Scotland Trip Planner?

[Cakalacman]

For you guys that have made this trip to Scotland who did you use to plan your trip? A buddy and I are wanting to go to St Andrews next year and I have no idea what I am getting into so doing if w/o using a service I think is out of the question. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

 

[ND2005]

We have used Perry Golf 3x and been very pleased. It is certainly not cheap though. 
 

You should be aware that 2023 is largely already booked up for the premier courses. 
 

Now through early spring of next year is the timeframe to lock up a trip for 2024 

[thezinfan]

If you can find a copy of Allan Fergusons Golf in Scotland on Amazon, it will walk you through the process of self booking the trip. The full tour companies really mark it up. Allan's book got me to book several trips to Scotland. It looks like the Kindle version is still available. I could answer pretty much any question you have.

[sabram]

I've done several trips to Scotland and booked them all without any help. It's not that difficult. There are plenty of good books and websites that can help you plan. I second the recommendation of the Allan Ferguson book.  You can get questions answered on this site.

[golfortennis]

Third the Ferguson recommendation.

 

For St Andrews, unless they have changed it in the last few years, it works like this:  Lottery gets run in the previous fall(likely too late to go this route for 2023.)  If you do not secure a time this way, you can then try the ballot.  There are two ballots:  local ballot and open ballot.  Local ballot requires a local(and possibly all be local), so this could be a risky attempt.  Open ballot is as it sounds, anyone can submit.  These happen two days before.  If that doesn't work, then there is the queue.

 

There are a few tricks(again, based on when I was there 5 years ago).  First you look at the tee sheet for your particular day.  They get posted so those who won the ballots know they got in.  What you want to do is look at how how many open spots, and in particular spots in Open Ballot times there are.  Lottery and local ballot times get the option of accepting or declining being paired up, but open ballots must take players.

 

I was #5 in the queue, in late May.  # 1 and #2 wanted to play as early as possible, so they got into the first two times as they had been open ballot times.  3 and 4 were a couple who wanted to play together, and the only open ballot that could accommodate them was in the afternoon.  So when it got to me, I was offered 10:10 "guaranteed".  I went back to the hotel and at breakfast, I saw 16(we all referred to ourselves by our number).  He said they told him he could probably get out between 8 and 9.  Essentially, they give the option to the groups I mentioned, but I think it's rare that someone would be such a d-bag that they would "deny" someone playing the Old Course.

 

The best way to handle this is to give yourself a few days in St Andrews, play some of the other courses as well(you can get on pretty much whenever), and figure out what time to do the queue.  I went over at 2:1 am, and I was #5.  A few weeks prior I heard a bus of 33 showed at about 3:30 am, so you want to give yourself some flexibility.    

[cardia10]

Create yourself a spreadsheet with air, rental car, lodging and golf. Start by checking hotel packages that include golf. We went this year and used a company and could have saved 30% by making some calls on my own. Get the multi day ticket at St Andrews and enter the 48 hour ballot daily for the old. If your time gets tight, just camp out to tick it off the list. 

[AHill463]

Im going in May 2023 and are currently using Hidden Links, So far they have made it very easy.

[golfday]

I've been on a hidden links trip for a big group, and organized by myself for a group of 2.

 

Hidden links was great and made things very easy. They do mark it up, but that is to be expected given they're providing a service that would be very difficult to do on your own for a large group. If you're going to multiple regions, and require multiple tee times, and multiple hotel rooms in small towns it would be difficult to arrange on your own.

 

However, for a 2 person trip I had no problems booking it all on my own. It took a little time, but I enjoyed reading about all of the courses in Scotland to decide which to play, then looking at maps to figure out the best sequence for our trip, and looking up the hotels, etc. The big decisions you have to weigh are which courses do you want to play vs. how much time do you want to spend driving or in a taxi and changing hotels. The second decision you'll have to make is do you want to rent a car or do you want to hire a taxi/driver - if you're planning on being based in St. Andrews the whole time and mostly playing there, then it's an easy call to not rent a car. After you book a hotel, ask them to recommend a local taxi company - they'll know of a few and you can reach out to each taxi company to get rates/book them for transportation to any courses you can't walk to from your hotel.

 

Almost all courses do online booking now, so it's fairly easy to arrange a tee time. A few private courses will have you email them to setup a time, and you will find all of the info about who to email on the course's website - also a pretty easy process. The hardest course to get on is the old course, others have already noted their ballot process and all of the info on how to do that can be found on their website.

 

Hotel booking is also very easy basically every hotel, even small hotels in small towns, do online booking these days; and there are plenty of reviews for every hotel online so it's easy to make informed decisions and ensure you're not going somewhere you don't want to sleep.

