UK Month Long Trip

[Joe_Tucholski]

After graduation and before starting the grind of work (for a second time) I'm taking a month long trip to the UK.  My wife and I have made two other trips to the UK but this is the first with the golf clubs and I’m planning to play a good amount of golf.

I feel like the majority of the golf trip reports posted here focus on the great courses and therefore have a big budget.  Don’t get me wrong I’m planning on playing some great courses but I’m also going to play some more budget friendly rounds.   Hopefully those lucky enough to travel but restricted by a budget will find this thread helpful.   Also for those of you that have learned from experience please share your tips/advice.

Basically we’re leaving tomorrow for this month long trip with only our flights, rental car, rounds at 5 courses and lodging in St. Andrews booked.  Once we had a rough idea on the dates I started to draw up a rough agenda.  We decided to fly into London and are flying out of Amsterdam post BUDA.  My planning regarding the golf basically started with reading old threads on trips/courses in the UK.  I can’t imagine trying to plan a trip like this before the internet.  A piece of information I would have missed without reading threads on this site was to look into Open Comps. 

I used the following website to browse open competitions in the UK (http://www.golfempire.co.uk/).  Unfortunately the high tourist season is also low season for golf comps.  That being said I still found 4 comps that I’ve managed to book and create a skeleton agenda for the trip.  Each of the courses was accommodating and allowed me to e-mail a scanned copy of the entry form and pay via credit card.  Aside from the considerable cost savings (I’m paying £80 for the 4 rounds compared to the published £250 at normal visitor prices) I am really looking forward to experiencing the club atmosphere during events.

I also knew that I wanted to get to St. Andrews.  As I said I’m trying to keep the trip budget friendly but we found out most lodging in St. Andrews isn’t exactly budget friendly.  What’s the deal with lodging establishments in UK charging a per person rate instead of a per room rate?  If my wife and I wanted to stay in separate rooms at most places it seems like the price would be the same as our preferred situation of sharing a bed.  We decided to pass on the £410 best price at the Old Course hotel and instead decided to stay at the University of St. Andrews.  From the website it looks decent, ensuite bathroom, offers breakfast, will allow us to leave the car parked and walk the town and it’s a bargain at £85 a night compared to everything else we found online.

So like I said that’s about all we have booked in terms of golf and lodging. 

Here is agenda as of today.  The bold items are the only things that are for sure.

6/20/2013   Arrive London after red eye, my wife wants to go to Dover and I'm thinking maybe twilight at Princes
6/21/2013   Afternoon round at Hockley ??
6/22/2013   Kington for the day
6/23/2013   Borth & Ynyslas Golf Club - Open comp morning round
6/24/2013   Royal St. David's Golf Club - Open comp morning round / Nefyn in the PM
6/25/2013   Lindrick/Notts
6/26/2013   Cavendish
6/27/2013   Reddish Vale for the day
6/28/2013   Prestwick area - St. Nicholas, Kilmarnock, Irivine Bogside
6/29/2013   Prestwick area - Belleisle, Lochgreen, Darley
6/30/2013   Prestwick area - May play Prestwick and Dundonald Links
07/1/2013   ?
07/2/2013   ? Maybe something on the west coast or over to Aberdeen
07/3/2013   ?
07/4/2013   Dornoch 2 days - Brora, Golspie, Royal Dornoch
07/5/2013   Dornoch 2 days - Royal Dornoch, Tain
07/6/2013   Nairn Golf Club - Open Comp afternoon round
07/7/2013   Nairn Dunbar Golf Club - Open Comp morning round afternoon somewhere
07/8/2013   St. Andrews 3 day pass
07/9/2013   St. Andrews 3 day pass
7/10/2013   St. Andrews 3 day pass7/11/2013   Old course somewhere in last 4 days - additional round on day of Old course
7/12/2013   East Lothian - maybe North Berwick and Braid Hills
7/13/2013   Fly out of Edinburgh to Amsterdam
7/14/2013   Swinkelsche/Eindhovensche
7/15/2013   Noordwijkse Golf Club
7/16/2013   The International/Royal Hague
7/17/2013   Noordwijkse Golf club - Wife flies home
7/18/2013   Kennemer Golf Club
7/19/2013   Utrecht De Pan/Hoge Kleij
7/20/2013   Flying home

I plan to update as the trip progresses.

