Best Golf Vacation in Scotland – Classic Shoulder Season
St Andrews, Turnberry, Carnoustie, North Berwick, Kingsbarns, Gleneagles, Elie, Royal Burgess & St Andrews New Course
On the Shoulder of Giants
A Classic Tour really requires a combination of two things. It has to be a long-standing recognisable ‘route’ that overseas visitors have been plying for decades, but should also seek to have a quintessentially Scottish quality about it too
The Classic Shoulder Season itinerary is a variant on the Summer Season, and again we perhaps need to be selective. Some courses will offer shoulder season green fees and bring the budget into a line for golfers who might otherwise be stretching to pay out a peak season. By the same token however, we don’t really want to turn this into a Dutch auction and simply round up every discounted green fee we can identify if we threaten to lose integrity by doing so. In the land of whisky, we need a blend
Claiming to have built the best golf vacation in Scotland is always going to be questionable given that there will always be names missing. Limiting factors such as duration and geography apply. In truth, we could build a ‘best golf vacation in Scotland’ if we were given three weeks to play with, (so could a lot of people) but the skill really lies with trying to distil something into a blend over a shorter timeframe
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The Itinerary
Sunday – North Berwick
Monday – Royal Burgess (Edinburgh)
Tuesday – Turnberry
Wednesday – Gleneagles (Stirling)
Thursday – Kingsbarns
Friday – Elie (East Neuk of Fife)
Saturday – St Andrews New Course (St Andrews town)
Sunday – Carnoustie (Glamis Castle)
Important note – We will contest St Andrews Old Course ballots for Mon, Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Mon. You can read these days as XYZ / St Andrews Old Course. We will probably be able to contest two singles ballots for play on Fri and Sat
Sunday - North Berwick
The links of North Berwick are a traditional out and back nine. Undulating fairways, blind shots, tricky burns and even stone walls make their presence felt in the landscape. The course really is a throw back to the experiences of the game’s pioneers who had to interpret the landscape and weave the hazards nature handed them into their own personal tapestries. North Berwick has an endearing old-fashioned feel.
North Berwick also possesses the original ‘Redan’ hole, (15). Found the world over, ‘Redans’ are the most copied hole in golf.
The Redan completes a trio of holes from 13 which is rarely surpassed in Scottish golf, perhaps only Turnberry’s 9 to 11, and Carnoustie’s 16-18 has better claims for being the best consecutive 3 in a row.
North Berwick is one of those rare courses you never hear a bad word said about, and we’re always struck by the fact that it seems to be the most knowledgeable and the best judges who enthuse most about it.
It would be wrong to think that it’s a curiosity relic though. It’s a beguiling world top-50 ranked course on merit.
Monday - Royal Burgess
The exclusive west Edinburgh course of Royal Burgess is the oldest golf club in the world with a continuous verifiable history (1735).
The course is a parkland layout and makes for an ideal opening assignment, especially given it’s proximity to the airport. The 4th and the 11th holes are normally singled out as the most challenging, the latter even having its very own ‘Swilcan’ bridge.
The elegant clubhouse is a joy to the eye. ‘The Burgess’ is soaked in tradition and heritage and operates as something of a ‘mini museum’.
Royal Burgess enjoys the advantage of being smack in the heart of Scotland’s capital, and so allows you to spend the evening like many traveller before you has.
Tuesday - Turnberry
The iconic Stevenson lighthouse sitting on its craggy headland in amongst the ruins of Turnberry castle, and with views of Ailsa Craig and the Isle of Arran out to sea, plus a tendency to put on spectacular sunsets, Turnberry is the most aesthetic of all the Open venues. In modern golfing legend Turnberry is forever etched in the pages of history as the location for the ‘duel in the sun’ from 1977 when Tom Watson narrowly prevailed over Jack Nicklaus with the rest nowhere. Myths are made in moments, but legends last a lifetime.
In 2016 the course finished it’s stunning redevelopment. The new holes 9-11, look set to become the signature stretch. Not so much Amen Corner, as perhaps a Rocky Horror! The fifth is the hardest on the course and has been toughened up further. The fourteenth, an infinity hole out to sea might become the most awe inspiring.
Is Turnberry the best course in Scotland? We don’t know, it’s a hotly contested accolade, but it’s certainly in any conversation
Wednesday - Gleneagles
The majestic trio of courses at Gleneagles are a masterpiece of golf course design, which has caught the imagination of both professional and amateur alike. Lee Trevino remarked whilst standing on the first, “that if this is heaven I sure hope they have some tee times available”.
The regal King’s Course 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.
Threading through high ridges on the north and west sides of the estate, the Queen’s course is the most aesthetic of the Gleneagles trinity. It presents you with lovely woodland settings, lochans and ditches as water hazards, as well as many moorland characteristics.
