The Old Course, New Course, Castle Course, Kingsbarns and North Berwick. Did you eat anywhere else besides tailend and the Dunvegan? I'm doing the planning for the Scotland portion of the trip and dining is the toughest part.

>

> Don't eat at the Dunvegan, really. It's for golf tourists - with the corresponding vibe - and nowhere I'd go with the missus for a nice meal IMHO.

> Take a look at this: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/category/lifestyle/food-drink/restaurant-reviews/

> The Courier has a number of regional editions, so they might not all be Fife related.

> I'd also use opentable.com for whichever town you're staying in, the user feedback tends to be more locals than visitors.

> Ship Inn over in Elie looked to have a good set up for evening meals. North Berwick has lots of nice bistro/cafe options.

 

re dunvegan, what duffy said ... not a horrible place if it's the middle of the week and not crowded, but the food certainly isn't anything to wait for ... as hawkeye mentioned, little italy is top notch ... service might be a touch spotty, but most service in scotland is a touch 'spotty' compared to the states .. you will have to make reservations at little italy ... i haven't dined in the little towns outside of st andrews/berwick/etc, so duff's rec on ship inn at elie sounds like a very nice alternative ... drive 20 minutes or so, if that, for a nice meal at a place that's not as crowded ... but you could make a pbj and walk around st andrews and watch the 18th green all evening for a fabulous time ... special place ...

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> @mci711 said:

> My soon to be wife and I are going to Scotland for the first week of our honeymoon. This post got me even more excited, really enjoyed your pictures. We will be there 2 weeks from today and are playing The Old Course, New Course, Castle Course, Kingsbarns and North Berwick. Did you eat anywhere else besides tailend and the Dunvegan? I'm doing the planning for the Scotland portion of the trip and dining is the toughest part.

My favorite restaurant in St Andrews is Forgan's. It is on Market St. near Tesco. Main courses average between 13 and 22 GBP (I love their beef bourguignon). If you have a car, the Strathkinness Tavern is about 10 minutes outside of St Andrews, and I have always enjoyed their food (but it is pricier than Forgan's). You will need a reservation. I know that you will be on your honeymoon, but if you want something quite casual, try Ziggy's on Murray Place. They have great burgers, but it is a tight fit in there. Just up Murray Place from Ziggy's is Greyfriar's, also a good casual choice.

 

 

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great write up so far. Loved the wedding day golf; I am doing the same in 4 weeks at Turnberry then getting married at Culzean Castle.

 

looking forward to the rest of the report and its getting me excited to links golf next week!

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Great write up, and congratulations on getting married. Wife and I got married in Edinburgh 2 years ago, such a great country to get married in.

Echo @kenmich 's sentiments with Forgan's. It's a nice restaurant and the food is good. Not overly pricey either. Brother in law used to work there a few years ago when he was at uni.

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Alright, sorry for the delay. Time for Carnoustie!

 

**Carnoustie**

 

I had a noon tee time on Sunday of the Open Championship. One year too late, lol. I had a rental car, so I drove to the course from St. Andrews. It wasn't a bad drive at all, except the area past the Tay Bridge can be a little bit confusing. Thankfully it wasn't rush hour. Anyway, I got to the course and checked in at the pro shop. They have a bunch of indoor trackman's (trackmen?) to practice on, so I took full advantage of that. After I was done warming up, I headed to the first tee to meet my caddie Stephen and the group I was playing with. I was playing with a father and 2 sons, all older, who had this trip planned for almost 2 years. They were wonderful company on the day. Before we teed off, a gentleman walked up to meet me. He said he was those guys driver for the week and he's also an amateur photographer. Instead of sitting in the van for 4 hours, he likes to photograph people's rounds of golf for free and emails out the photos. He asked me if this was okay and I happily obliged. Free photos to document my day? Yes please!

 

I didn't know what to expect from this course. I kind of thought that with my skill level that this course could be super hard and I'd lose balls all day long. Thankfully, that was not the case. We had about a 15-20mph steady breeze all day and my caddie Stephen was amazing as he navigated me around the course. I don't even know what it was about this course, but it turned into my favorite course I've ever played. I think the combination of the history of the course, the way it played, and the strategy that's involved in links golf. The greens and tee boxes were immaculate. By far the best greens on my trip. There were no bumps or imperfections. Everything rolled so smoothly. I doubled the 1st and 9th for a 44 and then shot a 42 on the back while being +8 on 14-17 LOL. I tied my career low round again in Scotland with an 86. Didn't lose a ball. The game just seems much "easier" for me over there as I struggle with firing shots into the woods and into ponds. There's just different types of trouble to get into when playing links golf. As long as I can find my ball to hit my next shot, I'm happy. I was pretty inaccurate off the tee all day, but my ball would be found sitting pretty decent in the tall wispy rough. I actually thought it was easier to hit out of this stuff as opposed to the fairways. You get that little bit of cushion under the ball which really helps. If we had 40mph winds and it was chilly, then I could see

 

I didn't make any birdies, but I made 8 pars which is fantastic for me. On the 3rd hole, my drive bounced between the first 2 fairway pot bunkers, somehow. I had about 75 in and I one hopped it in and out of the hole! It rolled about 12 feet away. We all thought it was in for eagle. Pretty cool moment as I've never made an eagle before.

 

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On 18, I smoked my drive down the middle. My approach shot ended up to the left of the green in a bit of a collection area. I putted it up to about 5-6 feet and drained the par putt. No Van de Velde moment for me, lol.

 

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I know many say the course isn't scenic and there are not beautiful views -- but I find that to be BS. The town isn't pretty, but that golf course sure damn is. Just seeing the views all over of all the bunkers, the long grass, the big mounds everywhere - I just think the place looks amazing. It probably helped that it was pretty green'd up, but even if it was burnt and brown, I can't imagine my opinion of the course could ever change for the worse.

