We are fortunate to have a daughter living in Edinburgh which gives us the opportunity to travel to Scotland.  This year Sally and I went for two weeks, the first with family in Edinburgh.  For the second week on our own, we played golf, toured castles and enjoyed the hospitality at some excellent country house hotels.  The highlights of the first week were the World Pipe Band Competition in Glasgow, The Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle (including Pipes and Band from The Citadel) and a trip to Loch Lomond (click above right for photos if interested).  Golfers considering a trip to Scotland will be more interested in the details of our golf tour.

We played North Berwick (West course), Crail, Cruden Bay and Boat of Garten.  Like many courses in Scotland, all of these were laid out on the land as it was found and not “designed” and constructed as most modern American courses are.  It was a much different experience than playing our local courses and gives a great insight into how golf developed historically, especially “links” courses.  (imho - a “links” course must be on a major body of water such as an ocean, bay or inland sea like the Great Lakes.  All inland courses regardless of terrain, vegetation and soil who tout themselves otherwise, I would consider only “links style” – Google “links course” if you would like to participate in the debate.)  We did not use caddies at any of the courses preferring to forgo the embarrassment.  We relied instead on the course guides available for purchase at each course and rented “trolleys” (aka hand carts in “American”).  Caddies would have been helpful navigating the many blind shots at all the courses but some holes were so funky that nothing but playing the holes could really explain them. 

The first day of the golfing week we played at the North Berwick West Course about an hour east of Edinburgh (www.northberwickgolfclub.com ).  The Club was founded in 1832 and say they are the 13th oldest club in Scotland.  While all of the Clubs were very friendly and welcoming, North Berwick made the best impression.  We were greeted by the clubhouse concierge and welcomed as “members for the day” and given a quick briefing on the facilities.  The welcome continued at the starter’s office where we were given a brief overview of the course and offered caddies who were readily available.   (It appeared that pre booking would have been required for caddies at the other courses.) 

Laid out along the water on the south shore of the Firth of Forth where it meets the North Sea, North Berwick is a true links course.  The scenery is breath taking and a great compensation for the difficulty of the course.  The prevailing wind is from the east off the North Sea which helps playing some of the long holes on the front nine (if I could only get off the tee!).  Returning on the back we look at the card and feel we are in for a break with the holes being shorter and my swing settling down.  But there is that wind and the string of 13, 14 and 15 (“Pit”, “Perfection” and “Redan”) which are justly famous with shots into each green being blind.  16 and 17 continue the saga with a wide narrow, two hump camelback green and then a well protected, uphill elevated green.  The short 18th playing into the clubhouse with a big green is a welcome break.

The other difficulty I found at North Berwick, and all the courses we played, is the terrain on otherwise level fairways.  Some may call it “rolling” but skiers would call them moguls.  The few times I could manage a good tee shot cranked down the middle, it would likely as not take a bounce left or right and end up in the first cut or worse.  But if it managed to stay straight, the rock hard fairways kept it rolling well beyond what I’m accustomed to, 30 – 50 yards further. 

After playing at North Berwick we traveled north to stay near St. Andrews.  Our course the next day, about 20 minutes south of St. Andrews, was Balcomie links at Crail, their “old course” built in 1895.  The Crail Golfing Society (www.crailgolfingsociety.co.uk ) which owns the course was actually founded in 1786 and is the 7th oldest Club in Scotland.  It is in a sense a “bookend” to North Berwick, situated on the north corner where the Firth of Forth meets the North Sea.  The staff were friendly enough but with more golfers than at North Berwick, including a group of eight and an international cast of French, German and American players, not as attentive.  The proximity to St. Andrews may make it apopular secondary course for those making the pilgrimage to that Mecca of the sport.

 The scenery was again beautiful with 180 degree ocean views on every hole and rolling farmland in the opposite direction.  The course was in great shape, as they all were.  The greens, while not as fast as Briar’s Creek (our home course), were speedy enough and ran true.  Only 5861 yards from the “tips”, the hilly terrain and 69 par made it plenty for me.  I think big hitters would still find it a challenge because of the severe rough, the “moguls” that can cause even great shots to go awry and the wind (which fortunately was fairly moderate throughout our trip).  My one criticism of the course was the layout of a couple of tee boxes.  On the fourth hole, my tee was back 30 yards in front of the third green (a 170 yard par three), about 140 yards to the right of the third tee - perfect spot for somebody to slice into.  I elected to hit from the middle tees as the Frenchmen behind us didn’t look to be pros.  On the ninth tee I was hitting across the front of the eighth green but had enough time before the group coming up behind us.  On a couple of other holes the tees were perilously close to greens or along the fairway of another hole.  I understand this is not unusual for historic courses in Scotland (see “St Andrew’s – Old Course”), but still found it disconcerting.  The crowd and these oddities in the course layout made it the slowest round of our trip but still under 4 ½ hours.