[David_Tepper]

Joe -

Looks like it will be a great month of golf and a wonderful experience. Glad to see you are taking in a wide variety of courses and are visiting more than just the "usual suspects."

I hope the weather treats you well.

DT

P.S. Are you aware of the Dornoch Firth Golf Pass? It may save you some money playing the courses in the Highlands.

www.dornochfirthgolf.co.uk

[Rich Goodale]

Great trip, Joe.  If you want to play in some more Opens, by far the best site to visit is the Scottish Golf Union (www.scottishgolf.org, look down in the lower right hand corner of the home page).  In the black hole of your trip (~June 27-July 3) there are 36-hole opens available at great tracks such as a Brora, and Murcar for ~£30, as well as numerous opens at lesser venues.  Ping me if you have time to drop into Aberdour.

Regardless, enjoy!

Rich

[Tony_Muldoon]

Joe this Sounds fantastic.

A few comments (apologies if you’ve already sussed these but I wanted to be sure.)

First of all over here its Day/Month/Year, remember that to prevent mix ups.

Next if I understand your wife is not a golfer and there’s a lot of leaving her at the hotel in this schedule.  Also there’s scarce time to just follow your nose or a hunch – resist filling it all in before you go and keep an eye out for local sights and quirk.

Road and travel time. Use this to estimate how long you’ll need.
http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/classic/planner_main.jsp
If I may be frank I have no idea why your wife wants to visit Dover.  If it has to be, it has to be, but it wouldn’t be in my top 500 things to see in mainland Britain. You will then follow this with a dull drive to Kington.  If you can persuade her to skip Dover you can head for the Cotswolds (2 hrs from Heathrow) – everyone’s idea of picture postcard England – and maybe play Painswick/Minchampton/Cleeve Cloud.  You will then only be a couple of hours from Kington.

Haven’t done it but the dive from there to Borth, but it will be very slow and beautiful.  Make time to see Aberdovey on your way north (30 seconds off the coast road) and ask to see their room of Darwin memorabilia.   Take time to visit Portmerion there’s no where else in the world like it. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmeirion
Unless Lindrick or Notts are special to you they are taking you out of the way and back onto the motorways. Look at Bulls Bay, Conwyn or one of the Lancashire courses instead. Or GCA favourite Siloth will take you around the beautiful lake district.
Find the funds to play Prestwick, for some it would be the highlight of the trip.

From Prestwick follow the west Coast, its simply stunning. 
I see you haven’t planned to visit any Cities? Glasgow is truly a great place to visit. From there head for Oban for an overnighter and watch the ferries set out for the Islands and wish you’d booked a two month trip.  Eat fish and chips as a take away by the harbour and wait hope for a sun set as you look west.

The drive to Dornoch from there takes you past Loch Ness and I would detour to see more of the highlands. The most beautiful scenery I know of in the 4 continents I’ve visited so far.
I believe Dornoch has a twilight rate which could save a few pounds.


Finally I’ll buy the first beer in Holland and you can tell me all about the trip.
See you next month on 14/7. 
Enjoy.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Alsoin East Lothian  Gullane offer a great day rate for courses 2&3.

If you want to play North Berwick (and who wouldn't) it combines better with The Glen, Gullane 3 or Longniddry/ Kilspindle.


And I see you haven't listed The Ladies Couse at St Andrews  (AKA The Himalayas) . It would be a mistake to miss it and your wife will join you.

Aberdour is well worth taking Rich up on. It's on the route from St Andrews south.

