GOLF DETAILS: SCOTLAND

For our golfing experience in the home of golf, we have chosen a wonderfully varied selection of outstanding courses.  They are each within one hour’s drive of our hotel.  Each has its own unique setting, varying from the upland hills of Perthshire to the bunker-laden flat lands of St. Andrews.  Most courses have few if any motorized golf carts, and these are reserved for persons with a certified medical condition.  Thus, our costs are based on each player using a pull cart.  If it is necessary to have a motorized cart, or if a caddy is desired, we will do our best to make those arrangements for you, at an additional cost.  Below, we briefly describe each golf course.

Saturday, 23 August

Today we will travel about 15 miles southwest of Perth to the most renowned golf resort in Scotland, Gleneagles, to play the King's course.  Although not on the sea coast, the King's course resembles the older links courses in Scotland in that it is built on sand and gravel, which were deposited when the last ice sheet finally melted, some 15,000 years ago, leaving long ridges, flat-topped mounds and enclosed hollows.  Around 1920, the legendary architect, James Braid, turned this dramatic landscape into the King’s course.  The result is an idyllic golfing landscape where many of the fairways and greens are isolated from neighboring holes by the gravel ridges, giving golfers the luxury of feeling they are playing on their own private course.      

Approaching a green on the King's Course, Gleneagles

The course is long, playing 6741 yards from the back tees, but selecting the right club for each approach shot is the secret on the King's course.  It is certainly one of the most beautiful and exhilarating places to play golf in the world, with the springy moorland turf underfoot, the sweeping views from the tees all around, the rock-faced mountains to the north, the green hills to the south, and the peaks of the Trossachs and Ben Vorlich on the western horizon.  All the holes have evocative and pithy Scots names. For example, the fifth, "Het Girdle" (Hot Pan), is a challenging par 3 with trouble everywhere except on the green, while 17th's name, "Warslin' Lea" (Wrestling Ground), reflects the difficulty so many golfers have had with this long, sweeping par 4.  After the round, we will enjoy a fine lunch in "The Club" restaurant, before being picked up by motor coach for the return to Perth.

Monday, 25 August

Today we will venture about an hour's drive east of Perth to play the course hosting the 2007 British Open, Carnoustie Golf Links.   Golf has been played here since the 1500s, but the present course came into being in 1850, when it was designed by Alan Robertson of St. Andrews.  Some 20 years later, the legendary Old Tom Morris improved and extended the course to 18 holes and in 1926, the famed architect, James Braid, redesigned the Championship course extensively.  The final three holes were remodeled by James Wright in 1937, and it is today, much as it was then. 

Carnoustie Championship course is now in the finest condition it has ever been. Not only does it offer the ultimate challenge to every golfer but it provides a playing quality second to none. The Barry Burn eases it’s way through the final 3 holes, quietly awaiting the shot that is slightly less than perfect. It was there in 1999 that Frenchman Jean Van de Velde lost the chance of being Open Champion and a place in history.

The 16th and 18th holes with the Carnoustie Hotel in background

The Championship courses plays from 6120 to 6941 yards long.  Par is 72, with three par 3s and three par 5s.  After our round, we will lunch in the new club house restaurant, and then return to Perth.

Wednesday, 27 August

Fifteen miles north of Perth is one of the most picturesque golf courses in all of Perthshire, Dunkeld and Birnam.  Each hole affords not only a new and interesting challenge for the golfer, but also ever-changing views of the glorious surrounding countryside.  Officially opened in 1922 by Her Grace the Duchess of Atholl, the course has a magnificent heathland setting on a hillside above the historic small town of Dunkeld.  To the southwest, the outlook is over Dunkeld Cathedral and along Strathbraan while to the east, wide ranging views encompass the Loch of the Lowes where Ospreys breed every spring.  On the course itself the only disturbances that you may experience will be from deer crossing the fairway, from an Oyster Catcher leaving its nest as you approach, or perhaps from the plaintive calls of a Buzzard circling lazily overhead or a Curlew gliding in to land.  It is a relatively short course, playing 5511 yards from the back tees and 4930 yards from the forward tees, but its par 70 (36,34) layout is far from easy.  There are only two par 5 and four par 3 holes, so most of the yardage is made up with demanding par 4's.  There is a very nice restaurant in the clubhouse for our lunching pleasure.

  Two holes with spectacularly different vistas 

Friday, 29 August

Today we travel to the home of golf, St. Andrews.  Because of the fame of the “old course", the great demand for tee times and restrictive policies for groups, it may not be possible for our group to play it.  We are trying to negotiate guaranteed tee times on the "old course", and we can try to submit our names in the daily lottery, and perhaps one or more of us will be chosen to play it.  However, there are three other links golf courses that share the very same  hallowed grounds as the “old course".  Of these, we have chosen the “New” course for our Stowe Away Tours golf day.  It has frequently been said that if the New Course were not situated next to the Old, then its star would have shone with a far greater degree of brilliance.  Located adjacent to the "old course", many of its famous holes can be seen while playing the “new” course.  Opened in April 1895, the course was built in response to increasing demand for golf at St Andrews. The construction of the New Course was paid for by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which entrusted the layout to Old Tom Morris of “old” course fame. The result is a classic links course which is a first class golfing challenge. The course has the traditional out and back layout, with the 18th green just to the right of the first tee. It also has, in the great St. Andrews tradition, shared fairways and even a double green at the 3rd and 15th holes.  From the back tees, the course plays 6604 yards at par 71 (36,35).  At the conclusion of our round, we will join the non-golfers for lunch at the famous Rusack’s Hotel, overlooking the 18^th hole of the “old” course.  We will conclude our day with a visit to the St. Andrews Golf Museum, before returning to Perth. 

The New Course at St. Andrews

Par 5 eighth hole                                       Par 3 ninth hole                                          Par 4 tenth hole