There are some things that we’ll need to ‘take-on’. We might as well run through these, but by the same token you shouldn’t be too alarmed. Hundreds of thousands of visitors face the same thing every year and just about every single one of them manages

• We will have a right-hand drive vehicle
• We will need to drive on the left-hand side of the road
• We will encounter strange road-signs and highway laws that we’ll need to adapt to quickly
• We will encounter unfamiliar things like ‘traffic roundabouts’ and ‘giving way to the right’

Driving in some overseas countries might resemble the ‘wild west’. The UK isn’t one of them. The UK’s roads are comparatively well regulated.

The same is true of Ireland, although we would regard Scotland as having the better road infrastructure. Ireland does begin to degrade once we leave the major cities

Seating capacities are rarely an issue on a golf trip. Luggage however is.

Golfers invariably require a bigger vehicle than their bare number suggests they should. Each golfer will normally generate a single luggage item, plus a golf bag. We’re afraid golf bags are notoriously awkward. Once our party reaches three people, we’ll need an MPV. Don’t be tempted by someone telling you an ‘estate car’ will work, even if it does (and some of the larger models can just about to do this) the level of ride comfort will be heavily degraded (especially if you’re the back seat passenger with a 3-wood clanking around your ears!)

A single person can use a medium sized ‘saloon’ car. Although a ‘hatchback’ would also have the capacity to support a single person, we don’t normally advise their use. They might be good for parking, but they can be a little bit underpowered

A two ball party should be looking to use a ‘large estate car’, or a large saloon with the ability to fold the back seats forward for a full luggage carry

Three is the number whereby we have to use a nine-person MPV

An Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV) has luggage capacity for nine items (four players with a golf bag and suitcase each). Tee times are of course sold in fourballs. It works out well.

One thing to be aware of however is that a majority of golf parties are likely to be seeking to play the St Andrews Old Course through the various ballots. When we win a ballot we not only have to change to plans for the day concerned, we also have to try and rearrange any course that we had to cancel to make way for St Andrews. This means we need to adjust our transport plan again when we restore the round

A lot of visiting golfers can overlook the transport disruption that this causes. We can have a situation where we suddenly have a clash for the use of the vehicle if one fourball needs it for Carnoustie at the same time as another one needs it for a rearranged round in Dumbarnie

Don’t be tempted to try and cut back on the transport by using a vehicle short of what would be necessary to cover all our angles. We’re a lot better off trying to operate autonomous fourballs with a vehicle for each group

It’s possible to operate a multiples of four strategy in convoy, but eventually we might need a larger capacity midi-bus/ coach.

We aren’t really sure where the cross-over for this is?

Faraway Fairways have certainly used a mini fleet of MPV’s for groups of sixteen before, but by the time we get to twenty we need to start possibly thinking about bringing in a mini-coach and switching onto a hired driver model

If we choose to do this however, it would be a massive tip to introduce a single MPV into the party so as to allow us to perform independent ‘run around tasks’ rather than finding ourselves hostage to a booked driver who might have ‘gone for the day’. Critically, It also gives us the opportunity to respond to any St Andrews Old Course ballot wins (although we will need to nominate a series of named driver to ‘take the reins’ as necessary)

Motorways (blue signage) are probably the easiest roads to drive on. They’re essentially international in their design. Any capable driver shouldn’t have any difficulty adjusting to them quite quickly. So long as we can observe ahead and behind, and maintain a good lane discipline they’re the nearest thing we’ll encounter to ‘point-and-go’. Anyone landing at Edinburgh airport is quite lucky in that we’ll potentially be onto a motorway within a few minutes if heading north or west.

‘A’ roads are also fast moving (dark green signs) but entry onto the carriageway from vehicles joining isn’t quite as well structured as a motorway, and we can encounter a few more quirks which require greater diligence and observation

The A9 is Scotland’s longest road and links Edinburgh with Inverness (it runs past Gleneagles). The A1 is actually an ancient Roman road and we should briefly use it if driving to North Berwick or Muirfield from Edinburgh

Driving in built-up areas is likely to be where we’ll encounter the most difficulty. Ironically however, very congested traffic isn’t too much of a problem given that it usually involves gridlock. Traffic jams give us a lot more time to observe and watch others performing manoeuvres. They also involve slow-speed ‘crawling’. Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast and possibly Aberdeen are the only cities where we’re likely to encounter issues. We can avoid central Dublin in most cases by staying at Portmarnock.

The most frequent problems we’ll encounter are right-turns, which now feel counter-intuitive, and roundabouts where we need to observe and ‘give way to the right’.

The most disconcerting conditions are probably heavy, but free-flowing traffic where thing scan begin to happen a little bit more quickly. The time of day can influence this

Driving in Scotland’s rural areas is often considered to be something of a legitimate leisure activity within its own right. The roads are uncongested and frequently scenic, particularly those of Perthshire and the Highlands. Drivers need to be disciplined and remember that their responsibility is to the road. Don’t get caught looking for monsters in Loch Ness is driving on the A82 for example

The A82 and the A9 are two trunk-roads that travel through both areas linking them to the central belt

One of the biggest challenges we might face is losing concentration as a result of not necessarily having enough other vehicles around to keep us focused. There is an issue with drivers who are used to driving on the right to start doing so. Modern vehicles do have smart alert ‘bleepers’ to warn us if we’ve crossed a white line without indicating, and an attentive passenger is always a help too. These needn’t work quite so well on rural roads with poorer lane markings however. We shouldn’t rely on them, and should treat as a possible safety net instead

The quality of rural roads in Scotland (and Ireland) is poorer (as you might expect). It might be necessary to adjust our speed accordingly. We don’t want to hit a pot hole at speed and to spring the airbags out

All of our self-drive vehicles will come with an audio ‘sat-nav’, although clients are increasingly choosing to rely on their own apps for this purpose

Faraway Fairways produces a travel plan for you which includes postcodes for programming into the ‘sat-nav’ and estimated ‘last-time’ to leave in order to arrive at place X by time Y

We will nearly always be able to provide you with an automatic transmission so as to give you one less unfamiliar thing to concern yourselves with (we can’t recall a situation where we haven’t done)