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Naturally the St Andrews Old Course is the track that attracts the most attention, and needs little introduction. Anyone playing St Andrews however, has other options they may wish to consider. The St Andrews Links Trust manages a total of seven different courses, six of which are located on the spit of land that juts out into the Eden estuary and the sea to the north of the town. This is a brief guide to the other links of St Andrews and charts the introduction of the first addition to the family (the New Course) to it’s most recent (the Castle course) Although it needn’t be considered the most ambitious programme, it is perfectly possible to base yourself exclusively in St Andrews and construct an itinerary based on this guide to the other links of St Andrews. Seven or three day ‘rover tickets’ allied to a much reduced transport burden that can be satisfied through a combination of walking to play or local taxis also reduces your costs significantly

In addition to the courses managed by the St Andrews Links Trust, there are other challenges of note. All the of the golf courses in St Andrews are of a high standard, and when you think about it logically, they have to be. Architects won’t risk their reputations building something sub-standard in the full glare of the ever judgemental golf world. Similarly, golfer’s won’t associate with a course deemed to be inferior, and especially since they’re hardly short of alternatives to choose from. There are no hiding places in the ‘auld grey toon’, anyone building a new course has to get it right

Images by Kevin Murray and also with thanks to the St Andrews Links Trust media pack The Torrance Course image is by Jano Spingal licensed under CC by SA 2.0 License terms [CLICK]

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The plight of the single person in the world of travel has never been a great one. There’s little point in trying to sugar coat that. The principal reason as you might have suspected is profit. Put simply, unless you’re a specialist operator with a niche market, you won’t make as much money on a single booking as you will on a group booking of a dozen or more. The golf travel industry isn’t necessarily an exception to this either, and indeed has a couple attributes which we won’t go so far as to describe as discriminatory, but rather as limiting instead.

At Faraway Fairways however we thought we’d explore the scope that single golfers have in trying to put together a substantive tour, as we always try for you but do so against an unfavourable backdrop.

There are three major components in a golf tour  

• Green Fees
• Accommodation
• Transport

Each of these creates unique challenges for the single golfer. The problem we face with green fees is that many courses are reluctant to permit a single golfer to play solo. The only way you can normally secure this is through a very late booking of an unfilled tee-time that would otherwise be lost. This is far too speculative to plan anything around long-term however, and naturally the most sought-after courses don’t have such windows with many booking up months in advance. By definition therefore, single golfers are a bit restricted and need to join existing two or three balls. This places them at the mercy of the club policy.

Now in fairness this isn’t as bad as it sounds. Some of the commercial courses will make this a condition, and some of the private members clubs will also advise two and three ball groups that they should expect to be allocated a fourth player should one request a tee slot. We’re also lucky in golf in that there is a tradition of accepting strangers into a four ball and meeting new people etc

The greater disruption we face is trusting that we can find an under sized group on any given day. We’re also more limited in our options for that day too given that we’re rarely in a position to pick and choose our tee time with the same freedom that a fourball might enjoy. A single golfer’s itinerary needs to be more flexible as a consequence as we seek to dot them around in windows of opportunity as they present themselves. It wouldn’t be unheard of to require a ‘Plan C’ as well as Plan’s A and B. Basically an itinerary is more complicated to arrange, and we’ll usually need to consider more fall-back positions than usual.

It’s perhaps worth noting that due to the requirement to accept fourball bookings only, single golfers won’t be able to play Muirfield

No examination of the single golfer’s plight would be complete however without talking about the St Andrews Old Course ‘walk up rule’. This is specifically designed to accommodate single golfers. The premise is simple.

A single golfer presents themselves to the starter and asks to be allocated to the next under sized group to make up a fourball. This operates on a first come, first served basis. Once the group presents themselves to the starter he will inform them that they have a solo player requesting that they join them. The group can refuse but in reality most will accept. It’s considered poor protocol not to do so. You then pay the starter the standard green fee, shake hands with your new companions, and off you go. You might be surprised by just how often single golfers are able to make this arrangement work. It actually enjoys a very high strike-rate in excess of 90% in our own experience.

There is one draw-back however, and especially in the peak season. The first come first served model requires you lay something of a siege to the starters hut, and this can involve an uncomfortably early start, and an unproductive and frustrating wait

Let us now move onto the second consideration, that of accommodation, and it isn’t long before we encounter the dreaded ‘single person supplement’.

If staying in top hotels the cost can quickly run away from you. Even in the best-case scenarios, single reservations rarely work out in the solo traveller’s favour. Even when you aren’t being charged double, they tend to work out at one and three quarters. One advantage the single traveller does have potentially though is flexibility and the ability to hunt around smaller accommodation providers particularly bed & breakfast or guesthouse properties. For reasons of legislation and tax, these properties are categorised according to the number of rooms they have. Larger parties can often find themselves restricted by having more bodies than beds (so to speak!). This means that single travellers can often pick up the spare capacity. B&B’s also tend to be more equitable in their pricing of single rooms than hotels are as well. It’s perhaps worth mentioning that some budget chain hotels offer sufficiently competitive pricing and a comfortable double bed, that a single traveller can certainly entertain the idea of making a conventional double room booking without taking a noticeable hit in their budget. Although we’re reluctant to invoke ourselves as a recommendation, but its what we tend to do if accompanying a group.

As a general rule however, single golfers will probably have to reconcile themselves to compromising a bit on accommodation.

The final major component then is transport, and here planning pays. The first thing to perhaps recognise is that if you’re undertaking a conventional ‘point-to-point’ tour which involves luggage movement, and consequently ‘standing-time’ whilst you play, then unless money really is no object, a chauffeur driven option is likely to prove prohibitively expensive. You might even find yourself being required to pay for driver overnight accommodation and sustenance too on a conventional touring route.

The only way that most of us could entertain a chauffeur driven option would be to adopt a ‘base-and-back’ approach. These means luggage is kept in your accommodation which removes the need to pay for vehicle standing time. It’s still tends to be a sub-optimal solution however and usually limits you to a comparatively small golf playing radius. The only bases that have a sufficient quantity of top-quality golf courses around them which could be serviced by local taxis are the links of St Andrews (plus Kingsbarns), and Troon (Prestwick, Dundonald, and the Gailes Courses).

For the most part, self-drive is the most cost-effective solution. The single golfer enjoys a bit less price discrimination here so long as you’re using a small vehicle, but even then, the emphasis is on limiting the damage rather than being able to achieve a cost advantage. If you wanted a larger more luxurious vehicle, then you will be penalised with just one person undertaking the cost burden rather than being able to share it. Which ever way you dive on this one, you will also be responsible for the fuel costs too which can’t be shared either.