[Jim Sherma]

Your wife is more understanding than mine. I always tried to limit windshield time and found that getting familiar with a place over a few days left me much better memories than touch and go stop overs. If I was setting something like this up I would look for a few places to set up shop and focus my rounds around those.

[Adam Lawrence]

I must say I agree with Tony: the Kent coast has many attractions, but Dover isn't one of them. Like so many port towns, it's a complete hole. Richborough Castle is interesting, but does it justify a huge detour of that kind? Not in my view. If your plan is to head west from London towards Wales, I'd vote for Oxford as a staging post. You have a _huge_ amount of driving in this trip - I'd be looking for ways to reduce it.

[Martin Toal]

Just a thought. I have never played Prestwick etc, and do not intend to diss its fine heritage, but when you are at Royal St Davids, you are about 60 miles from Holyhead, from which you can get a ferry to Dublin. You could have a trip up the east coast of Ireland, and cross to Scotland from Belfast or Larne and carry on up to Fife from there. Car rental in the UK should cover a side trip to Ireland, and the natives there are mostly friendly.  

On that east coast trip, you could play any or all of Portmarnock, Royal Dublin, The Island, Laytown and Bettystown, Co Louth (Baltray), Seapoint, Royal Co. Down, Ardglass and even go up to Royal Portrush, Portstewart and Castlerock.

[Thomas Dai]

Joe,

Glad you've picked-up on the Open Competitions idea. A really great way to play good courses often with slightly better than normal course conditions, normally off the back tees all for less $£$£ and with the chance of a prize as well. Highly recommended.

Given that your playing a considerable amount of golf and there will be a great of driving as well I suggest you may wish to think about hiring an electric trolley when you play some of the courses - for those who don't know what I mean, an electric trolley in the UK is not a buggy but is a pull-cart with an electric motor. Most pro-shops will rent one to you for only a few £ and using them does help keep the golfing fatigue at bay if your playing a lot.

Have a great trip.

All the best.

Edit - if you wish to rent a electric trolley I recommend you 'phone or email the Pro-shop in advance and have them reserve you one.

[Paul Gray]

Joe,

I'll just give a couple of tips for the early part of your trip, given that it's in my neck of the woods:

Forget Dover. As others have said it's a complete hole. Given the amount of driving you're looking at, I suggest you head straight to a Surrey/Berkshire/Hampshire heathland course to start with or go a little further and play Hayling (£30 after 4pm). From there you'll be well placed to head west in the general direction of Kingston. Hayling takes you a little out of your way but if you wanted a bit of links golf so early in your trip it would be the place to head to without messing about in Kent, unless of course you wanted to venture to Burnham and Berrow.  

You could of course play Liphook and Hayling (always ranked first and second in Hampshire) and Burnham if you could find an extra day somewhere. Otherwise I'd suggest picking two from three.

I'd suggest forgetting about Hockley. Although good, Hockley isn't quite in the same league as the others.

 

[Mark Chaplin]

Dover Castle isn't a hole!

Why not spend half a day watching the Amateur rather than Princes, which is in great nick.

Martin - Prestwick is the finest golfing experience on the West coast of Scotland.

[Mark Pearce]

Martin - Prestwick is the finest golfing experience on the West coast of Scotland.

And one of the top 3 or 4 in Scotland.

[Joe_Tucholski]

P.S. Are you aware of the Dornoch Firth Golf Pass? It may save you some money playing the courses in the Highlands.

www.dornochfirthgolf.co.uk

David thanks for the recomendation I am planning on purchasing the pass.  The visit Scotland website was a site I utilized for good value packages.
http://golf.visitscotland.com/offers__packages/uk_golf_offers/golf_offers.aspx

Great trip, Joe.  If you want to play in some more Opens, by far the best site to visit is the Scottish Golf Union (www.scottishgolf.org, look down in the lower right hand corner of the home page).  In the black hole of your trip (~June 27-July 3) there are 36-hole opens available at great tracks such as a Brora, and Murcar for ~£30, as well as numerous opens at lesser venues.  Ping me if you have time to drop into Aberdour.

