A few solo days in Scotland - any tips for navigating these scenarios?

[Niall C]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.


Niall

[Ken Moum]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.


Niall

Just wondering, are questioning whether it's a gem, or that it's hidden...or both?


Re. Dornoch, Brora, Golspie and the "American Checklist,"  on one trip there my wife and I played in a Mixed Open at Brora with some members and I can remember him bemoaning the fact that Dornoch was on the list and they weren't.  At the time I thought he needed to be careful what he wished for.

[Ben Sims]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.


Niall

Just wondering, are questioning whether it's a gem, or that it's hidden...or both?


Re. Dornoch, Brora, Golspie and the "American Checklist,"  on one trip there my wife and I played in a Mixed Open at Brora with some members and I can remember him bemoaning the fact that Dornoch was on the list and they weren't.  At the time I thought he needed to be careful what he wished for.

There’s a fine line between being in financial straits due to not being “on the list” and members not getting a game because their club is “on the list.”


I was in the highlands last week and we had a motor coach a day at my club. I was happy they were there. It made the afternoon rounds a bit slower, but only just.

[Sean_A]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.


Niall

Just wondering, are questioning whether it's a gem, or that it's hidden...or both?


Re. Dornoch, Brora, Golspie and the "American Checklist,"  on one trip there my wife and I played in a Mixed Open at Brora with some members and I can remember him bemoaning the fact that Dornoch was on the list and they weren't.  At the time I thought he needed to be careful what he wished for.

There’s a fine line between being in financial straits due to not being “on the list” and members not getting a game because their club is “on the list.”


I was in the highlands last week and we had a motor coach a day at my club. I was happy they were there. It made the afternoon rounds a bit slower, but only just.

I wouldn't be that keen on visitor green fees to have motor coach parties....its too much. In the rush to professionalize club operations and max profits, many clubs have lost sight of the number one reason they exist, to serve their members. The charm and quirk of individual clubs is slowing being eroding by greed and envy. I find it very sad to see the monetization of GB&I golf. Golspie is a nice course, but come on, 90 quid is taking the piss. I played it for a tenner! Just returned from four days in S Wales, total fees were £164 and all the courses are worth playing.


Ciao 

[Ben Sims]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.


Niall

Just wondering, are questioning whether it's a gem, or that it's hidden...or both?


Re. Dornoch, Brora, Golspie and the "American Checklist,"  on one trip there my wife and I played in a Mixed Open at Brora with some members and I can remember him bemoaning the fact that Dornoch was on the list and they weren't.  At the time I thought he needed to be careful what he wished for.

There’s a fine line between being in financial straits due to not being “on the list” and members not getting a game because their club is “on the list.”


I was in the highlands last week and we had a motor coach a day at my club. I was happy they were there. It made the afternoon rounds a bit slower, but only just.

I wouldn't be that keen on visitor green fees to have motor coach parties....its too much. In the rush to professionalize club operations and max profits, many clubs have lost sight of the number one reason they exist, to serve their members. The charm and quirk of individual clubs is slowing being eroding by greed and envy. I find it very sad to see the monetization of GB&I golf. Golspie is a nice course, but come on, 90 quid is taking the piss. I played it for a tenner! Just returned from four days in S Wales, total fees were £164 and all the courses are worth playing.


Ciao

Sean,

Everyone wants to tout the UK club model. I know I do! Local and country/international membership at many of these clubs is still preposterously inexpensive. Why? Subsidizing membership via visitors. Isn’t that serving the members?

[Sean_A]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.


Niall

Just wondering, are questioning whether it's a gem, or that it's hidden...or both?


Re. Dornoch, Brora, Golspie and the "American Checklist,"  on one trip there my wife and I played in a Mixed Open at Brora with some members and I can remember him bemoaning the fact that Dornoch was on the list and they weren't.  At the time I thought he needed to be careful what he wished for.

There’s a fine line between being in financial straits due to not being “on the list” and members not getting a game because their club is “on the list.”


I was in the highlands last week and we had a motor coach a day at my club. I was happy they were there. It made the afternoon rounds a bit slower, but only just.

I wouldn't be that keen on visitor green fees to have motor coach parties....its too much. In the rush to professionalize club operations and max profits, many clubs have lost sight of the number one reason they exist, to serve their members. The charm and quirk of individual clubs is slowing being eroding by greed and envy. I find it very sad to see the monetization of GB&I golf. Golspie is a nice course, but come on, 90 quid is taking the piss. I played it for a tenner! Just returned from four days in S Wales, total fees were £164 and all the courses are worth playing.