One possibility a single golfer might consider is finding a hotel near to railway station. A return rail fare on a local train can work out to be rather cheap and you wouldn’t be out of options

GOLF COURSE	WALKING DISTANCE FROM STATION	STATION TO SET OFF FROM
Kilmarnock Barassie	130 yards	Glasgow
Prestwick	220 yards	Glasgow
North Berwick	360 yards	Edinburgh
Carnoustie	370 yards	Stirling (change for Edinburgh)
Troon	1500 yards (probably too far)	Glasgow

It’s a real shame no one ever built a station halt at the Gailes courses as the line runs along the perimeter of the course as it does at Dundonald too. It would potentially tee-up a Glasgow Golf Tour by train

Faraway Fairways don’t dismiss enquiries from single golfers, we’ll do our best for you, but as we’ve hopefully outlined, there are some challenges we’ll need to overcome

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How can I play the St Andrews Old Course? is just about the most frequently asked question Faraway Fairways encounters. The most honest answer we can give in general terms is, “it depends”, and that’s when we begin launching into the various avenues open to you, which can cause an information over-load. The most important thing to grasp at the outset however is relatively straight-forward. There is a relationship between the cost and the certainty of getting a round. In broad terms, the greater the level of certainty you require, the more expensive it becomes.

So, let’s briefly explore the options beginning at the top-end of the market and the “guaranteed packages”. Before we do this though, we need to explain that the St Andrews Links Trust operates a “two course policy” which applies to all their ‘guaranteed’ packages. This means you’ll need to nominate a second course, or have one allocated to you. The consequence of this condition it’ll always cost a bit more for this, and that you’ll normally be required to stay additional nights above that which perhaps you wanted to.

Guaranteed Tee Time

The St Andrews Links Trust used to have two ways of distributing ‘guaranteed’ tee times into the third-party commercial market. The first involved dividing 1000 tee-times amongst the St Andrews Hotel and Guesthouse Association, who would then look to resell them as part of levered accommodation packages. These packages nearly always involve a three-night minimum stay, and a minority could try and extract a minimum expenditure on top of that (usually food related). Other accommodation providers might elect to simply sell their tee-times to tour operators however, which can cause yet another layer of price inflation.

This might sound like an obstacle, but three-night stays aren’t normally that far outside of golfer’s plans anyway as many seek to play Carnoustie and Kingsbarns on the same visit. With the two-course policy in place however, it’s likely that you’re going to be pinned to at least a four-night stay if attempting this combination

Faraway Fairways have previously reverse engineered prices based on what we know it costs and detected that a round can be embedded at a price up to seven times higher (£1750) than what it actually costs. It would be wrong to say that all guaranteed tee-times sold through ‘authorised providers’ seek to obtain this level of mark-up though. They don’t. A factor of seven is just the highest example we believe we’ve detected

In terms of sourcing an ‘authorised provider’, perhaps the most important distinction to make is that advertising the existence of a ‘guaranteed tee time’ as an ‘authorised provider’ is generic. What providers really mean is that they only have guaranteed times for certain days. If these don’t coincide with your plans, you’ll expend a lot of time going up blind alleys trying to find the provider who dovetails with your preference.

It’s always possible too, that someone who latches onto your enquiry will claim they can meet the date irrespective of whether they hold the appropriate tee-time themselves. They might then seek to source it from someone who does hold the tee-time for that date concerned and apply another layer of margin. We couldn’t tell you how widespread this practise is however, but it wouldn’t be without historic precedent.

Advance Ballot (Guaranteed)

The St Andrews Links Trust make some advanced guaranteed tee times available for the following year by ballot. Applications can be made via an online form. Once all applications have been received a ballot (lottery) will be drawn. This can be a very cost-effective option. The window for applications usually opens at the end of August (10.00 am BST) and closes two weeks later at midnight on the first Wednesday of September. Results are notified to you in early October. The process is split into four packages dependent on the size of your group. It is definitely worth noting that single players make applications through the advanced system and will be allocated other solo players as playing partners

The big attraction of the advanced guaranteed ballot is that you pay the advertised green fee, there are downsides however.

You can only make applications for Monday to Friday on the advanced guaranteed ballot, and you can only make a maximum of three applications spread across two-week blocks in a single season. Your chance of success are felt to be below 50%, but that needn’t be considered low in the context

One downside risk to the advanced application is whether or not Old Course guaranteed packages sell-out whilst you’re waiting for the notification of the result and thus deny you a fall-back option. There is also a chance that your preferred accommodation, or even rounds on certain days at Carnoustie or Kingsbarns could also sell-out whilst you’re awaiting the confirmation of the result.

All your planning hinges on the advanced ballot and this can make assembling a group problematic (especially if you’ve identified three different blocks in the year and require everyone to be available for them). If your plans also involve playing the likes of Royal Troon, Royal Dornoch, and most definitely Muirfield, then waiting on your advanced ballot dates is likely to place this trio under pressure if you intend trying to book them after you have the result (you’d be most unlikely to secure Muirfield this way, as they open their diary even earlier).

The ‘Burns’ Ballot

“The ballot” is the least expensive way of playing St Andrews. The ballot isn’t subject to the two-course policy that is conditional to any of the guaranteed packages. If you’re seeking to roll up other courses as part of a high intensity, but comparatively short tour with limited time, you aren’t having to dedicate a day to observing the requirement to play a second St Andrews course. Critically though, it does carry a risk of failure.

The Links Trust notify us of their ‘busy days’ with ‘block out times’ for tournaments or club fixtures. Tour operators consult this schedule, and it definitely influences how overseas visitors in particular are managed. We can’t easily advise that people target a busy period in good faith (Faraway Fairways don’t). Not only is it ethically questionable to do so, it potentially leaves us wide open to allegations of negligence. It’s worth being aware however that known busy periods (days with a lot of block-out) can become subject to lower demand, and therefore less busy, as a consequence of being busy!. If that sounds like nonsense, then try and think of it in terms of ratios. If a certain day only has 10 tee-times available, but just 20 applications chasing them, then that would represent a better prospect than a day which has 30 tee-times and 90 applications chasing them

At Faraway fairways we like to describe the process in terms of ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ variables. A static variable are set things which we can legislate for, such as the time of year, the day of the week, and any notified demands on the course. A dynamic variable is something which alters and is much harder to factor. This would include things like local weather conditions, or demands being made on neighbouring courses. It’s really a question of trying to load the dice as favourably as we can< You can apply for the ballot on-line yourself using this link [CLICK HERE] or alternatively you can ask Faraway Fairways to take responsibility for it and manage on your behalf. Which ever you decide upon, it’s most important that only one of does it. Duplicate applications are easy to spot and lead to disqualification

So what’s the bottom-line?