Having hosted the 2014 Ryder and 2019 Solheim Cups, the Centenary Course is the longest and probably the most recognisable today. It plays out towards the dark glen, sweeping up the Ochil Hills to the summit of the pass below Ben Shee, which joins it to Glendevon. Course architect, Jack Nicklaus, described it as “The finest parcel of land in the world I have ever been given to work with”
Thursday - Kingsbarns
There are records of golf being played at Kingsbarns from 1793, but the modern course opened in 2000, and is set on three-tiered levels, sloping towards the coast. Nearly every hole has stunning views of the North Sea.
Kingsbarns quickly racked up rave reviews and earned a world ranking of about #50, a position which it’s held more or less since.
The par 5, twelfth hole that plays along the arching shoreline to an exposed green, and the par 3, fifteenth, which involves playing a tee-shot across the waves, are often considered to the courses signature assignments. It was the fourth and fifth that caught Tom Doak’s eye when he described as Kingsbarns
“as piece of construction work, Kingsbarns is one of the best projects I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it for myself”
Perhaps of greatest significance is the number of times it beats more illustrious neighbours in surveys amongst visiting Americans since its always immaculately presented.
Kingsbarns completes the trio of East Coast giants that host the European Tour’s Dunhill links challenge each year alongside Carnoustie and the Old Course.
Friday - Elie
Hemmed in between two headlands the links of Elie would probably be the nomination for Fife’s ‘hidden gem’, and like neighbouring Lundin has also been used as a final Open Championship Qualifying venue to support St Andrews. This historic links effortlessly combines undulating fairways with large, fast and firm greens. Indeed, Peter Thomson, winner of five Open Championships, called Elie a jewel amongst Scotland’s elite courses, and says: “It’s quirky and it’s the most enjoyable course I know. If I had my way I’d build Elie’s all over the world.”
Elie is not a course that gives up good scores easily and the patient player that crafts their way around these cultured links will always fare better than the thoughtless golfer who tries simply to overpower them. At 6,273 yards the course is not long, but its network of bunkers are beautifully placed to catch those that stray offline or misjudge their distances.
Elie enjoys the distinction of being the home club of former Open winner and legendry course designer James Braid, as well as being the third oldest course in the world (naturally this is disputed as Elie and Earlsferry was believed to be the original course and some arbitrators will tell you that the current course can no longer reflect this lineage due to changes)
Saturday - St Andrews New Course
“New” in the context of St Andrews means 1895!
The course is often said to be the town’s favourite. It’s a tighter and more defined course than its regal neighbour, and aided by yellow gorse bushes, it tends to be more aesthetic too. The ‘New’ runs adjacent to the Old course and as a consequence has similar characteristics. The fairways are undulating but not as dipped as the Old course, leading to fewer hanging lies. A traditional out and back nine, only the 3rd and 15th share a green. The burn wends its way through a low dune system and features some particularly charismatic holes. The 464yd tenth is often cited as the pick. Think about it logically. It’s likely that the newer course that was designed for purpose, would be the better golf course than the ancient artefact. The good folk of St Andrews know!
Sunday - Carnoustie
Dubbed ‘Car-Nasty’, Carnoustie is considered by many to be the most difficult links in the Open Championship rotation
In recent years it has seen some dramatic finishes, none more so than in 1999 when Jean van de Velde took an eight at the 72nd hole to throw away the claret jug. Iconic images of him paddling in the notorious ‘Barry Burn’ have entered golfing legend. The final four holes are the hardest finish on the rotation. After the carnage of 1999 (6 over won) Sport Illustrated described it as
“a nasty antique that was brought down from the attic after 24 years …the rough was deeper; and the R&A made the fairways as narrow as an eel’s appendix scar”.
Whereas the eighteenth is the hole that has often generated the most drama. The par 3 sixteenth has the highest average scoring par 3 on the Open Championship rotation as indeed the closing four are the hardest. The Par 5, sixth ‘Hogan’s Alley’, is another famous hole with a punitive out of bounds fence running down it’s left
1999 Carnoustie reduced Sergio Garcia to tears after successive scores of 89 and 83
Non Golf Options
CLICK, button below to view non-golfers Edinburgh
CLICK, button below to view non-golfers St Andrews
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Featured Group
What's Involved?
