15 Lesser-Known Golf Courses in Scotland
Great Scottish golf doesn’t have to have a big name—or a big price tag I dislike the hackneyed phrase “hidden gems,” but regarding the courses that follow it’s 50 percent correct: They’re all gems, though not hidden; they’re just not on the radar screens of most North American golfers. Whether you’re a first-time visitor to […]
Scotland’s Quirkiest Golf Courses
Scotland’s Prestwick is the quirkiest championship course in golf Former USGA Executive Director Frank Hannigan called it “kinky.” Dan Jenkins noted it was replete with “charming atrocities.” Bernard Darwin was so smitten with its peculiar enticements that in 1913 he wrote, “A man is less likely to be contradicted in lauding Prestwick than in singing […]
5 Great Golf Courses to Play in Edinburgh, Scotland
The historic capital of Scotland is a festival city with an array of more than 20 challenging courses While golfers landing at Edinburgh Airport often head for the links of East Lothian and Fife, the charms of “Auld Reekie”—“old smoky” in Scots—make the Athens of the North a compelling destination for a golf trip in […]
Modern Classics: Dumbarnie Links
Likely the last true links to be built in Scotland, it looks to be 100 years old or more—not just three Dumbarnie Links was a 20-year dream in the making. When it finally emerged from a stretch of inaccessible, virgin linksland along the southern shores of the Firth of Forth in 2019, it became quickly […]
Dumbarnie Links
On a trip to Scotland last fall I had the opportunity to play a sneak-preview round at Dumbarnie Links. Clive Clark, a member of the 1973 Great Britain and Ireland Ryder Cup team, has taken a relatively undistinguished landscape and created 18 fun, testing, and memorable holes. About nine miles south of St. Andrews on […]
13 International Golf Trip Planning Tips
By James A. Frank Arranging a golf trip here at home is pretty simple, usually requiring no more than inviting some friends and making a couple of phone calls or clicks on the internet. Trying to put together a buddy trip abroad, however, is a very different animal, requiring superhuman organizational and diplomatic skills as […]
Coul Links: Scotland’s Next Championship Links?
By Adam Schupak Editor’s note: In June 2018, Coul Links received approval to enter the construction phase of the project. This article, written in fall 2017, provides useful background on what will be the newest course in the Scottish Highlands. Ever since he first played Royal Dornoch 40 years ago, developer Mike Keiser has […]
Playing Trump Turnberry After its Major Renovation
By Graylyn Loomis When Turnberry opened in 1901 it was heralded as one of Scotland’s best new links courses. Sadly, a few decades later the course was closed and flattened during the first and second World Wars to create a large airfield for Royal Air Force training. In 1950 the course was reopened after a […]
The Best Scottish Local Gems
By Graylyn Loomis When you make the bucket-list journey to Scotland, it’s only natural that you’d want to play the most well-known courses. You want to see the Open Championship venues and walk in the footsteps of the game’s great players. We get it! But, it is also our job to educate you on where else […]
Try St. Andrews Golf in the Winter
By George Peper This morning my regular golf game was cancelled because two of the guys backed out—the weather conditions were too brutal for them: 62 degrees and intermittent light showers. I live now in Florida. A decade ago, had those same conditions prevailed on a Saturday morning, all four players would have convened cheerily […]