Regardless, enjoy!

Rich

Rich I saw the Brora open but didn't want to head up that far north that early.  As far as Aberdour in a previous version of the itinerary the area was going to fife and purchasing the £99 first in Fife pass.  That is still a posibility so we will see.

And I see you haven't listed The Ladies Couse at St Andrews  (AKA The Himalayas) . It would be a mistake to miss it and your wife will join you.

Tony thanks for all the advice about side trips.  My wife has thrown the putter in the bag and we'll definitely play Himalayas - when we're in Pinehurst she really enjoys their new putting green.

Your wife is more understanding than mine. I always tried to limit windshield time and found that getting familiar with a place over a few days left me much better memories than touch and go stop overs. If I was setting something like this up I would look for a few places to set up shop and focus my rounds around those.

Jim I did think about that but figured while I was still young and dumb I should do the intense itinerary.  When I was in LA I'd regularly drive about an hour to play.  My wife and I kind of enjoy driving.  We've driven across the US numerous times (I just finished a trip cross country of 3 days 11 hours each day).

I must say I agree with Tony: the Kent coast has many attractions, but Dover isn't one of them. Like so many port towns, it's a complete hole.

Well based on the multiple recomendations I was able to convince my wife to skip out on Dover, just had to promise we would take a ferry ride in the future to see the white cliffs.  This means we'll land and head West towards Bristol/Cardiff.  Will play somewhere on the 20th and Pennard (has come up a number of times as a very good course and great value) on the 21st.

Just a thought. I have never played Prestwick etc, and do not intend to diss its fine heritage, but when you are at Royal St Davids, you are about 60 miles from Holyhead, from which you can get a ferry to Dublin. You could have a trip up the east coast of Ireland, and cross to Scotland from Belfast or Larne and carry on up to Fife from there. Car rental in the UK should cover a side trip to Ireland, and the natives there are mostly friendly. 

On that east coast trip, you could play any or all of Portmarnock, Royal Dublin, The Island, Laytown and Bettystown, Co Louth (Baltray), Seapoint, Royal Co. Down, Ardglass and even go up to Royal Portrush, Portstewart and Castlerock.

Martin, we really did really consider this exact plan.  In the end we decided not to make the trip and hope to get to Ireland in the next year or two.  It was a tough choice to skip out on Ireland.

Given that your playing a considerable amount of golf and there will be a great of driving as well I suggest you may wish to think about hiring an electric trolley when you play some of the courses - for those who don't know what I mean, an electric trolley in the UK is not a buggy but is a pull-cart with an electric motor. Most pro-shops will rent one to you for only a few £ and using them does help keep the golfing fatigue at bay if your playing a lot.

Thomas I told my wife during college that I wouldn't use a pull cart until I was 50.  Now that I'm 30 I've pushed that back to 40.  I may break down and get one at some point but the only other time I've used one (a trip to Bandon) I only used it the first day and preferred the Sunday carry bag for the rest of the trip.


---

Suggestions on courses under £50 close to the route would be greatly appreciated.  If I don't get them here I'm just going to stop at places I see on the GPS.  For example on the 20th I'm thinking about Glamorganshire (Braid) or Langland (partial links) because they are both under £50.

[ward peyronnin]

Glasgow Gails is a great course in the Prestwick area

Not sure of $

email re Cruden bay

[John Mayhugh]

If you're playing Pennard on the 21st, you might try Southerndown on the afternoon of the 20th.  Looks like the PM green fee is right at your price limit, and it's a fantastic course.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,47489.0.html

The day in Kington is a good choice.

Overnight in Buxton (for Cavendish) if you can.  Really nice town.

[ward peyronnin]

But Western Gails is better

[Mark Chaplin]

Western Gailes was £120 two years ago.

