Day ONE – Car Hire and Hotel Check-In
After flying all day and night from Seattle-Tacoma to Edinburgh via Continental (only $650 per ticket), we arrived in Scotland for breakfast. Once we cleared UK customs, we were led by a Golf Scotland representative to our Scottish home for the next seven nights — the Swallow Old Manor Hotel of Lundin Links, just 12 miles south of St. Andrews. The Golf Scotland steward was world-class and he made sure we were secure with the trip, accommodations and tee times before leaving us to it.
Lundin Links is a small village that is 100 percent golf – hence the town’s name. The Old Manor sits high atop the North Sea, separated from the coastline only by the 138-year-old Lundin Golf Club, the most beautiful site I have ever seen from a hotel window. We left the French doors to the room’s balcony open each night as we bedded down to the sound of the North Sea’s waves washing up on the shore of the Lundin Golf Club’s first, second, third and fourth holes, creating a white noise that gently lulled us into a deep Scottish slumber.
Day Two — Scotscraig Golf Club
Golf Scotland, our trip planner, started us off on a perfect budget-driven track by sending us to Scotscraig, which — established in 1817 — is the world’s 13th-oldest course. Only 10 minutes from St. Andrews, Scotscraig is a true Scottish experience with rolling terrain, gorse by the truckload, Scotch broom, sand and tightly-cut fairways and greens. Site of several past Open qualifiers, it’s no easy course.
What made it a bit easier and memorable for my Dad and I was playing with Tayport resident and club member Jimmy Walker, who would win a contest if they awarded someone for being the most Scottish-sounding and looking. It took us about 10 minutes or so to dial into his thick accent, but once we did we were hanging on every one of Jimmy’s stories. It was a genuine pleasure to experience the grassroots of a local track on day one, and Jimmy made it all the more memorable for us.
DAY THREE — Crail, Balcomie Links
Wow! Without a doubt, our day in the town of Crail was on an even par with any previous experience I have had in Pebble Beach. The Crail Golfing Society Balcomie Links, laid out by St. Andrews’ designer Old Tom Morris, has kept a written daily account of its activities for more than 200 years, making it the seventh-oldest course in the world.
With seven holes stretched out along the beaches of the North Sea, and the rest of the holes paralleling the coastline, Crail served as the perfect place to be baptized into the holy water of Scottish links golf. Made famous by the Michael Murphy book Golf in the Kingdom, Crail is indeed a historic landmark, albeit one with which few Americans are familiar. Having enjoyed Crail as much as any other course we have ever played, my dad and I were shocked to hear that an annual membership to Crail was only about $600 U.S., for unlimited golf.
The Scots truly are golfing in the Kingdom.