The question you really want to know the answer to however is ‘how good are my chances?”.

The St Andrews Links Trust are notoriously reluctant to offer an opinion on likely ballot success. In truth, we don’t blame them. Quite apart from the fact that they have little incentive to do so because they’ll nearly always fill their tee-sheets, they will also get things wrong now and then (the law of averages applies). There have been instances when good faith but ultimately inaccurate advice, has then become the subject of occasional litigation. Whereas such an action always fails, it’s a distraction they could do without.

Faraway Fairways have spent a few years playing cat and mouse with the Links Trust and do occasionally succeed in extracting an informed opinion. In addition to this, we’re also able to draw on own evidence, and that which we’re able to extract from credible co-operative partners, but before we expand on this it’s perhaps worth sounding a note of caution at this juncture. We really don’t know how different ballots will behave. The whole process can be incredibly quixotic. Any guidance we’re prepared to commit to the record, is just that; guidance. Outlier values in any data-set can (and will) periodically defy expectation (which is another way of saying we can never be certain and can’t be held responsible for advice that ultimately proves inaccurate). If you play through the ballot, there is a known element of risk failure, and applicants have to accept that.

On any given day in the low season, the odds of winning a ballot are normally heavily on your side. In the shoulder season they probably edge to being a little bit better than 50/50. The peak season is different however. The odds of successfully winning a ballot on any given peak season day are against you. We build your chances up by making repeat applications over a period of days until such time as we eventually tip the scales in your favour.

To try and illustrate this, we’d crudely suggest that between May, to mid-June they’re probably weaker than a coin toss, but better than drawing a named suit from a deck of cards. It would the view of Faraway Fairways that in order to tip the balance in your favour (about 50-60%) for late June to early September, we’d need to make four applications. Anyone who claims three is enough, might be stretching things a bit, albeit they’d probably be within the realms of sincerity around the fringes of the date range – (we could claim the same with a clear conscience).

In the ‘super-peak’ window of mid-July to mid-late August, you’d probably need to make seven or eight applications in order to tip the balance to the point where you could reasonably expect to win (90%+). Note this is a higher bar than just being in your favour. This doesn’t mean however that you’d been pinned to St Andrews for the duration of such a stay. There is plenty of good golf to be had within a two-hour isochrone of St Andrews. The only thing we’d need to construct is a programme that allows you to respond with a day-trip to St Andrews at 48-hours- notice.

A typical ballot strategy

The day of the week you choose can help stack the deck. Thursday afternoons, and all-day Saturday are particularly favourable given that the Links Trust allocates more ballot times to them than any other windows. Ballot times exist on other days of course, it’s just that there isn’t as many of them. There is no play on the Old Course Sundays.

A lot of golfer’s seek to play near-by Carnoustie and Kingsbarns with St Andrews. We naturally have a three-day hot spot, and a corresponding number of courses.

The risk of failure on the ballot ensures we sometimes need to adopt a contingent ‘plan B’. This means booking a neighbouring course as a mitigation against a failure.

If we succeed with a ballot though, and should the tee time we draw clash with one of our contingent bookings, then we have a small problem. We would need to cancel the course concerned. Green fees for the cancelled course are invariably forfeited under this arrangement albeit a course will look to reschedule if possible. In managing this we need to balance the potential financial loss of a green fee against the quality of play. If we look to concentrate on less expensive courses to reduce our exposure we begin to risk stacking your programme with second or third tier courses (remember we’d normally expect to lose more single day ballots than we’d win).

To some extent the Saturday begins to come to our aid. The St Andrews New Course can’t be pre-booked at weekends. It’s a ‘present-and-play’ course, with the advice being “go to golf”. This might sound ad-hoc, but it works surprisingly well. Saturday would normally be considered our best ballot day, so we naturally have a good back-stop position that doesn’t involve laying down a pre-payment at risk

Our next best day is the Thursday. Kingsbarns is an easier course to rearrange than Carnoustie. There would be a reasonable chance that some groups who’ve booked Kingsbarns on the Saturday will also have made ballot applications for the Old Course. Some of them will win and cancel Kingsbarns, creating a late gap that we would be able to fill if winning Thursday’s ballot and needing to cancel our round at Kingsbarns. Kingsbarns also operates a ‘late booking’ gateway where we might reasonably be able to expect to pick up some availability on the Sunday too, albeit we might be playing in two-balls or solo by then to recover things.

The bigger risk comes from drawing a clash with Carnoustie on the Friday. This is harder to rearrange. We wouldn’t describe it as impossible, but we’d probably advise that you might have to consider it a price worth paying for getting an Old Course tee time. Even with a forfeited green fee, the overall price is still going to be significantly less expensive than a guaranteed package. We might still get a shot at a rearrangement on the Saturday for similar reasons outlined to Kingsbarns.

All this assumes a three-day strategy of course. Introducing a fourth day alters things quite significantly. Not only would doing this tip the advantage of peak-season success in your favour, it would also allow us to play Carnoustie first (a Wednesday maximises the number of days available to us to try and rearrange something) or last (a Sunday when we can’t possibly clash with the Old Course due to there being no permitted play). We would now switch Kingsbarns onto the Friday in order to reduce our exposure to the more likely clash point (Thursday afternoon). This then releases the Thursday to play a less expensive course at lower risk of financial loss. There would be numerous options available to you. Any of the St Andrews courses would be fine, so would the supporting links of Fife such as Crail, Leven, Elie, Lundin or Scotscraig. If you wanted to retain an element of name-recognition, the inland course of Gleneagles would probably be the next nearest, although this would put an expensive green fee at risk

The ‘Walk Up Rule’ and Solo Players

If all else fails, we need to consider invoking some Plan C’s. These are the sorts of things you do if we’ve lost every ballot and are getting a bit desperate. The most popular is called the “walk up rule”, which is basically what it says on tin (albeit it tends to omit the detail of hideously early starts and long waits until the play begins the following morning).

Any qualified golfer can present to the Old Course starter and ask to be slotted into the next available gap. You might hear stories of strange myths and legends concerning hardy golfers mounting all-night vigils in the area of the bandstand, in order to be the first in the line the next morning? Well in the peak season on a warm evening, this certainly happens I’m afraid.