[Joe_Tucholski]

Well the detour to Wales allowed the round at Pennard.  What a fun course and a great first course in the UK.  If I play another course on this trip that I would rather be a member at I'll be surprised.  The weather was great, with blue skies and at most a one club breeze.  I started out as a single but was joined by a group of three members.  Great, friendly guys and after nine walked into the pro shop to list me as their guest (a half off gesture).  They recommended I head over to ashburnham where they called to arrange a round for me before a society outing.  Unfortunately the gps didn't find it and we got lost so after calling over to apologize played machynys (a Nicholas course).  Likely to get slapped for playing there but at 20 pounds the price was right.  It's nothing different but I'd pay 20 to play it again.

Today I played Kington.  It was another treat.  The drive up had my wife wondering where she was dropping me off (she went back to hoy on wye - used book Capitol of uk - and was disappointed).  The weather was what I expected for the uk, with a three club wind and rain.  I think the course is the first I've played without bunkers and is a course where one could easily turn an ankle due to the mini moguled movements in the land that are everywhere.  I couldn't feel my hands after the round but still had a big smile on my face when my wife arrived to pick me up.

Tomorrow is Borth and Aberdovey.

[David_Tepper]

Joe T. -

Thanks for the report. Glad you are enjoying yourself. Please keep us updated on your progress whenever you can. Good luck with the weather!

DT

[Thomas Dai]

Glad you enjoyed Pennard. Shame you couldn't play Ashburnham, 3-4 miles further west and you'd have found it, and a good solid links it is too. Kington is certainly a golfing 'experience', one not to be missed. Borth, Aberdovey and RStD at Harlech, very nice follow-ons indeed. Enjoy the drive from Kington to Borth, dragons around every corner, friendly ones though!

Bye the way, you should find the next two Saturdays from mid-morning pretty quiet at most courses - with the GB&I Lions playing the Aussies at rugby - but the clubhouse bars should be pretty crowded with folk watching TV. The first tees might get a fairly busy from lunchtime though, when the rugby's over and the members want to get out and play some holes.

All the best

[Joe_Tucholski]

Typing on the iPad so not much of in progress updates.  Done with Wales and feel we should have stayed longer.  Loved the sights, the people ( everyone waves and says hello), the overall atmosphere and it provides great value.  We will for sure be back and I recommend the trip to anyone looking for value and natural beauty.

Played Borth yesterday in some pretty rough weather.  For the comp they played off the yellow tees due to wind (the day before people failed to turn in cards due to excessive lost balls throwing tee shots around).  Luckily for me it was a Stableford event as there were a few holes I would have taken the putter off the tee to keep it in play (I picked up on 2 before reaching the green after losing 2 off the tee and another on the approach).  I had a booking mix up and they thought I was going to be there the day prior.  The staff and members were all very accommodating and I ended up playing with the current past (or last?) captain and his daughter.  The course was great fun, starting and ending with traditional links land and the dunes between.  They have a green staff of two and cut the greens 1x/week but everything was in darn good condition.  The club and course are what I imagined and hoped golf in the UK would be all about.  Working class folks who love golf and the fun course they play it on.

After lunch at Borth made it to Aberdovey.  The shop had shut down the computers at 415ish but they turned the register back on to let me pay and play...after verifying I really wanted to play today (in addition to the wind it started to rain during lunch at Borth).  The course is sheltered a bit playing on the shore side of dunes.  On arrival the cars in the car park were of a different class than seen at the previous courses (BMW, Audi and Mercedes only).  The course was different in that it has full irrigation.  I really thought the greens were very good and the par 3s were good fun (the 12th was my favorite).

Today was St David's and another comp.  I was paired with a member and his cousin.  We all played way off our handicaps but it's wasn't due to weather.  There was a 1-2 club breeze with sun.  Despite my schizophrenic round I thought the course was generally solid.  No fairway irrigation, generally firm greens that I still haven't learned to chip on and a really great walk.  Apparently they have a fair number of international members from the US and it's definitely a place I'm going to consider when I'm looking for an international club.

