Coast to Coast Golf Vacation, St Andrews and Ayrshire
St Andrews, Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, Dumbarnie with Turnberry, Royal Troon, Prestwick & Gleneagles
Western Horizons and Eastern Promise
When visiting overseas golfers first began to ‘break out’ of St Andrews it was perhaps natural that they turned their attention to Ayrshire, a region which had sort of assumed the mantle of Scotland’s ‘next’ golfing epicentre. Playing on the opposite side of the country it was the magnetic draw of illustrious names rather than geographic expedience that drove this decision. We probably wouldn’t be misleading anyone to describe this trip as being something of a ‘historic classic’
The Coast to Coast Golf Vacation combines St Andrews and Ayrshire in a distilled heady blend of heritage and drama, travelling from the west coast first, so that we land on the east coast for the more favourable days of the week in St Andrews
Gleneagles lends the combination an air of aristocratic distinction as the linking choice midway between the two (North Berwick with Edinburgh is another option)
The Coast to Coast Golf Vacation is also able to support a strong non-golf offer that gradually builds the further east we travel
To view Itinerary Summary arrow right or swipe left >>>>>>>>
The Itinerary
Saturday – Turnberry (Culzean Castle)
Sunday – Prestwick (Glasgow)
Monday – Royal Troon
Tuesday – Gleneagles (Stirling)
Wednesday – St Andrews Castle Course
Thursday – Dumbarnie (Edinburgh)
Friday – Kingsbarns (Falkland Palace & East Neuk)
Saturday – St Andrews New Course (St Andrews town)
Sunday – Carnoustie (Glamis Castle & Scone Palace)
Important note – We will contest St Andrews Old Course ballots for the Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri, & Sat. You can read these days as XYZ / St Andrews Old Course. We should also be able to contest three singles ballots for play on Thurs, Fri & Sat
Saturday - 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
Sunday - Prestwick
Prestwick is the home of the first ever Open Championship of Golf, and therefore the genesis of all such modern variants played since. This is your chance to tackle the original ‘Open’ undulations, the narrowest fairway in Europe, and the continents ‘biggest bunker’.
Surprisingly for golf (but less so when you think how the game came to the west coast) Prestwick has a little of a ‘blue collar’ tradition to it
Today’s course remains surprisingly faithful. Unreasonable fairway ricochets, and a plethora of ‘blind shots’ abound. Six of the original greens played from 1860 are still in use. A number of holes, including the famous par 5, ‘Cardinal’ have only received the absolute minimal alteration over the decades. The opening ‘Railway hole’ is another timeless links classic.
Prestwick’s quirky and charismatic. To play here, really is to step back in time. No where is quite like it, nor can it be.
Monday - Royal Troon
Troon is a traditional links and has hosted the Open a total of ten times. Make your score going out. The inward nine against the omni-present wind is always a trial, made harder by hideously deep rough interspersed with thick gorse and broom.
The par 3, eighth, described by Willie Park as “a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a Postage Stamp” is the signature hole. The name stuck, and today it’s one the most recognisable short holes in the global game
It’s the par 4, eleventh, ‘the Railway Hole’, that’s the most feared though. In 1997 Tiger Woods carded an eight here. Jack Nicklaus was even more chewed up. He returned a ten in 1962. You have to wonder if there is a hole anywhere in world golf where Jack and Tiger have each signed for quadruples?
More recently Troon staged the memorable 2016 Championship. Henrik Stenson edged Phil Mickelson in one of the most stunning displays of head-to-head play in Major Championship history. They pulled a remarkable 11 shots clear, both shooting record equalling 63’s en-route.
Tuesday - 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”
Wednesday - St Andrews Castle Course
‘The Castle’ is the newest addition to the clan St Andrews (if we require the qualification to be a new build – the Craigtoun Course was added in 2025 but was technically a management arrangement as the Trust took over the old Dukes Course from the hotel).
Set atop cliffs it’s perhaps more Pebble Beach, than Scotland, yet the course has successfully cultivated a links character. The elevation provides stunning vistas of the bay and town below, making it one of the most photogenic courses in the country. You won’t be the first person to pause and smile as you look down into the town of St Andrews itself with all the historic landmarks on the skyline and simply think Wow! The course is really quite dramatic as the sea can usually be relied on to put up a display of raw energy. The eighth and and the par 3, seventeenth, ‘the Braes’ are particularly awesome.
Thursday - Dumbarnie
Dumbarnie opened in 2020, and looks to have replicated the Kingsbarns design with 14 of the 18 holes having unencumbered views of the sea due to it playing on a natural escarpment with 80ft of elevation on the site. A number of high tees are used to provide the drama of hitting drives out to the ocean. Unusually for a links, water has also been introduced, albeit mainly confined to burns rather than lakes. The fairways are wide and forgiving with driveable risk and reward par 4’s a particular feature of the lay-out. The fifteenth looks remarkably similar to the 7th at Valhalla.
