Howdy,

Going to Scotland in October with the wife. Attempting to play the Old Course and enter the Ballot. Has anyone had any luck before? Are the other courses there worth pursuing as well?

Any other course suggestions in the area? Staying in Edinburgh for 4 days and Inverness for 3.

Thanks!!

Royal Dornoch and Brora when you're in InverNESS.

Couple of Brora pics

[url=https://ibb.co/Gk4cMr2][/url]

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Carnousti is 45 min from St Andrews


Dornoch would be my #1 choice out of Inverness

If you go get in like at like 3 or 4 in the morning you can pretty much gaurantee a tee time at st andrews. Earlier the better though

ScarmardoAg19 said:

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Howdy,

Going to Scotland in October with the wife. Attempting to play the Old Course and enter the Ballot. Has anyone had any luck before? Are the other courses there worth pursuing as well?

Any other course suggestions in the area? Staying in Edinburgh for 4 days and Inverness for 3.

Thanks!!

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We went in March. Does your wife play? Must have two for the lottery. October is likely similar in that the walk up shouldn't be bad. It was fun in March but I got there at 5 which isn't too early. Ask at Dunvegan and they can give a good estimate.

I could literally play the Old Course every day for the rest of my life. Such a fantastic course. Hard to go low. Hard to go high. Just fun.

Also, don't short change St Andrews. Great shops and restaurants and walking history. My non golf family wished we'd spent more time there. Edinburgh is a blast. Go to Blackness Castle. Lots of fun.

Oh. And I had a Scotsman tell me this and it's true … in America, 100 years is forever and 100 miles is nothing; in Scotland 100 years is nothing and 100 miles is forever. Do not plan on any distances being short.

Me and a buddy are planning a trip for 2026. Carnoustie is at the top of my list and he wants to try and fit Ireland in too.

I know going from the UK to Ireland in a single trip won't be easy, but has anyone here done it?

My wife played in college so we will have 2 for the early morning draw. Trying to play middle of the week so may just give that a try and have a backup in case we don't get a tee time!

Thanks for the advice!

Friend of mine flew over in a helicopter to play 18 at royal county down then flew back to play Muirfield and Renaissance

I would break it up into 2 trips...or 4 =)

Turnberry Ailsa

Did a trip to Scotland in June. Eight of us, played 6 rounds in 6 days. West coast, Western Gailes, Royal Troon and Turnberry. On the east coast, Kingsbarns, Carnoustie (a beast) and St. Andrews Old Course. All arranged through Perry Golf. The weather was perfect. One thing to watch out for, most of the guys travelled through Heathrow and had problems with flights cancelled and delayed luggage including golf bags. I traveled through Amsterdam with no problems.

Perfect. We are going through Amsterdam as well!

Using a service like that, how far out in advance do you typically need to book?

Muirfield, North Berwick and Gullane are all close to Edinburgh.

This was a trip that was planned/booked for 2020 And since we wanted to play St. Andrews we had to wait until 2023 to reschedule the trip (the Open was on the Old Course in 2022 so it was closed for a significant part of the year). I would say most are booked a year in advance. Give them a call they are a really easy outfit to work with.

Going later this week. Booked Gullane #1 and planning to show up at 3am to get on at the Old Course

#2 is ranked higher I think

Bizarro Jerry said:

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Going later this week. Booked Gullane #1 and planning to show up at 3am to get on at the Old Course

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Have fun! The old course is awesome. Ask at Dunvegan on queue time. They're awesome there. And Dunvegan lager or Caledonian Best are both excellent.