Although we’ll be able to take our foot off the gas a little bit when we reach St Andrews and soak up its splendour, the flow of this itinerary is more consistent with that of a point-to-point tour as we follow something of parabolic loop between east and west coasts being linked by Gleneagles to the north and Edinburgh to the south
The spirit of the Best Golf Vacation in Scotland – Classic Shoulder Season, itinerary does skew towards building a quintessential experience, and the accommodations should be considered part of that. It could become reasonably expensive if rolled this out to its maximum potential however, so we might decide to use Stirling and Troon as alternatives to Gleneagles and Turnberry
The Best Golf Vacation in Scotland – Classic Shoulder Season golf vacation is laid out as an eight night duration that observes a point-to-point itinerary to start with before settling on a daily back-to-base model as we land in St Andrews, staying at:
- Edinburgh – 2 nights
- Turnberry or Troon – 1 night
- Gleneagles or Stirling – 1 night
- St Andrews – 3 nights
- Carnoustie – 1 night
At about 500 miles (100 of which would be ‘airport runs’). This is a medium/ low mileage to medium intensity transport burden,
In total, this should only require about 9 hrs of road time, which is an average of about 75 mins a day
We wouldn’t normally encourage anyone to use a hired driver for the The Best Golf Vacation in Scotland – Classic Shoulder Season golf vacation.
Although the mileage is comparable to other options, we are visiting three distinct regions and could end up having to pay ‘standing time’ if we aren’t careful. It’s not an ideal arrangement, but not impossible if the use of a hired driver was considered essential
The Best Golf Vacation in Scotland – Classic Shoulder Season golf vacation can support Luxury, Premier and Affordable options
People who seek to play the shoulder season are often looking for value in a budget and with this in mind are usually best advised to stay and Troon and Stirling rather than Turnberry and Gleneagles. It’s sometimes worth spending the final night in Carnoustie too rather than incurring the cost of a fourth night in St Andrews
As ever, the scale of non-golf activity depends on whether we’re adding extra value for golfers, or building a stand alone proposal for non-golfers to run alongside a golf programme. The combinations are quite good
- Edinburgh with Royal Burgess
- Culzean Castle with Turnberry
- Stirling with Gleneagles
- East Neuk of Fife with Kingsbarns
- Falkland Palace with Elie
- St Andrews town with New Course
- Glamis Castle with Carnoustie
The following courses operate the following handicap thresholds for gentlemen and ladies respectively
- North Berwick (24 & 36)
- Carnoustie (28 & 36)
- St Andrews (36)
Unlike some courses who needn’t be rigid in enforcing their handicap thresholds, the St Andrews Links Trust will do. Failure to provide evidence will result in a refusal to allow us to play
The Old Course diary is available on-line to consult for availability and is dynamic in so much as it changes every season, although there are some known block outs that occur every year, notably the first week of May, the first week of June, and a run from early/ mid September to early/ mid October
There is no play on the Old Course on Sunday
Carnoustie whilst usually being open 7 days of the week, visitors will have to play afternoon tee-times at the weekend
Turnberry will allow visitors to play afternoon tee-times, but require that we pay a prohibitively very expensive green fee for a morning tee-time, unless we’re a hotel guest in which case we’d pay the residents rate
With all the usual disclaimers of a lottery being random, and there being no such thing as a certainty etc plus the variable factor of availability for the specific week chosen, our prospects of winning a ballot on this programme would otherwise be considered tight if we sought to use every opportunity to do so
We should be able to contest at least five open ballots (Mon, Weds, Thurs, Fri & Sat) although starting the day on the west coast, we might choose to target Weds applications to late morning onwards. We’ll only be able to contest two ‘singles’ ballot (Thurs for Fri, & Fri for Sat). This means a maximum total of seven ballot attempts.
Seven ballot attempts gives us a sporting chance of success (we’d be more confident if they were distributed 4/3 instead of 5/2 between open ballots and singles). Provided we use all our opportunities to the maximum possible benefit however, we’d expect to succeed more times than we’ll fail
Green fees need paying in advance and are always non-refundable against a certain timeline
Green fees need paying in advance and are always non-refundable against a certain timeline
A St Andrews Old Course ballot is drawn 48 hrs before play, and we can safely assume that this is outside any refund window! Any win in the ballot therefore will send us into a clash with which ever course we had booked that day, and we’ll a loss of the green fee unless we can get the tee-time rearranged. For this reason we don’t necessarily want to fill every day of the week up with a paid green fee and golf course. That would be designing a forfeit (we are after all setting up to win a ballot and play the Old Course)
Luckily the St Andrews New Course can’t be prebooked, and every other tee-time after 09.00 is offered present-pay-and-play-on-the-day. This is a great way of putting a placeholder into the itinerary without taking on the liability of a prepaid green fee
We try to schedule the New Course in any St Andrews swing to max out this position. If we win a ballot on the day we were going to try and play the New Course, we simply play the Old Course instead. If we win a ballot on another day, then we look to reschedule the affected course onto the day we had the New Course inked in and avoid a forfeit that way. We’ll usually try and put the New Course last in an itinerary then to give ourselves the maximum length of runway onto which we might land the rearranged round
Perversely perhaps, we’re actually hoping not to play the New Course. The reason we wouldn’t play it, is because we’ve won a ballot and are playing the Old Course instead
About Activities
Edinburgh
Few trips to Scotland could really be considered complete without the Scottish capital. Edinburgh is frequently regarded as one of the UK’s most charismatic cities. Most visitors prioritise the castle, Greyfriars Bobby, Holyrood Palace, the various galleries, and increasingly its Harry Potter connection
St Andrews
St Andrews is a legitimate visitor draw regardless of golf. The town is home to the third oldest university in the western world, ensuring it has a lot more life than you might expect. The ruined old castle and cathedral lend it historical relevance. Above all though, it’s a charismatic town with a sense of aura and place
East Neuk of Fife
The picturesque fishing villages of the East Neuk are atmospheric, with local histories, rather than being of national significance. These villages are an integral part of the fabric of Fife and easily overlooked, but fishing has played an historically important role.