Our next golf stop, after a day touring St Andrews and a beautiful drive thru the highlands, was Cruden Bay just north of Aberdeen (www.crudenbaygolfclub.co.uk ).  Cruden Bay is similar in many ways to Crail.  The Club was founded in the late eighteenth century though the current course layout dates from 1899. 

Some of the blind shots on this final stretch are truly unique.  The 14th at 390 yards plays much shorter if your second shot can clear the ridge 55 yards out from the front.  From there it is straight down hill to a sunken green.  I figure my second shot landed at about 40 yards out and from there rolled to the back of the green.  The 15th called “Blin’ Dunt” ( “blind finish” in Scottish as best I can tell) is a 260 yard par 3 looking straight out at a hill of heather with a narrow alley up the right and no green or flag in sight.  On 16, another par 3 at 180 yards, the tee and green are at the same elevation but a ridge 20 yards out from the green hides it from the tee box so all you see is a waving flag with no idea of the terrain on the other side.  On any American course I would just call these crazy or stupid holes but these are all carved into the landscape as it was found and after the string I was eager to go back and give it another go.  17 and 18 end the round as nice clean, wide open finishing holes; on the long side, 420 and 410, but even for a short hitter like me, very doable with elevated tees, a good wind and a roll (2 pars!). 

For our final course we wanted to play something different, inland in the hills.  So we booked Boat of Garten about an hour into the highlands south of Inverness  (www.boatgolf.com).  The course was very nice there but didn’t offer the unique aspects of a Scottish links course as the first three did.  Boat of Garten was more like a hilly, very hilly, American parkland course.  The hills made for many blind shots and though the holes were again built as the land was found, without the seaside character some of the crazy shots just became annoying.  Nevertheless the course was in good shape, the staff friendly and we enjoyed the day.

Overall we had a great time and enjoyed the golf very much.  We got a great feel for the historical character of links golf and how it developed in Scotland.  We would encourage every one seriously interested in golf to make a trip there.  We would highly recommend both North Berwick and Cruden Bay.  Crail, though worthwhile was a bit distracting watching out for other golfers.  Boat of Garten was very nice but not the same unique links experience as the other three.

We booked our tour through Drum Golf in St Andrews and highly recommend them to anyone considering a golf trip. There are many good tour operators and we had others recommended to us.  But from their website and prompt response to our original inquiry we felt Drum Golf would be better for personal, customized service with a small trip like ours (two people, one week).  We were not disappointed.  They took the time to work out a detailed itinerary of courses and hotels that met our needs.  Their representative met us at the Edinburg Airport and walked us through our rental car booking.  Gordon Adam, their Director, greeted us at the hotel on the first morning of our stay in St Andrews before we headed out to Crail.  At the same time we saw that Drum Golf could easily handle a much larger group with the same attention to detail and service.

For hotels we wanted to avoid large venues and stay in country house hotels.  We also wanted to maintain some kind of budget so asked for a mix of first class and deluxe accommodation.  We requested two nights each in three locations so we could tour around a bit on the off days between golf.  Drum Golf booked us at Rufflets Country House outside St Andrews, Meldrum House near Aberdeen and Boath House near Inverness.  Each location was great and special in their own way.  Both Rufflets and Boath House had beautiful gardens that we took the time to walk through.  Each hotel also had excellent food but Boath requires a special mention.  The restaurant has a Michelin star and offers a single fixed price 5 course dinner each night.  At each of the other locations we dined in one night and sampled a local restaurant (both very good) the second night.  However at Boath House the meal was so outstanding we had to go for the encore the second night.  Boath House is also a certified art gallery with a great collection of contemporary art works well integrated into all the public rooms of the historic house.

We had a great time on our golf trip to Scotland and would highly recommend the experience to anyone who is even a moderately serious golfer.  We hope to be able to do it again replaying some of the same courses and expanding our repertoire to some courses in the West.