The philosophy behind it is aimed challenging the thinking golfer rather than humiliating them through penalty; as course designer Clive Clark remarked
“I have yet to hear a golfer come in from his round and declare: I really enjoyed a great round of golf today – I only lost 6 balls and 3-putted five greens!”
In 2021 Dumbarnie was named the world’s best new golf course at the international world golf awards which you have to imagine will go some way towards securing its top-100 position as it begins to bed down and evolve.
Friday - 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.
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
Featured Group
Do I put something about video in here?
What's Involved?
The Coast to Coast Golf Vacation, St Andrews and Ayrshire, combines the east and west coasts, and follows a daily back-to-base model based on St Andrews and Troon. The local mileage associated with this is low. Indeed, a majority of the mileage is made up from the transfer between the regions and the ‘airport runs’.
In total we cover up to four Open Championship venues (five if we count Prestwick) plus a few other highly regarded modern links
The non-golf offer is a bit slow to ‘get going’ but once we reach Tuesday it starts to go through the gears and improve
The Coast to Coast Golf Vacation is laid out as a nine night duration that observes two individual daily back-to-base models, one based on Troon and the other centred around St Andrews. It otherwise only involves a linking drive between the two and stays at:
- Troon or Turnberry – 3 nights
- Gleneagles or Stirling – 1 night
- St Andrews – 5 nights
At about 450 miles, the Coast to Coast Golf Vacation Golf Vacation in Scotland & Ireland’ is a medium mileage, low intensity transport burden, largely defined by a single journey between Troon and St Andrews via Gleneagles which accounts for about 30% of the mileage.
In total, this should demand about 11 hrs 30 mins of road time, which is an average of slightly under 1 hr 15 mins a day (that’s manageable)
We wouldn’t normally advise the use of a hired driver for the Coast to Coast Golf Vacation Golf, but can see that its feasible, and you have a strong objection against self-driving, then Coast to Coast is one of the more workable trips for using an alternative.
We might consider using a combination of Edinburgh and North Berwick as our mid-point break instead of Gleneagles? This is a perfectly legitimate alternative and would generate a similar price, albeit it would be 50 miles further to complete this detour
The Coast to Coast Golf Vacation can support Luxury, Premier and Affordable options
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 Coast to Coast Golf Vacation exhibits a fairly strong correlation between golf and non-golf, with many genuine points of interest co-existing, although we should acknowledge that Gleneagles and St Andrews has a notably better offer than Ayrshire
- Culzean Castle with Turnberry
- Glasgow with Prestwick
- Stirling with Gleneagles
- Edinburgh with Dumbarnie
- Glamis Castle & Scone Palace with Carnoustie
- The East Neuk of Fife with Kingsbarns
- St Andrews is a legitimate destination regardless
The only two that any non-driving, non-golfers would need to consider bringing in a driving guide would be Stirling and any trip into Perthshire, although we could see that it would be easier all round if Glamis & Scone or The East Neuk with Falkland Palace were also considered under these terms
The following courses operate the following handicap thresholds for gentlemen and ladies respectively
- Royal Troon (20 & 30)
- Carnoustie (28 & 36)
- St Andrews (36)
Prestwick appear to have downgraded their previous ‘ask’ of 24 & 28, to “preferred”
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
Troon only permits visitor play on Mon, Tues, & Thurs
Prestwick don’t permit visitor play on Sat or Sun morning.
Carnoustie whilst usually being open 7 days of the week, visitors will have to play afternoon tee-times at the weekend
Turnberry will only allow hotel guests to play in the morning (unless a visitor is prepared to pay a frankly outrageous green fee to do so). We can play in the afternoon however
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 as good (if we sought to use every opportunity to do so). We might actually describe them as ‘strong’ since there is a bit of a shuffling the deck we could perform that allows us to contest the first Saturday and rearrange Turnberry for Tuesday, with Gleneagles moving to the Saturday if we won with our very first possible attempt
We should be able to contest five open ballots (Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri & Sat) and at least three ‘singles’ ballot (Thurs, Fri for Sat). This means we could contest a total of eight (possibly nine) ballots.
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
Glasgow
If Edinburgh was built on commerce, Glasgow was built on industry, with the consequence that the city has a very different personality. Glasgow has always a been vibrant city and is very much more a people’s city. Culturally famous for the design school of Charles Rennie Macintosh, in recent years its developed a buzzing arts scene.
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
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.”