Ciao

Sean,

Everyone wants to tout the UK club model. I know I do! Local and country/international membership at many of these clubs is still preposterously inexpensive. Why? Subsidizing membership via visitors. Isn’t that serving the members?

Ben

It's a fine line that is often crossed when visitors are allowed access to prime times. Additionally, it seems to me that the extra money earned is sometimes spent with the goal of attracting even more visitors by messing with designs, which is inconvenient for members. Taking in max money is a double edge sword which does not necessarily serve the members well.

Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.

Niall

Just wondering, are questioning whether it's a gem, or that it's hidden...or both?

Re. Dornoch, Brora, Golspie and the "American Checklist,"  on one trip there my wife and I played in a Mixed Open at Brora with some members and I can remember him bemoaning the fact that Dornoch was on the list and they weren't.  At the time I thought he needed to be careful what he wished for.

There’s a fine line between being in financial straits due to not being “on the list” and members not getting a game because their club is “on the list.”

I was in the highlands last week and we had a motor coach a day at my club. I was happy they were there. It made the afternoon rounds a bit slower, but only just.

I wouldn't be that keen on visitor green fees to have motor coach parties....its too much. In the rush to professionalize club operations and max profits, many clubs have lost sight of the number one reason they exist, to serve their members. The charm and quirk of individual clubs is slowing being eroding by greed and envy. I find it very sad to see the monetization of GB&I golf. Golspie is a nice course, but come on, 90 quid is taking the piss. I played it for a tenner! Just returned from four days in S Wales, total fees were £164 and all the courses are worth playing.

Ciao

Sean,

Everyone wants to tout the UK club model. I know I do! Local and country/international membership at many of these clubs is still preposterously inexpensive. Why? Subsidizing membership via visitors. Isn’t that serving the members?

Partially and selectively. The vast majority of UK clubs never see an overseas visitor and are still massively cheaper than American ones. And the reason is they don’t spend money on all the things American clubs do.

[Niall C]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.


Niall

Just wondering, are questioning whether it's a gem, or that it's hidden...or both?

Thanks Ken, poor language on my part. I am very much a fan of Golspie but at £90 it is over-priced and it is certainly well enough known not to be in the "hidden" category. For clarification, when I say it is over-priced I dare say the market, which I also suspect is mainly American, can bear that price and therefore it is justified however relative to say the courses in South Wales that Sean refers to it is at least at a 50% premium if not more.


Niall

[Thomas Dai]

Head for Scotland folks. Perfect place for golf tour buses.
Ignore Wales. A land of rain and dreadful golf courses inhabited by fire breathing dragons and people speaking an impossible to understand language who spend copious amounts of their time singing in choirs and playing rugby. And navigating around the place is terrible. Narrow roads with high hedges traversed by slow moving processions of farmers and their dogs riding on quad bikes and mud splattered old 4WD’s and pickups towing trailers full of cattle or sheep. Unpronounceable place names on signposts sprayed with green paint too.
Best head elsewhere folks, best head elsewhere!
Atb

[Steve Wilson]

Dear Thomas Dai,


Most of us see what you did there.  I, for one, am going to turn all the signs in Scotland around and inundate Wales with coach parties, American and otherwise, and mostly drunken. I'm sure they'll enjoy the rugby and the singing while raising the prices of golf in Wales.  I'm also working on advertising slogans.  See you in Scotland.


Regards,
TTH (The Tartain Hillbilly) 

[Tony_Muldoon]

Of course Dornoch is driving up the greenfee but that doesn't mean it's not ludicrous. Nor by any stretch of the imagination can Golspie still be called a hidden gem, if indeed it ever qualified for that distinction.


Niall

Just wondering, are questioning whether it's a gem, or that it's hidden...or both?

Thanks Ken, poor language on my part. I am very much a fan of Golspie but at £90 it is over-priced

Niall

With inflation running at 10% I suggest you play it now, because next year it may well be £100.


Golspie is fabulous and worth an afternoon of anyone's time.

[Thomas Dai]

Dear Thomas Dai,
Most of us see what you did there.  I, for one, am going to turn all the signs in Scotland around and inundate Wales with coach parties, American and otherwise, and mostly drunken. I'm sure they'll enjoy the rugby and the singing while raising the prices of golf in Wales.  I'm also working on advertising slogans.  See you in Scotland.
Regards,
TTH (The Tartain Hillbilly)

Steve,

All welcome especially if wearing braces, whoops I mean suspenders! Watch out for wooden benches though. The covert golfing mafia from across the water have apparently advised their Celtic cousins to install loose bench seats on courses. The aim is seemingly to flip any golfer who sits on one over onto their back!!!!!
Hope Golspie is being good to you.
Atb

[Jason Thurman]

Just want to quickly note how hugely appreciative I am of the responses here. I have several of you to follow up with, and I will!


