St. Andrews

[trumb1mj]

I am planning a golf trip with my Dad and Brothers to St. Andrews next year. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

which course to play?

what time of day to play?

local info?

anything to keep in mind?

Thanks for any help. Hit em straight!

[Andy_79]

Originally Posted by trumb1mj

I am planning a golf trip with my Dad and Brothers to St. Andrews next year. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

which course to play?

what time of day to play?

local info?

anything to keep in mind?

Thanks for any help. Hit em straight!

What time of the year do you plan on going, budd ?

I take it you're coming from the States, are ya ? In that case you really ought to try your damnest to get on the Old Course. Its a one-off after all, right ?! Bear in mind, however, that you will have to go into a draw to play; ie. you won't be able to play with the same group you travelled with.

The New Course is a good course to play if you want traditional links. The New is about as 'traditional' as you're likely to find. It actually plays a little bit too much so for my liking as you're hitting blind shots into greens with huge swails round them much of the time, therefore you could be a yard off being perfect and bounce off and into greenside rough. But, at the end of the day, that's links golf. Would recommend playing that one too, though.

Another course we played there was St. Andrews Bay, (Sam) Torrance course. Its termed as a 'modern day links course.' Glorious part of the world and offers some fantastic views. Some cracking holes on this one and the condition of the course is superb, also. Try and bag a stay in the 5* hotel there if you're planning something extra special

Carnoustie and Kingsbarns are literally a few miles away, so they are obviously gonna be well worth checking.

As for the time of day to play - it totally depends on whether you're gonna be having a few at night time, which in fact I think you ought to as St. Andrews town is a quality place to have a few beers in, particuarly if you're heading during (university) term time. If you're mostly going to take it easy, I would recommend playing as early as possible as 1) You will most likely have the more benine weather conditions and 2) You will be able to do a bit of travelling.

On the travelling side, both Glasgow and Edinburgh are close and very accessible from this area.
Glasgow in Scotland's largest city, offers some of the very best shopping in the British Isles and is home to one of the fiercest rivalries in World Football; Rangers and Celtic.
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and is simply stunning. It still remains one of my favourite places to visit and you can't help but be in complete awe of the place. Plenty of 'touristy' things to do here such as visit Royal Mile - regarded as being the most haunted district in Britain, shop on Princes Street & tour Edinburgh Castle. Such a place !

Whatever you do, take time to try out a good, traditional Scottish 'chippy' - fish n' chip shop. They deep-fat fry or batter everything here from pies, to pizzas, to Mars bars or Snickers, I kid you not ! No wonder the Scots have the highest heartatache rate in the world. Steak pie and chips is a personal fav. of mine. None of your sh*tty American french fries here - good, thick cut chipped potatoes

Anyway, hope this helps. Have a good trip, man, and make sure and clean your ears out before heading over as that Scottish accent can be tricky to understand for the untrained ear....

[Eracer]

If I'm ever back in St. Andrews, I'll be content to play the other courses in town, knowing that I've played the Old Course once. But if I had gone there, and didn't play the Old Course, I'd feel cheated.

You can go here:
St Andrews Links Trust - Golf
and request a tee time in advance for the Old Course. They reserve a set number of times, and it's "first-come, first-serve". Unfortunately, I think you're a bit late for next year, but it won't hurt to try. When I went in 2006, I applied as soon as they began taking applications, which I think was around October 10th. I was lucky enough to get two players booked on the Old Course. We had to play one other course as well, so we played 18 on Jubilee (which I really liked), and 18 on the Old Course (which, as Andy said, you should really try to play.) Not that the Old Course is a "great golf course", or a "scenic golf course"; it's the Old Course, and that's all you need to know. I've never felt anything like playing the last three holes and walking off the 18th green. Truly amazing. If you can't secure a tee time to the Old Course in advance, you can take your chances in the daily lottery. If you're in St. Andrews for a few days, you have a decent chance of getting on. The problem with that strategy is now you've hurt your chances at playing outlying courses.

Having said that, I think the other St. Andrews courses are fine (and a LOT cheaper) and still allow you to enjoy the St. Andrews experience. So if you can't get an advance time, either be happy playing the other St. Andrews courses, and use your ability to schedule everything to book times at other "out of town" courses, or stay in the town and enter the daily lottery.

We also played Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. I loved Carnoustie, and thought that Kingsbarns was magnificent, but overpriced. A must-play, but only if you have the budget. I didn't play the other courses Andy mentioned. I know there are a lot of fine courses in Scotland (we played nine of them). I would listen to his advice.

As for my rankings of the courses I played:

Royal Aberdeen - the second oldest course, and an amazing place.
Old Course - because it is what it is.
Carnoustie - just a wonderful golf course.
The Machrie - hard to describe. I loved this place, and would go back in a minute (and not just because of all the distilleries on the island).
Kingsbarns - I would have ranked it higher if it wasn't so bloody expensive.
Western Gailes - the first course we played, and my introduction to links golf. I like this place.
Jubilee - it's a really nice course, and I would definitely play it again.
Machrihanish - lot's of people on the net raved about this one. I didn't get it.
Cruden Bay - just too damned difficult (I'd like to play it again, but not in the 40mph winds we had - I didn't have fun this day).