Being in Manchester we've decided to get back to the coast earlier so will only play Cavendish and Reddish Vale tomorrow before heading up to Prestwick.

[David Kelly]

Joe,

On 7/12 it is well worth it to drive down from St. Andrews and play North Berwick.  It will end up being one of the best courses of what looks like an awesome trip.

[Joe_Tucholski]

Joe,

On 7/12 it is well worth it to drive down from St. Andrews and play North Berwick.  It will end up being one of the most courses of what looks like an awesome trip.

David I've given in to peer pressure and booked N. Berwick in advance.

Today was the inland MacKenzie experience.

I played reddish vale first and it is a good time.  After driving through the city it was a surprise to feel away from it all on the course.  I ended up playing with two members who were in a buggy.  The course has a number of holes with large salient closely mowed ravines or depressions.  There were multiple short par 4s that were good holes(one where you walk back along the hole you just finished.  One of the members said the club is trying to bring the course back to the way MacKenzie built it.  He seemed happy about this and showed me multiple areas where trees and large aras a bush were taken out.

Cavendish in the afternoon was similar in the fact it had multiple short par 3s and large depressions around greens or fairways.  There were more side hill holes however.  I really thought the bunkers looked intimidating but often times the sandy areas were very small.  I think I would split the rounds between the two as 7 at Cavendish and 3 at Reddish Vale.

As I said we plan towhead back to the coast and the Prestwick area (will play Dundonald, St Nicks, Irvine, Glasgow Gailes and 2 of the munis. After Prestwick we decided to head to Aberdeen where I'll play in another comp at Murcar on the 30th.  Other courses to play there have yet to be determined.

[Joe_Tucholski]

After the Manchester portion we made it up to Prestwick.  The day we drove up was great weather.  Unfortunately the days staying in Prestwick were full of rain.  Ended up skipping out on the big name/big dollar courses in the area.  Instead played Prestwick St. Nick, Irvine Bogside, Glasgow Gailes and Dundonald Links.

I called to make a tee time at St Nicks and was told the following morning was free so booked 815.  Wish they had told me no one but the cleaning staff would be there at that time.  After waiting till 845 and no one showing up I teed off in a steady drizzle.  Of the 4 I played in the Prestwick area it is my #3.  I am a sucker for the ocean but the course really didn't excite me like the others on this trip have.  It's a good course and worth a play but I probably won't go back.

In the afternoon I played Irvine.  I was expecting much but it ended up being my favorite of the bunch.  The course is shorter (as is St Nicks) but I really enjoyed the walk and the green sites.  I thought each of the par 3s were really fun and enjoyed the 3 in a row short par 4s on the front.

Dundonald was the only modern course of the group.  What it lacked in the small subtle movements of the natural fairway movement it made up for with interest in the greens.

Glasgow Gailes was played in the worst weather and I think because I was just trying to survive the rain I failed to take the course in.

After Prestwick played Stonehaven on the drive up to Aberdeen.  The setting for the course is magnificent.  The views of the coast are as good as it gets.  Unfortunately the side hill holes are less than desireable.

Yesterday was 36 holes in Murcar at an open comp.  Unfortunetly the wind was up and the course is playing narrow.  On the 15th? I commented about the fact that the left bunker was way outside the heavy rough line (ie lost ball/dead rough line).  Between rounds i had to call my wife and have her bring me more golf balls, nearly every hole someone in our group took a provisional.  After the round I was given the course history book and one of the images showed the 13th with the fairway well beyond the bunker.  That being said I really enjoyed the setting and the rounds despite the awful scores (was told due to the poor scores none of the players hcp would increase).

Today on our drive north we stopped and played Fraserburgh which Ran recently highlighted (my wife says it has been her favorite walk so far - she walks with me when it's not raining)

The next few days are up in the highlands so looking forward to that.

[David_Tepper]

Joe -

I am enjoying your posts and your journey. One question, was the 36-hole comp you played in at Stonehaven or elsewhere?

Enjoy your time in the Highlands!

DT