There are typically in the region of about twenty slots on a tee-sheet each day which haven’t been made up to a fourball. The determined golfer who is prepared to lay an early siege to the starters hut will usually succeed. The system works on a first come, first served basis. When the starter arrives in the morning, they’ll make a list of names and you’ll be given a time by which to return in expectation of being called forward against the days tee-sheets. You aren’t required to hang around all day once you’ve got onto the list

Naturally you will be asking to join an existing two or three-ball. You won’t necessarily be able to play in an established friendship group. The group whom you’re asking to join aren’t compelled to accept you either, but a vast majority will do (golf is an honourable game). Indeed, should you find ever yourself being petitioned to accept a player into your own group, Faraway Fairways advise that it’s considered correct protocol to agree.

The walk-up rule is predominantly designed for single golfers as they aren’t permitted to enter the ballot (though can enter the advanced ballot as already noted). It can be a bit hit-and-miss however. As you might expect, the weather is a strong factor in determining how many people are prepared to try it. Faraway Fairways have seen examples of it completely failing due to high-demand, we’ve also encountered people walking up around mid-day in months like May, and playing two hours later

In truth, ‘walk-up’ is increasingly quite widely known about, and during the peak season there is no shortage of people seeking to utilise it.

The Dark Time Reserve List

There is a lesser known trick that involves something called the ‘dark time reserve’.

This is a screen-shot of a ballot sheet from late October

The times circled are ‘dark times’ and about half a dozen of them appear on the end of the tee-sheet each day. They’re actually called ‘dark’ not because they’re concealed, but rather because there is a chance that on a particularly murky day you could end up finishing in the dark. It’s sometimes suggested that these dark times are some sort of secret society in operation, reserved for the leading figures of the R&A and their friends etc. Not true. They’re actually reserved for local residents of St Andrews. If you present yourself to the pavilion after the ballot has been drawn, you can ask to go on the reserve list for the following day. If the time hasn’t been claimed/ confirmed by a local by 09.00 the following morning, they’re offered to the reserve list in the order that the waiting list was formed. The reserve list still requires you pay the full green fee regardless of whether or not you complete

Faraway Fairways have enjoyed a degree of success using this method (although we wouldn’t like to rely it). In early September we’ve managed to get eight players onto the Old Course in a single application. The thing to remember here is that locals can play the Old Course with a degree of discrimination. If the weather is poor for instance, they can wait until the following week, or the week after etc. Dark times can go unclaimed

Conclusion and Further Information

So what is the best way? At Faraway Fairways we believe in integrity, and trust that will take us places, so allow us to be honest.

If money isn’t a consideration to you, either the total cost or the principle of paying more than you need to, then a dedicated guaranteed package has its merits. If however, you find this difficult to accept, then it’s more likely you’re going to have to wrestle with the ballot, and have a strategy developed that suits your needs

Authorised providers will often tell you that the ballot is far too hazardous and that you’re unlikely to win it. If you were restricted to just one or two days in the peak season, that would be a fair comment. Operators who don’t hold guaranteed slots by contrast (like Faraway Fairways) will encourage you to believe that the ballot is easier to win than others would have you believe. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, but we believe it skews towards our interpretation.

It isn’t that difficult to reduce peak season applications to a probability close to that of a coin toss, (or slightly better than). Is that acceptable? There is perhaps no definitive answer to that, but it’s worth remembering that even if you fail, you’re still likely bagging Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, and the St Andrews New Course. It’s top-quality compensation.

The key really hinges on how many days you can make available to be within striking distance of St Andrews, and what time of the year you wish to play. Even playing just outside of the super-peak window can go very close to giving you a mathematical probability greater than one if you’re able to think in terms of four days

It would also be Faraway Fairways’ opinion that you could slightly enhance your prospects of success by using a golf tour operator rather than an accommodation provider too (we would say that admittedly – but allow us to explain).

A lot of hotel rooms are sold remotely on-line. The inter-action between seller and buyer can be weaker. A specialist tour operator tends to develop a bit of dialogue and is perhaps more likely therefore to guide an enquiry into a better window of opportunity. In addition to this, accommodation providers primary line of revenue is room sales. They will sell their rooms in the hot spot windows regardless. They might possess a little bit more incentive to accept bookings in weaker windows as their reputations aren’t forged by their Old Course strike-rates, but rather the quality and value of their hotel. We don’t believe this is a significant difference however, but think we’ve detected that a golf tour operator holds a slight edge on some data we’ve seen. Should you choose to book through a St Andrews accommodation provider we’d still be very confident that they’ll do their best by you

Myth Buster

You will occasionally hear dark rumours about the ballot being rigged and people claiming to know someone, who knows someone etc. Even if such practises might have existed once upon time (we really can’t comment as to whether they did) Faraway Fairways has no reason to believe they do today. The industry is to much of a business now. The risks of operating something outside of proper protocols has consequences. So far as we’re concerned, the ballot is a very egalitarian process.

You also hear stories of people who claim to know affiliated club members etc (often tenuously). This has a little bit more legitimacy to it however, as you can play as a member’s guest and enhance your prospects of ballot success. This isn’t a dodgy practise. It’s quite legitimate. We are under the impression however that the Executive Committee of the R&A must be receiving dozens of unsolicited communications each day for the frequency with which hear this. It probably isn’t wise to rely on being able to ask a favour unless the individual is quite well known to you.