 

One final recommendation is to download WhatsApp - that will be the easiest way to text over wifi with any drivers or other small businesses you may use.  

[scottiewingnut]

I too am going in mid-May 2023 and will be playing as a single and staying in Edinburgh for the week.
Is there a way to get into the queue by phone or online or do you need to get there in the wee hours and hope to get paired up?

[golfortennis]

53 minutes ago, scottiewingnut said:

I too am going in mid-May 2023 and will be playing as a single and staying in Edinburgh for the week.
Is there a way to get into the queue by phone or online or do you need to get there in the wee hours and hope to get paired up?

 

Nope.  Ya gotta be physically present.  Read my post a few above.

[gtdrew]

I'd advise getting in via the ballot process.  Waiting in line in the wee hours of the morning is not fun. 

[r2edline]

On 10/7/2022 at 3:50 PM, ND2005 said:

We have used Perry Golf 3x and been very pleased. It is certainly not cheap though. 
 

You should be aware that 2023 is largely already booked up for the premier courses. 
 

Now through early spring of next year is the timeframe to lock up a trip for 2024 

 

I'm curious how are people booking that far in advance with flights not being available yet?  They just take the risk and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get the right flights? 
I guess it's probably a lot easier if you're not travelling a very far distance. 

 

[ND2005]

34 minutes ago, r2edline said:

 

I'm curious how are people booking that far in advance with flights not being available yet?  They just take the risk and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get the right flights? 
I guess it's probably a lot easier if you're not travelling a very far distance. 

 

I mean yeah? If you’re planning a bucket list trip you aren’t going to let the airfare get in the way. 
 

travel companies can also usually lock in rates with the airlines well in advance. 

[scottiewingnut]

Thanks for the reply Golfortennis. I did read your post but was asking to see if something might have changed in the 5 years since you were last there.

A friends son lives in Glasgow so I may see if he wants to join me so we can get in on the ballot. Or try to make some Scottish friends before next May.

[hammergolf]

1 hour ago, r2edline said:

 

I'm curious how are people booking that far in advance with flights not being available yet?  They just take the risk and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get the right flights? 
I guess it's probably a lot easier if you're not travelling a very far distance. 

 

Much easier to get a flight than a tee time at TOC….

[sabram]

2 hours ago, r2edline said:

I'm curious how are people booking that far in advance with flights not being available yet?  They just take the risk and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get the right flights? 
I guess it's probably a lot easier if you're not travelling a very far distance. 

You can book on British Air and a few  other airlines 350 days in advance (I checked today and flights are available on BA  through Oct 27, 2023 at excellent cost for economy)

[scottiewingnut]

Booked my flights this morning on Aer Lingus, Boston to Edinburgh with a stop in Dublin.

[foozledbaffy]

Try Peter Korbakes at Far and Sure Golf.  If it's a simple trip you can do it yourself with the help of someone that has been a few times.  I would gladly offer advice if you like.  Cheers.

[kobe123]

I'm going in 2023 and we used PioneerGolf. Was pricey, but the itinerary is amazing.

[wolverine_man]

Four of us are going to Scotland in May 2024.  Staying in Troon for a few nights, then off to TOC Hotel. Will need to work on transportation and flight options in the upcoming months.  A larger Sixt rental car looks to be about $2,000 for a week. Seems steep.

 

Also, I typically take my clubs in a Club Glove as a checked piece of luggage, and Ship Sticks looks to be about $450 round trip.  Anyone recommend against checking their clubs? I am aware of the fiasco and pics associated with The Open in 2022. Not sure if that was a typical situation. 

[hammergolf]

Only advice I would give you is avoid a layover in Heathrow. This past summer was an utter debacle there, but even in normal times during the summer it’s 50/50 if your clubs make it to Scotland. Ideally you could fly direct from the US into Edinburgh or Glasgow. Shipsticks is double the price of bringing your clubs with you, so that’s up to you if it’s worth not having that hassle. 2k seems steep for a weeks car rental. Keep an eye on rentals as they should go down around 6-8 months from your trip. You can also take a look at Holiday rentals. They have good prices. I’ll include a link to their site. 
 

https://www.holidayautos.com/book?pickupDateTime=2023-05-13T10%3A00&returnDateTime=2023-05-20T10%3A00&age=30&clientID=463473&ct=MP&curr=GBP&elID=1461674041438249&ln=en-gb&residenceID=US&pickupID=185&pickupName=Edinburgh - Airport&returnID=185&returnName=Edinburgh - Airport#/vehicles

Edited January 18 by hammergolf