Gotta go to this Taylor Swift concert first... LOL. But seriously - huge thanks.

[Roddy Scott]

What are your dates of travel?

[Buck Wolter]

Just want to quickly note how hugely appreciative I am of the responses here. I have several of you to follow up with, and I will!


Gotta go to this Taylor Swift concert first... LOL. But seriously - huge thanks.

I suggest you try to be a blank space on your trip. Hopefully there's no snow on the beach or midnight rain and you have an epiphany and come back a better man. I predict a love story between you and the Scots. This could go on for evermore.

[Bryan Izatt]

Dear Thomas Dai,
Most of us see what you did there.  I, for one, am going to turn all the signs in Scotland around and inundate Wales with coach parties, American and otherwise, and mostly drunken. I'm sure they'll enjoy the rugby and the singing while raising the prices of golf in Wales.  I'm also working on advertising slogans.  See you in Scotland.
Regards,
TTH (The Tartain Hillbilly)

Steve,

All welcome especially if wearing braces, whoops I mean suspenders! Watch out for wooden benches though. The covert golfing mafia from across the water have apparently advised their Celtic cousins to install loose bench seats on courses. The aim is seemingly to flip any golfer who sits on one over onto their back!!!!!
Hope Golspie is being good to you.
Atb

I believe it was the Irish leprechauns that built the two board seat that precipitated that event.  Ah, for the good old days.

[Jeff Schley]

So the "hidden gems" of years ago are expensive visitor stops now. Yet they are gems, thus they can get what the market yields. Good on them, if it was the US model there would be no visitors at all and only open to members and their guests.

[Steve Wilson]

Back in the good old days you could fall off of any number of benches and it was just rumor….then came the internet and you encounter one faulty piece of course furniture and you ar branded…branded! I tell you.  Of course one can always plead Photoshop…

[Philip Caccamise]

Jason, I'll echo Tepper's question. When are you going to be in Scotland?


My wife and I are getting to Fife the beginning of August and will be in Dornoch and Golspie for about six weeks ending Sept 28.


Might be easier to get a tee time for a three-ball.

Ken- I will be in Inverness from the 27th to the 30th. I have twosomes booked at a few different courses, I bet they could be upped to foursomes.

[John Challenger]

Love the 18th hole at Brora and the 2nd at Dornoch. Lunch at the Brora clubhouse with the table overlooking the 18th hole and the first green or the food truck below the 16th at Dornoch are excellent choices. Hidden gems: spend an extra day and drive up to Durness and Reay. It's a long, memorable day.

[Jason Thurman]

One more question: any recs for courses that can be reached by train from Edinburgh? I'm not sure I'll be able to pull off North Berwick. Does a single walking up have a fighting chance to play on a weekday? Otherwise Dunbar looks like it could be an option. Musselburgh? Anything else to consider? Need to keep the logistics fairly simple to keep the wife happy...

[Cal Seifert]

One more question: any recs for courses that can be reached by train from Edinburgh? I'm not sure I'll be able to pull off North Berwick. Does a single walking up have a fighting chance to play on a weekday? Otherwise Dunbar looks like it could be an option. Musselburgh? Anything else to consider? Need to keep the logistics fairly simple to keep the wife happy...

When I played Musselburgh last summer I was staying in Edinburgh and took a bus to the course. It dropped me off very close to the course and catching a bus back to the city was no issue.

[Mark Pritchett]

Train stops at Prestwick.  Easy trip from Edinburgh. 

[Sean_A]

One more question: any recs for courses that can be reached by train from Edinburgh? I'm not sure I'll be able to pull off North Berwick. Does a single walking up have a fighting chance to play on a weekday? Otherwise Dunbar looks like it could be an option. Musselburgh? Anything else to consider? Need to keep the logistics fairly simple to keep the wife happy...

I have not heard of singles being able to walk up and join groups at North Berwick. Visitors times must be very scarce in the summer. Still, it can't hurt to call. The station is a few minutes from the course.

Longniddry isn't far from the station.

You could do worse than staying in Edinburgh and playing Braid Hills.

Ciao

[John Mayhugh]

Jason,

You might also consider staying a night or two in North Berwick. It's a very charming town even without the golf.