So you have a seven day golf vacation, and you’ve determined that the St Andrews Old Course is a ‘must play’. This isn’t an unusual start position, and naturally you think that staying in St Andrews is the sensible thing to do as well. Again, this is quite logical too. St Andrews might be an expensive location, but it oozes golf. Your experience needn’t be limited to your golf though. St Andrews also has a certain charm to it being a legitimate visitor attraction regardless of its golf. If you’re playing through the ballot however, we can’t know what precise day we’ll peg it up on the Old Course, but we can make an allowance. Instead we can set a day aside safe in the knowledge that our St Andrews base allows us the flexibility to respond to any ballot at 48 hours and re-arrange other rounds onto this shifting spare day. It isn’t long then before we turn to the question of how to fill the rest of an itinerary, and this sets up the search for golf courses near St Andrews in the wider Kingdom of Fife, and how you might best strike the balance between the two so as achieve the best result After the Old Course, the next step that visiting golfers will normally make is the marque names in the surrounding area and add these. Carnoustie as an Open Championship venue and with a world ranking in the high 20’s is the first on the list, quickly followed by Kingsbarns which also holds a ranking that puts it in the top-75. Of the two, Carnoustie is the most difficult to rearrange in the event of a round clashing with the Old Course ballot. It makes sense therefore to slip Carnoustie onto the one day of the week where a clash can’t happen, Sunday. Kingsbarns is the most expensive round of the week and not one you’d wish to put at risk of forfeit should it too clash with an Old Course ballot. The best way of handling Kingsbarns therefore is to check whether the Old Course has any block-out in your week concerned and if it does, to shadow this with a round at Kingsbarns, or if it doesn’t, to play it early so as to provide the maximum numbers of days elsewhere the week in the week to execute a re-arrangement and minimise the risk of a forfeit. By this stage we’ve inked in three days and have four left, and its typically at this juncture that your thoughts to turn trying to referee between St Andrews versus Fife. Do you focus on St Andrews or do you expand your horizons to the golf courses near St Andrews by venturing along the coastline picking up the ancient old links of Fife? In terms of convenience, the courses of the St Andrews Links Trust are on your doorstep and they’re the easiest to begin ticking off. With the exception of the Castle Course however, they all play in more or less the same piece of land. Sure, the course designs provide variety of sorts, but its the subtle type. They can perhaps never quite have the different challenges and personality that you’ll get from playing distinctly different courses on different terrain. It’s perhaps worth checking with worldtop100golfcourse.com and seeing if they can arbitrate by way of their Scottish rankings 22 – St Andrews Castle Course 26 – St Andrews New Course 27 – St Andrews Castle Course 31 – Lundin Links 33 – St Andrews Dukes Course 35 – Elie 47 – St Andrews Jubilee Course 48 – Leven Links 53 – Scotscraig 57 – St Andrews Torrance 67 – Crail Balcomie 70 – Crail Craighead 72 – St Andrews Kittocks 79 – St Andrews Eden Course Whereas such rankings are only ever indicative there is broad pattern of the higher ranked, quality courses being in St Andrews, the greater variety in Fife, and then the lowest quality being back in St Andrews. It’s never easy to determine how much of these rankings are corrupted slightly however by reviewers ‘playing’ the name of St Andrews? So let us now turn to how we might fill our remaining four days The St Andrews New Course is a present-pay-and-play proposition on Saturdays. Visitors can’t pre-book it. The Links Trust only release half the tee-times for Saturday on the day of play. It might sound ad-hoc, but it works surprisingly well. For the visiting golfer it means we can make low-risk ballot applications to play the Old Course for Saturdays safe in the knowledge that should we succeed, then we haven’t got to worry about re-arranging a cancelled tee-time or potentially forfeiting a green fee if we can’t. If you were so minded to play a double-day, you could always tag the Eden Course into the late afternoon. The Dukes Course isn’t a links. It’s a heathland course with some linksy characteristics. It’s owned and managed by the Old Course hotel and is about three miles inland. It can normally be played on a later arrangement too if you preferred to use it accordingly. We keep hearing so many good things from those of you who play the Castle Course that perhaps we have to include it as a dedicated day now. The Castle is a cliff-top course and easily the most aesthetic of the St Andrews tracks. It’s hilly and demanding though. It needn’t be one which you’d want to double-up. The two other cliff-top courses are the Torrance and the Kittocks. These are owned by the Fairmont hotel and often come packaged up in any stay and play arrangements. Of the three cliff-top courses however, then we’d probably advise Castle, Torrance, and Kittocks, in that order This now means we have five days accounted for and another two to allocate. At this juncture Faraway Fairways would be of the view that you break away from the ‘auld grey toon’, and look instead to golf courses near St Andrews, in Fife. The links of Fife are amongst some of the oldest in golf. They’re typically shorter than the modern courses, and you can consider some double-days on them as a consequence. Lundin and Leven are separated by a matter of just three miles. They’re obvious candidates. The two courses at Crail are another one and perhaps a little bit perplexing. The ranking has been a bit harsh on Crail you feel, the historic Balcomie links in particular. At about 5500 yds this is a course that does seem to divide opinion. Its supporters love it for its quirky lay-out of hanging lies and shots played from elevated tees, over secluded coves around curved bays etc. There are those however who also point to the comparative weakness of the inland section. Both opinions are legitimate. We might of course turn our attention to the other two courses in Fife that currently hold higher rankings. In truth though, as fun as Elie can be, it’s difficult to perhaps justify dedicating an entire to unless you were perhaps looking to take it a bit easier. You could perhaps consider dovetailing one of the Crail courses with Elie however. They might not be perfect neighbours, but at 12 miles or 30 minutes apart they’re hardly long-distance relatives either Scotscraig probably falls into the same description as Elie, although you could consider tagging it in as an evening round on the way back from a morning round at Carnoustie Perhaps there’s another answer emerging though for those of you who feel Crail might leave you a fraction underwhelmed? In 2020 Scotland’s newest links opens on the Largo coast at Dumbarnie. The pre-opening PR and the green fee suggests that they’re seeking to establish a status similar to that enjoyed by Kingsbarns or Castle Stuart. Even if they fail to nail down a prestigious world top-100 slot (and it’s increasingly competitive) we can perhaps already see that they’ll have built something that is comparable to Dundonald, which is going to mean that it can justify it’s own dedicated day without any loss of integrity

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Golf travel is perhaps something that’s really designed for four players, or at the very least even numbers you might think? Well there’s a grain of truth in this. Certainly groups of five can be quite awkward and they can find themselves getting penalised, but Faraway Fairways thought we’d take you through how Scotland handles groups of three, and what a Scottish golf trip for three players might look like, how you could adjust things, and how you can make some savings so as to ensure you extract maximum value There are three main blocks of cost in any golf trip

