Scotland Golf Trip 101 (The Compass Guide)

flushem · August 25, 2020

23 minutes ago, hammergolf said:

Awesome! What days of the week are you playing Muirfiled and Carnoustie? Hopefully you are playing on a Tuesday at Muirfield so you'll have Thursday free. With the exception being Muirfield you can apply for the ballot every day and if you win it on the day you are scheduled, Carnoustie are usually helpful in swapping your time if they have space available on another day. if you enter the ballot 5 times you will have a very good chance of getting TOC. Just rember when you do enter, make sure to get a caddie for each player. Not sure if it's really true, but it seems to help the odds. Thursday is your best chance of getting TOC since almost all of the times that day are for ballot requests. If you are going to be in St. Andrews your have plenty of options. Might not be a bad idea to get a 3 day ticket for the St. Andrews courses. You have The New, Jubilee, and Castle which are all good, plus the Eden. It's really reasonable too, depending on the time of year it's anywhere from 150 pounds to 250 pounds for unlimited golf and if you have a group of two or more you can get 1 guaranteed time per day. This gives you 7 days to use the 3 play days so it would work in perfect for your time there.

My group will be there from 4/8, Thursday to 4/14, Wednesday catching flight out at 0940.

Now the exchange rate is 1.3 so I hurried to book Carnoustie on Sunday afternoon since TOC is closed on Sunday and Muirfield in early Tuesday morning since I booked a hotel next to EDI. I am looking at either Ladybanks or Duke's on the arriving day. Hopefully, the chance of winning ballot will be good in April, and we get to play on TOC on Friday, Saturday or Monday.

It is like life... time is short but too many places to go.

hammergolf · August 25, 2020

There are a few good ones on your way up from EDI to St. Andrews. Burntisland, Lundin, and Levin are all good ones. But I would recommend you look into The Craighead Course at Crail. It's a Gil Hanse design and for the money is a great deal. It's opnly about 10 miles (15 mins) from St. Andrews and is one of the 7 oldest golf clubs in the world. With the pound getting a little stronger I would book as many rounds as you can nopw before the rates and exchange rate change. As I said they are all very accomodating about moving your time around shoud you win the ballot.