Testimonial
From BB Canada
“I told Alun the courses I was interested in playing and he prepared a stay and play package with 14 days of outstanding golf, but also tremendous site seeing opportunities for my wife.”
From JC Illinois
“His attention to detail is amazing--I think our travel plan booklet ran to forty-eight pages, with gorgeous descriptions of cities and sights, plus maps showing where to go to catch trains, or walk from trains to hotels, sights and golf courses, etc.”
From DF Alabama
“I will cherish the memories for a long time- especially the wonderful times spent on and off the golf course with two of my brothers and brother-in-law. None of the memories and golf would have been possible or enjoyed without your tremendous planning and logistical support.”
AS from Colorado
“Alun and Faraway Fairways created possibly the most memorable golf trip we have ever experienced. EPIC is the only word that comes to mind.”
AC, From Florida/ New York, 2025
“We were hopeful to secure a 4 ball at St. Andrews while avoiding the massive expense other operators had quoted. He was very clear about the plan for achieving a tee time at the Old Course through the ballot, including detailed instruction on how it could be done, and what our odds were. He suggested mid- to late April as the best chance of success and advised that this is also the least rainy part of the year. We took his advice and trusted the process. Well, he was right on all counts!”
From SB, Minnesota
“We wholeheartedly recommend Alun and Faraway Fairways if you’re looking for a golf trip that is effortless, enjoyable, and truly unforgettable—even for a non-golfer in the mix! My husband and I will be daydreaming about this trip for years to come. 5.5 stars!”
From JB, California
“The best part was that the service was surprisingly affordable. They were thousands of dollars below other quotes that I received, in fact the prices were very similar to what I would have paid if I would have booked everything on my own.”
From JCA, Maryland
“I would and will highly recommend your company to anyone looking to plan an unforgettable golf trip. Thank You for putting together a fantastic trip for J.C. and me”
From WF Connecticut
“I think all eight of us would agree that Alun at Faraway Fairways did an absolutely wonderful job of putting this “golf vacation of a lifetime” together for us. His focus on the details was extraordinary from the choice of courses and the timing of the tee times, the amazingly beautiful accommodations along with some excellent meal selections, and the transportation options he provided to get us from place to place.”
From DR South Carolina
“You are about to tee it up in your Major. Seek wisdom, integrity and professionalism. Alun Davies and Faraway Fairways will not disappoint you. They cannot assure a calm sunny day with temperatures in the 70’s on the Old Course.”
From MM, California
“One fantastic trip you organized, and more importantly took ownership of in terms of daily communication and stewardship during our 2+ weeks in Scotland and Ireland. The logistics were spotless…100% of the transports were on time and excellent, the lodging choices spectacular and the golf was off the charts in terms of quality and arrangements made”
DH from California
“You cannot go wrong with the support Faraway Fairways offered. I did this trip solo and all last minute but I have already begun to plan the next trip which will include my best golfing buddies.”
Enquiry
We don't need to make this an ordeal by 101 filtering questions! In reality there are probably little more than half a dozen things we need to know to build out a proposal. The guidance below might help you frame answers
Duration - usually best expressed as a range up to a maximum
Time of year - can be anything from a specific date range to a named season
Travel class - Faraway Fairways uses 'Luxury', 'Premier' or 'Affordable' for generic purposes. You might choose to reference the international 'star' rating system. We're only looking for something to help steer us into the right sector
Self drive or hired driver - In broad terms, self driving is normally less expensive, and much more flexible, but some folk just don't want to do it
Must play courses/ must do places - a few name checks is all that's needed