 

Just going to attach a bunch of random pics from the day. Some are mine, some are from the photographer.

 

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Next 2 are the same shot.

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This putt went in!

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My ball is down next to the hole. I had putted from where the caddies are behind the green. Snuggled up close for par.

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Monday was our last day in St. Andrews and I played Kingsbarns at 10am. We had to check out by 11, so I drove to the course with a packed vehicle while the wife stayed back and took a bus to Kingsbarns Distillery a little later.

 

**Kingsbarns**

 

What a cool course! I'm very happy I scheduled this round. The views are amazing and the course is pretty spectacular. It does have more of a man-made feel about the course, but I honestly don't care too much if the course has been there for 20 years or 200. I personally don't think it should be the most expensive course to play in Scotland. That's not a knock on the course but would be best debated over beers.

 

I got checked in at the pro shop and did a little bit of shopping first. After that, I made my way to the practice green to get some putts in. The greens were moving pretty quickly. There was about a 25-30 mph wind blowing all day, which was pretty fun. It's fun getting advice from my caddie on the greens and the wind is part of the equation. It really does affect putting! I met the guys I would be playing with, which happened to be another dad/son/son combo who had the trip planned for a long time. These guys were real nice, just not much of golfers. I had a caddie named Jamie, who was really good, and the other 3 guys got a fore caddie.

 

I went out in 45 with a few pars on 1, 6, and 8. On the back 9, I stole birdies on the 11th and 15th for a 41. And what does that equal again? 86! Tied my career low again on back to back days! This one could have been at least 5-6 shots lower, easily, as I had . My birdie on 11 was pretty quality. Driver down the right side, iron up to 25 feet, then drained the putt. Easy game! My birdie on the 15th was much different. We had wind directly in our faces. I think the number was 160 but it was playing more like 190-195 to a middle-backish pin. I hit my 3h pretty low and square and it hit the middle of the green and bounced off the back. When we got up there, we found my ball sitting a few feet below the surface of the green in the really deep hay a few yards behind the green. I could see the top of the flag and I could see the back of the ball. The green was breaking downhill and to the left, so I just wanted to pop something up onto the surface and have it feed down. I hit my 58* wedge, made great contact, and I climbed up the hill just in time to see the last 5 feet of my ball rolling into the cup! Pretty cool moment birdieing the toughest par 3 on the European Tour (according to my caddie).

 

The grand scale of the place is amazing. It's just such a huge course. The views are absolutely spectacular and could easily be argued are better than Pebble Beach. They really hit a home run with this course.

 

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> @kenmich said:

> > @mci711 said:

> > My soon to be wife and I are going to Scotland for the first week of our honeymoon. This post got me even more excited, really enjoyed your pictures. We will be there 2 weeks from today and are playing The Old Course, New Course, Castle Course, Kingsbarns and North Berwick. Did you eat anywhere else besides tailend and the Dunvegan? I'm doing the planning for the Scotland portion of the trip and dining is the toughest part.

> My favorite restaurant in St Andrews is Forgan's. It is on Market St. near Tesco. Main courses average between 13 and 22 GBP (I love their beef bourguignon). If you have a car, the Strathkinness Tavern is about 10 minutes outside of St Andrews, and I have always enjoyed their food (but it is pricier than Forgan's). You will need a reservation. I know that you will be on your honeymoon, but if you want something quite casual, try Ziggy's on Murray Place. They have great burgers, but it is a tight fit in there. Just up Murray Place from Ziggy's is Greyfriar's, also a good casual choice.

>

>

 

Gonna shoot from the hip, trying to remember all the spots we hit up. Probably missing a few but here are the main ones.

 

**Tailend**: Had dinner there, was very good. Fish and chips were money.

 

**Forgan's**: Had the most salty breakfast/brunch ever. Not sure what was up with that. Seemed like a good spot though. Wish we had gotten dinner there.

 

**Ziggy's**: It's a David Bowie tribute bar/restaurant. Really tiny inside but had a good vibe with 80's rock music playing. I think it's more of an Americanized restaurant focused on tourists. They did have some sizzling fajitas on their menu that looked good.

 

**Bibi's Cafe**: Had an amazing bacon roll here. Great spot for breakfast.

 

**Dunvegan**: Was actually much cooler than I thought it would be. We had no plans on going here, but the guys I played the Old Course with wanted to grab a drink. A 20 minute thing turned into like a 4-5 hour thing. The drinks were flowing, we had this tiny, firecracker of a waitress who is a 2 handicap, and we sat next to a group of dudes who are caddies at Kingsbarns. It was the 2nd round of The Open, so that was on all of the TV's. Rory was trying to claw his way into the cut. I didn't find it to be too American/touristy, but it was packed. It was just a bunch of golfers having a great time with the pints flowing. For food, our group got an order of chili nachos and some fries. Then later on we were even more hammered and ordered dinner. I had a steak & ale pie which was pretty awesome. Everyone else is right though. You shouldn't plan a dinner here with the wife, but it's a good spot to hit up with the dudes for a beer or 4. Not necessarily a "must visit" place, but it doesn't suck either. I don't know. I enjoyed my time there.

 

**St Andrews Brewing Co**: Seemed like a great spot with plenty of room, but it was absolutely dead inside. Granted it was a Thursday, but at 8:30pm, I thought it would be more lively.

 

**Keys Bar**: Cool locals bar. We grabbed a couple of pints and sat outside. We chatted with a few locals who were awesome. Great spot for a beer.

 

**The Saint**: We made reservations here for dinner. It was just okay. I had their sirloin and the wife got their gnocchi (which was their "version" of gnocchi, which was nothing like gnocchi). No need to go here.

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