• Golf/ Green fees
• Accommodation
• Transport

Nearly every Scottish golf club will take a three-ball booking. There is little barrier here, and no financial penalty. The only exception we’re aware of is Muirfield who require that you apply as a fourball. You will need a handicap of 18 to play Muirfield, and in the past we have been able to find a local player who is prepared to make up a fourball for anyone who wishes to try this. You should expect to share the cost of the guest’s green fees between you though. The St Andrews Old Course will accept three ball ballot applications as will everyone else. This is not a barrier and there’s no financial penalty involved. All of the top courses will reserve the right to add a single to a three-ball booking to make up a fourball should they need to do so however. If playing a three-ball you should certainly prepare yourself for the likelihood of becoming a fourball, and we make an allowance in our timings accordingly. Faraway Fairways do receive quite a few enquiries from single golfers desperate to try and play top courses and very often they’re finding themselves struggling to do so. Rest assured that in a majority of cases by welcoming a single into your three-ball you’re doing someone a really good turn and playing your little part in helping reinforce he game’s reputation for being ‘thoroughly decent’ The only other golf related area that a three-ball might want to appraise themselves of concerns the issues revolving around St Andrews Old Course guaranteed tee-times Guaranteed tee-times are distributed amongst ‘authorised providers’ in blocks for fourball play. Guaranteed tee-times are always in high-demand. The operators / providers who hold them are rarely (if ever) in danger of failing to sell them. The fourball booking is the most popular in the market. Therefore, prospective suppliers have very little reason to break up the integrity of their fourball option and sell it to a three-ball in the knowledge that they’ve then got find a single player to maximise their sales revenue yield. It’s basically more time consuming to do so, when the easier and more lucrative transaction is to sell to a fourball. A lot of authorised providers will only sell exclusively to fourball applicants Now that’s not to say that a three-ball party can’t buy a guaranteed Old Course package, only that it’s much harder to do so, and you’d have to be outrageously fortunate to do so on equal terms. Guaranteed tee-times are very, very rarely sold in isolation to the bare essentials (the Old Course and one other St Andrews Links Trust course). They nearly always come with a minimum hotel stay attached to them (typically four nights) and frequently with a minimum spend per person at that hotel (about £100). You could easily find that you’re required to compensate the seller to the value that the fourth player would have been worth to them in order to take a guaranteed tee-time. This needn’t been restricted to nights stayed and hotel expenditure either. It can extend to other courses played that are on the package (usually Carnoustie and Kingsbarns) and can even involve transport too. As you might imagine, sharing the cost of a ‘phantom fourth player’ amongst three, on what is already an inflated retail price, becomes prohibitively very expensive, very quickly. Faraway Fairways can’t really advise that any three-ball doing this is getting value for it The issue of accommodation however is a little bit more opaque and this where a three-ball might pick up some financial penalty, but even here there is sometimes some scope to create a saving with some local knowledge and astute planning. In general terms, odd numbers don’t tend to work that well in the UK hotel market. Although some will make a concession to a single occupancy room, they never do so at 50% of the price. It tends to be in the region of 80% instead. What this usually means is that two players will share a twin room (two single beds) and the third player will normally have a double room under single occupancy. Single rooms do exist, but they tend to be the poor relation in a hotel’s portfolio The double room under single occupancy is the superior choice, but it also happens to be the more expensive option. You might be prepared to accept this as a compromise. Although you’re paying more per person, you are at least getting something for your money One thing you might consider however is a ‘family room’. Family rooms are typically larger than standard twin or double guest rooms. They typically have three beds, usually comprised of one double, and two singles. Obviously, the person who is allocated the double has the best deal on this arrangement. You’d need to decide how you arbitrate on this one. You might make it conditional on doing the driving, you might rotate it, or you might like to introduce a sporting angle and make it subject of a nearest the hole challenge on your par 3’s? The big attraction of the family room however is that the per person rate is usually lower with three people sharing the costs of a family room, than two people sharing a traditional twin room. It can represent a saving to you The final major cost consideration is transport. This is where a three-ball will nearly always get penalised. A golfer typical generates one large luggage item plus a golf bag. Three golfer’s equal’s six significant luggage items. No ‘car’ can handle this without resorting to distinctly sub-optimal solutions of cramming golf bags onto back seats, wedging them into passenger footwells, and the third golfer contorting themselves accordingly. Don’t attempt it. Your ride comfort will be severely compromised Instead you’ll need to use a multiple-person-vehicle (MPV) with the same capacity that a fourball would. These typically have between 7 and 9 seats, but critically they handle 9 luggage items. It might look like a bit like overkill, but there really isn’t much by way of alternative option. The downside of course is that the hire cost for the vehicle is the same regardless of whether three people or nine people are using it. The cost person rises with each less person there is to share the burden The only way around this that might be conceivable is to use two cars, one large estate (4 to 5 luggage items) and one small hatchback or medium saloon (2 luggage items). This wouldn’t necessarily be a ‘saving’ in the strict sense of the word, but it would limit the damage as it usually works out cheaper than an MPV. In truth though, it’s clumsy and the cost differential isn’t actually that much. You’re probably better off keeping the integrity of your group together in a single travel unit where you can enjoy each other’s camaraderie The only other ‘cost heading’ that can make a significant contribution to a golf trip that would possibly need attending to in advance are entry fees to visitor attractions. A group of three isn’t penalised on these, or to be more precise perhaps, a group of three isn’t considered large enough to benefit from any discount structures. If it’s any consolation, neither are groups of four either. Group discounts tend to begin at groups of eight So what about in-situ expenditure? Things such as food and rink aren’t normally affected, although there is one potential caveat of concerning St Andrews Old Course guaranteed tee-times if for some reason you’ve found that you’ve been able to find someone who’ll sell you a three-ball option

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Image by Kevin Murray. To view some of Kevin’s work from around the world [CLICK] One of the key questions that any visitors face when choosing a Scottish golf vacation is the answer to the question of when? In other words, the choice of season or month. Scottish golf in the Spring is one of the most interesting, and varied options of the lot. Meteorological spring begins at the start of March and lasts until end of the May. In practical terms this means a window that starts in the winter season, and which briefly runs through a shoulder season, and finishes on the peak summer season rates. You see, Scottish golf in the spring covers a stretch like no other season and is quite capable of throwing wild and varied conditions at you. Most courses are still on their winter season rates in March, and this usually means a green fee approximately half the price. In March however it’s by no means unusual for the courses to require that you play off fairway mats, so anyone looking to steal a little bit value should make an allowance for this inconvenience. Muirfield are normally the first to break rank and introduce a seasonal price increase in mid March. You wouldn’t normally expect to have little difficulty getting a round of golf on the St Andrews Old Course in March. Our own experience is that golfers playing in March can more or less pick and choose the number of rounds they wish to play. Indeed, you’d even stand a chance of getting a round on the much sought after Muirfield at relatively short-notice too. We should perhaps warn you however that early March in particular can still throw up some quite unplayable conditions should we hit a cold snap. On balance Faraway Fairways would probably advise that golfers based in southern England or nearby continental Europe are perhaps the best placed to play March. You are the guys who can look at a seven-day weather forecast and respond at short-notice Kingsbarns only begin taking bookings at the start of April and Royal Troon waits until mid April before they begin taking visitors. Scottish golf in the spring does have a few restrictions you see, but as we pass through March and into early April we begin to encounter the shoulder season and better weather Shoulder seasons usually last for a stretch of two or three weeks from early to mid-April. During this period green fees will typically be in the region of 33% less expensive than the peak summer rate. Some courses run this structure to the end of the month (Kingsbarns) and a couple run a shoulder season up until mid May (Royal Aberdeen and Turnberry). We perhaps need to focus on St Andrews however, as this is the destination that frames so many package golf breaks. April represents something of a transition zone. In the first two weeks you would still normally expect to be able to play the Old Course more often than not. The adoption of ‘British Summer Time’ at the start of month adds an extra hour’s daylight to our day. The sun sets at close to 20.00 in the first week of April, which means the hardy can begin to entertain ideas of playing double-days for the first time of the year. By the end of month however we’re beginning to encounter our first Old Course pressure. Although conditions are still favourable, you should bank on losing a few ballots now, even with approximately fifteen hours of daylight by the end of the month being available to you Before we leave April behind us though, it’s definitely worth sharing a potentially valuable insight that few people seem to be aware of. April is the driest month of the year in St Andrews. Indeed, the three months of the spring are also the driest season. Whereas this might be a good advert for Scottish golf in the spring, you might need to balance the lack of rain with the temperature. April can still have a bit of a bite in the wind, and it’s only as we move into May that things will begin to warm up. For all intents and purposes May more or less functions as a summer month with seventeen hours of daylight by the end of it. In St Andrews however it normally begins with a significant Old Course block-out for a week though. This often deters overseas visitors from targeting the first week. It’s always worth keeping an eye on the Carnoustie diary in May as well as they run a series of traditional fixtures and competitions too which can also create something of a scheduling problem if we haven’t planned properly. Faraway Fairways normally reckon that an indicative daily strike-rate on the Old Course ballot for May is about 25% and we advise clients who are particularly focused on playing to think in terms of allowing at least four days where they’d be in a position to capitalise should their name be drawn. We have however seen some extended losing streaks in May which have previously coincided with windows of the greatest availability in the diary. We’re increasingly of the view that overseas visitors in particular who consult the Links Trust’s ‘busy day’ diary are over-subscribed clear windows of play and damaging each other’s prospects, whereas other windows which have some block-out, but which stop of short of total block-outs might be more productive If golf courses are prepared to cut visitors a bit of slack on the green fees in April, accommodation providers will usually adopt something of a mid-range pricing structure too, and only start going through gears towards the peak summer season in May All things considered Scottish golf in the spring is quite an attractive proposition, and it’s becoming an increasingly popular season as visitors hedge their bets against the reduced availability at St Andrews in the summer, and of course the more expensive accommodation we see from July onwards

