Bandon vs. Scotland

[Sean_A]

  If the Bandon courses were centred around a lovely town I would already have the been there done that t-shirt.

Actually, there is a lovely small town less than 10 minutes away.  You could stay there if you wanted, and just drive up to play the courses, although the green fees are higher for non-resort guests, to encourage you to stay on-site.

I never knew the local town was so attractive!  The day may come when I make the journey...still...for now Bandon remains a low priority in my golf travels.  I have been concentrating on the Carolinas these past years and there are still many more courses to see.


Ciao

[Simon Holt]

John Cowden it's possible to visit Scotland without Perry Golf or another company adding 100% to the bill.

A 7 day golf package is $550 add 7 nights in a B&B at $130 a night. Add a business class flight in May for $3400 to Edinburgh from JFK on BA or AA and there's a week for $5k. Fly zoo and knock $2k off the price.

Chappers,


I'll bite on this one - as pals you'll hopefully know my tone is jovial, all be it a little defensive as a tour op myself, but thats absolute nonsense you've written about mark-up.


Perry Golf's mark up will work nicely for them but I'm taking a very educated guess the end user will probably pay about a 10% more than could do it for him/herself at a SIMILAR standard....if, and big if, they could get access to the tee times on the Old.  I do realise the "100% added to the bill" was a throw-away statement.


Perry will get excellent margins at the likes of the Old Course Hotel and the Fairmont, on a par or better than Bandon's lodging quality no doubt, therefore allowing them to make good money while offering a premium product and an uptick for doing all the work for the client.


Its not quite fair to compare the lodging at Bandon to B&Bs on Murray Park.  Although I know your point is you can stay at B&Bs to make it cheaper.


In terms of the $550 for golf, if the comparison is Bandon v Scotland then its implicit that we are comparing the courses there to the likes of the Old, Kingsbarns, Carnoustie.  KB alone is the guts of £240, Old Course time at best is £175 if you ballot (multiply that by 3 for an advance trade time); two courses you would definitely want to play and we are already at your $550 mark.


[/size]We are all well versed from the endless (and apologies to the guys [/size]genuinely [/size]asking for help) "I'm doing a trip to Scotland, I'm asking for help but really I'm not, please tell me how great my trip is" threads to know how to do it on a shoestring.  Bandon is expensive for most golfers and so is Scotland at that standard of accom and golf courses we are comparing.




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[Simon Holt]

For some reason it cut out the end of my chat....


I had also mentioned comparable golf being the Old (£175 if lucky enough in ballot) and Kingsbarns (£240ish) for those staying in St Andrews which adds up to $550 just for two courses, let alone a 7 day trip for $550.

[John Cowden]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but as noted, it depends.   I rarely play Bandon in the summer since my January week is a third the price.  With Scottish weather, to boot.  And I certainly wouldn't spend time in Fife without a round on the Old and Kingsbarns, among others, if at all possible.  I stand by my hypothetical budgets, above. 

[John Kavanaugh]

John,

Have you played Kingsbarns?

[John Cowden]

Is this conversation worth the site's time?  Yes, I've played Kingsbarns.  And the shower in the clubhouse is excellent. 

[Mark Chaplin]

Simon I too cannot see how you could spend $10k on a trip to Scotland without some serious luxury. A St.Andrews links ticket works out at $550 for the week, double if you get a couple of games on the Old. I've never met a Brit who has paid £240 to play Kingsbarns but our US friends seem to love it.

[Adam Lawrence]

Out of interest, have any UK based GCAers ever been to Bandon?


Short of a lottery win, I can't see myself ever getting there.

I've been, but as for me it's work I guess I'm a special case. I was in California anyway for the Golf Industry Show, and Old Mac was built but not yet open, so it seemed a good time to go and get a story. I arranged to fly to San Diego via SFO, and thus connected up to Bandon after the show. Pretty easy really, though a long flight delay on the way back from North Bend to SFO meant I had to run through the airport to make my transatlantic flight home. Bags made it too, quite surprising.

[John Kavanaugh]

I did think all the courses at Bandon were better than Kingsbarns but that doesn't have anything to do with Scotland.