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Image by Kevin Murray. To view some of Kevin’s work from around the world [CLICK] One of the key questions that any visitors face when choosing a Scottish golf vacation is the answer to the question of when? In other words, the choice of season or month. Summer golf in Scotland is the most popular season of the year. Meteorological summer begins at the start of June and lasts until end of the August. One of the first things to consider is the venue for the Open Championship. Although no formal decision to remove Turnberry from the rotation has been taken, it hasn’t reappeared since 2009. This does perhaps indicate that it’s been unofficially ‘parked’ for now. That being so, Troon, Muirfield, Carnoustie and St Andrews (twice every ten years) will mean that five in every ten years will likely see a clash. The championship takes place in mid July which means the hosting venue will be closed from the start of June in preparation. In addition to this, the Scottish Open proceeds it. This means that we should expect to lose another course in June too. In recent years this European Tour event has been variously hosted by Castle Stuart, Royal Aberdeen, Gullane, Dundonald, and most recently, the Renaissance Club One of the big advantages to summer golf in Scotland is the latitude that we play at. The longest day of the year typically occurs in June on or around the 20th of the month. To give you some idea of what this potentially means, the sun rises in St Andrews at about 04.20 in the morning and sets at 22.00. At higher latitudes in the Highlands on courses like Royal Dornoch, you’ll get an extra 30 minutes and a full eighteen hours of daylight. Faraway Fairways tend to advise that larger groups might consider using June as their month of choice. This is why If we’re able to distribute the driving burden and share the mileage out between you, then you can ‘create’ extras days due to the amount of daylight you have. The key to do this is trying to break out of the 08.00 to 17.00, nine-hour mindset that so many of us might export onto our vacation. Although taking it to the extreme isn’t advised (it’s a bit too punishing) you do theoretically have an additional nine hours of daylight of summer golf in Scotland. Even if you don’t want to play two rounds a day, you can use this extra daylight ‘to get to places’ and open the whole country up. If you adopt something like a 07.00 to 20.00 day, you add four hours a day. If you’re here for a week, that equals 28 hours in total. In terms of useable daytime hours, it’s close to being an extra three full days for no additional cost other than time spent travelling or playing It’s worth noting that June can be a surprisingly good month for the playing the St Andrews Old Course, despite there usually being a bit of a dearth of opportunities on Saturday’s due to block-out. In recent seasons however, the month has seemingly been targeted a bit more aggressively as perhaps word started to get out that June was being overlooked a little as visiting golfers and local anxious to ‘get their season going’ piled into May. One local quirk we need to note is that the final week of June is St Andrews university graduation week. This means that parents and returning students are competing with golfers for accommodation in the auld grey toon, and they normally operate over a longer lead time as well meaning that they get first jump. As you might expect, hotels respond to this with a price increase for the week (usually about 20%) although in truth availability is a bigger problem than price. Otherwise, the week in question is normally quite a good window to play the Old Course. Faraway Fairways have seen evidence that daily Old Course ballot strike rates rise by 10% during this week to something like 30% July is the hottest month of the year in St Andrews and the mid-point of the month sees the school summer holidays begin. From here until the end of August winning St Andrews Old Course ballots becomes a whole lot harder. Faraway Fairways tend to advise that clients need to be thinking in terms of one in six applications succeeding, perhaps as high as one in seven in particularly good weather. In fairness to the St Andrews Links Trust though, they do seek to make plenty of tee times available in July, and with 06.30 first tee-times now the norm opportunity still exists if we can navigate onto favourable landing strips (not always the most obvious choices) August performs very similarly to July as we complete our appraisal of summer golf in Scotland. One thing we need to draw to your attention however is the Edinburgh Festival which takes place throughout most of the month. This is a notorious accommodation killer in the capital. Hotels fill up and will usually look for at least twice the normal rate. If you’ve got a programme that involves playing the courses of east Lothian (Muirfield, North Berwick or Gullane) then this could become a consideration Another thing we need to advise as well is that the build up of warmer air from May onwards has usually introduced a bit more moisture into the atmosphere by August. In St Andrews, August is the wettest month of year (similar to January) albeit the average temperatures are a lot more obliging. The summer is the best season for you to entertain some of the more ambitious itineraries that might involve the Highlands and Islands and the remote courses such as Machrie, Machriahnish and Askernish. In order to reach these isolated out-posts we need to use ferries. These are more plentiful in the summer and sail with greater frequency and less weather disruption On balance, we’d probably nominate the Highlands as well. The Scottish Highlands supports a visitor and tourist industry. The more nomadic golfer needn’t always be the reservation that hoteliers regard as their best catch, and we can come into occasional conflict with accommodation providers holding out for a single week-long booking. Although it’s harder work to navigate this, we nearly always succeed in doing so, but usually require a little bit of early planning to lock down our options Faraway Fairways would probably nominate the summer as the best time to play the west coast giants of Turnberry, Troon and Prestwick as well. The western sky is often set alight by burning sunsets at this time of year too which provides a dramatic finale to the day.

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Image by Kevin Murray. To view some of Kevin’s work from around the world [CLICK] One of the key questions that any visitors face when choosing a Scottish golf vacation is the answer to the question of when? In other words, the choice of season or month. Scottish golf in the fall is possibly the most sanctifying and beguiling experience of the year. Sure, it requires a bit of luck to catch it at its best. If you do however then you’ll be richly rewarded and its definitely something that’s worth thinking about rolling the dice on Meteorological autumn begins at the start of September and lasts until end of the November. For St Andrews September has an established pattern however that we need to factor into our thinking. The first ten days of the month are normally clear, after that however the course closes for a series of traditional fixtures culminating in the Dunhill Links Challenge (European Tour event) at the end of the month which usually overlaps into the start of October. The Dunhill also means that Carnoustie and Kingsbarns are closed for the final week too as the trio co-host. It’s easy to reflect perhaps that the various golf clubs of St Andrews know when the best time of year is to play, and they keep mid September to themselves! It’s worth reviewing why though. Despite being a rainy month, and despite the autumn being the rainiest season of the year, we do get some idyllic days in September characterised by a warming sun and crisp fresh air being swept down from the north. Scottish golf in the fall can be blissful and it’s worth being aware that these conditions can particularly prevail in the Highlands, where the more northerly latitude tends to move the changing seasons forward by about three or four weeks. Autumn comes a little bit earlier to places like Dornoch, Nairn, or Castle Stuart, and that means it begins to weave a tapestry of rich colour into the landscape. Catch these conditions right, and Scottish golf in the fall is probably the very best that Scotland has to offer By the time October rolls around however we’re getting into the tail end of the peak season. Royal Troon will usually be amongst the first to close their books, and by the middle of the month St Andrews adopts their second ‘shoulder season’ price list which lasts from the middle of October to the 1st of November. Green fees are typically about 33% less than they were at the beginning of the month. Carnoustie also makes a similar concession about this time of year too. Naturally it also becomes easier to win an Old Course ballot as we press into October. Sure there is less daylight now, especially as we adopt Greenwich Meantime towards the end of the month and lose an hour daylight. There is however a palpable fall off from overseas visitors now reducing demand. Competition for rounds of golf begins to come from local players instead, who themselves are much more likely to be persuaded by looking out of the window and taking a decision based on the weather The early part of the November is normally still quite playable in most regions. The courses of the Highlands usually offer some particularly attractive terms as they seek to squeeze the last few drops out of the season. If you ‘go for it’ you do run an enhanced risk of weather disruption, and we wouldn’t really encourage you to do so after the 15th. Kingsbarns closes in November for maintenance and you would probably best be advised to discount it from your planning St Andrews is probably the best location for Scottish golf in the fall, and to some extent this owes a little bit to how the course interacts with the town. The Old Course leads away from the town and then calls you back in, as the streets of the town run alongside the closing holes to guide you home. The parallels with a ship on a sea and a lighthouse showing them the way start to become unmistakable as the lights of the hotels and bars begin to come on to show the way. It can be an almost spiritual experience coming in after four hours of toil on the links knowing that a dram or two of the good stuff awaits.

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Image credit by Evan Wilson under CC by ND 2.0 For terms of license [CLICK] One of the key questions that any visitors face when choosing a Scottish golf vacation is the answer to the question of when? In other words, the choice of season or month. At face value winter golf in Scotland might seem like an idea best suited to the insane, but a surprisingly high number of courses stay open and are playable all year round. Winter golf has more merit than you might imagine provided you set yourselves up sensibly. Surprisingly perhaps, there are some sound reasons why someone might actually consider this counter-intuitive idea. In the first case the green fees are invariably half-price. The accommodation isn’t far of being either. You will make significant savings. You will also be able to pick and choose where you play. Even the St Andrews Old Course has unfilled spaces on their tee sheet during December, January and February So who, you might ask, thinks about playing winter golf in Scotland? Leaving aside the answers that relate to price, the other people who might be tempted are the thrill seekers looking for ‘an experience’ and the opportunity to test their game under challenging conditions. These types needn’t be first timers (they’ve invariably cut their teeth on the summer months) but people who’ve played a few times already and want to try something different Now no honest assessment of winter golf in Scotland could be considered remotely complete without us addressing the issue of weather. With colder air, there is less moisture in the atmosphere. Rainfall needn’t be your biggest worry. February is a particularly dry month for example and rivals April as the driest in the calendar. Instead the bigger threat comes from cold, frost, wind, and of course snow. This also contributes to answering the question of who plays winter golf in Scotland. We do get crisp clear days where the fairways are firm, and greens receptive. There is an idyllic quality to playing under these sublime conditions, but also a clear downside, we don’t really get much notice beyond four or five days as to when we’re likely to face such bliss The sort of person who is best placed to capitalise on this therefore are the mobile and flexible. These might be the golfers of southern England or the big cities of Europe, or even American’s who can get to a New York airport fairly easily. Indeed, it’s possible to fly out on Friday evening, play the St Andrews Old Course on Saturday, Gleneagles on Sunday morning, and then land back in New York later that same evening flying with the time zones, (via London). What you need of course is the freedom to make late decisions and the foresight to spot a weather window There are two other regions which are worth considering. Perhaps the best are the links of East Lothian. The soil contains a particularly high sand content and they drain well and are less susceptible to frosts. If you chanced midweek, this would open up Muirfield (must be a fourball though), otherwise its courses like North Berwick, Gullane, Dunbar, and the Renaissance Club. East Lothian has the additional safety net of allowing to use Edinburgh as your base. Should the weather take a disruptive hand in affairs, you’ll get a bit of compensation in the non-golf department from the Scottish capital The courses of Ayrshire stay freer of frost than most by virtue of being in the tail of the Gulf Stream, but you will encounter more rain on the west coast usually, and of course Troon won’t be available until mid April. The idea of winter golf in Scotland might sound crazy (it is at one level) but Faraway Fairways would suggest that it isn’t quite as crazy as you might first think. It’s worth looking at, and worth monitoring if you have the flexibility to respond to a window. In 2019 for instance we saw a record temperature set in February when it played much more like June

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