Clearly the summer
months are the best, and that is when the big name courses of
Scotland and Ireland are packed. However, if you are willing to
take a chance, try April or late September / early October. You
will often find you have the courses to yourself, and being
links courses they are in excellent condition year round.
Handicap
Certificates
The majority of the courses in
Britain and Ireland are private clubs, but unlike many parts of
the world they welcome visitors. However, in order to ensure
that visitors are "proper" golfers who will respect
the facilities, most course have an official policy of requiring
a handicap certificate, in some cases with a handicap limit.
Provided you look like a "proper" golfer you are
unlikely to be asked, but we recommend that you always have one
to hand, especially if you are playing the big name courses.
Tee Times - General
Tee-times are usually no
problem to obtain on weekdays for the majority of courses,
however weekends and public holidays can be a little trickier
especially if the course is close to a large urban area. During
the busy summer season you may need to plan in advance for the
most popular courses such as St Andrews - Old Course (see
below), Ballybunion - Old Course and Muirfield.
Tee Times - Old Course at
St Andrews
 The Old Course at St Andrews
is in fact a public course, however obtaining a tee time is far
from straightforward. You basically have four options:
- Book Early - By early, we
mean up to a year in advance, bookings for the following year are taken
from the first Wednesday in September. See the St Andrews Links Trust
website for details at www.standrews.org.uk
- Enter The Lottery - Visit
of telephone the office by 2PM on the day before you wish to
play and put your name in for the daily ballot. 50% of the
tee times are allocated this way, success is not guaranteed.
- Play As A Single - If you
are happy breaking up your group, go to the starters hut
early on the day you wish to play and you will be added to a
group to make up a fourball as gaps appear.
- Pay A Premium - The Old
Course Experience is a company that has an exclusive contract with
St Andrews and offers guaranteed tee times as part of a first class golf and accommodation package.
Details are available at www.oldcourse-experience.com British
Isles Links Golf has a relationship with The Old Course Experience which allows us to secure favourable rates
for our clients, subject to availability.
Tee Times - Ballybunion
A tee time on the Old
Course at Ballybunion is the toughest in Ireland to procure.
Here are your options:
- Like St Andrews, you
will need to book over a year in advance for tee-times in
the peak season. You can contact the club at www.ballybuniongolfclub.ie
- Many of the
guesthouses in Ballybunion are allocated tee times. The
requirements are that you stay at the guesthouse on two
consecutive nights in order to play one round on the Old
Course. If you choose this option, I highly recommend that
you also play a round on the superb Cashen course. Details
of guesthouses and tee time availability can be found at www.easygolfballybunion.com.
- Some of the major tour
operators also have tee times available for golfers booking
a full package.
Tee
Times - Muirfield
Stories
involving the difficulty of obtaining a tee time at Muirfield
are legendary, perhaps the most famous is the late Payne Stewart
being refused. However, the process is quite fair and
straightforward, here are the rules:
- Visitors are only
permitted on Tuesday and Thursday. There are strict limits
on group size (Max 12, no groups of 3) and handicap (Men 18,
Ladies 24).
- Requests must be made
in writing, by letter of fax (+44 1620 842977). Requests by
telephone or e-mail are not accepted. Names of all the
golfers must be supplied at the time of booking, changes are
at the club discretion. Remember that the official name of
the club is "The Honourable Company of Edinburgh
Golfers".
- Requests are accepted
from 1 May for the following year. For example 1 May 2004
for 2005 bookings. Tee times for the peak season go very
quickly.
- Afternoon play is two
ball only, or foursomes if playing as a fourball.
When
playing, I strongly recommend that you book for the full day,
and take lunch in the clubhouse between the rounds. Foursomes in
the afternoon is great fun.
Size of Group
The
size of your group will determine how much golf you can play and
how far you need to book in advance. As a guide:
2
Golfers - Very easy to get tee times all year round and schedule
can be flexible. However, unless you know that you can
spend a lot of time together, I would not recommend anything
more than a week if you want to remain friends!
4
Golfers - Can still be flexible, and can easily share a minivan.
Anything above two gets rid of the problems of spending a large
amount of time with just one person, although the same fourball
can become a little stale. Good for a week to 10 days of
golf.
8
Golfers - Probably the ideal group size. Small enough to
be intimate, although gets a little harder to be flexible so
advance planning is required. Enough golfers that you can
afford to hire a coach and driver. Benefit of two
fourballs allows you to mix pairings and avoid staleness / ego
clashes! You can also build in a tournament format and
vary the games played. This will allow you to go for a
longer vacation if required, up to two weeks is possible.
Above 8
- As the number of golfers goes up, the group will loses its
togetherness and increasingly feel like a factionalised package
tour. Securing a block of tee times may be tricky, and so
playing 36 holes in a day also becomes difficult.
Itinerary Planning
A few
key things you should keep in mind when planning your golf tour:
- Try and base yourself
around clusters, so that you do not have to keep changing
hotel every day. For example, if you have a week you could
base yourself in two clusters during this period. Stay 3
nights in each, and play the best courses in each cluster.
- In each cluster,
identify your "Must Play" courses, and build the
schedule around their availability, slotting in other
courses afterwards.
- If you are playing 36
holes in a day, ensure the courses are close by. On
days when you are transiting between clusters, or playing a
course which is off the beaten track, consider just playing
18. Trying to get 36 holes in plus significant travel
will leave you feeling rushed and detract from the overall
experience.
- Consider playing two
rounds on your "Must Play" courses. You will have
the benefit of course knowledge the second time round, and
the holes will stick in your mind afterwards which is always
fun when you see televised golf tournaments such as the
British Open.
- Unless you are a group
of very low handicap golfers, do not just play the big name
courses. A week of playing demanding links courses when the
weather is tough will leave your golf swing and ego in
pieces. Mix in some of the shorter yet fun courses, which
are ideal for a second round after a long lunch
- If you are planning a
longer golf tour of say two weeks, consider having a rest
day half way through to do some sightseeing. Two weeks of
non-stop golf may seem like heaven, but it is tougher than
it sounds.
- On arrival and
departure days, assuming you are golfing, limit yourself to
18 holes and play courses down your priority list. You do
not want to play a course you have been looking forward to
when you are jetlagged or in a rush to get to the airport.
See our section
entitled Sample Itineraries
which gives ideas for all regions that meet these criteria.
Choice of Tees
At
many clubs in the UK and Ireland, there will be a selection of
tees to play from. However, unlike many countries it is not
simply a matter of the golfer selecting the tee he would prefer
to play from, the club will usually have rules as to which tee
is to be used for regular play. Often the back tees are reserved
for club competitions only, and playing from them without
permission is liable to have you executed without trial. If you
are a highly skilled golfer, and by this I mean a handicap of 4
or less, it may be possible to seek permission to play from the
back tees. However, if not do not fret. The challenge of links
courses is far less determined by the length than other types of
course. Here, the wind, the hazards and the bounce of the turf
cause most of the problems.
Caddies & Carts
Unlike most parts of the
world, you will not find cart paths on the golf courses of Great
Britain & Ireland, and at most clubs you will usually need a
medical certificate to even have a chance of riding in a cart.
You may find the occasional exception at clubs heavily dependent
on visitor revenues, but as a general rule you should be
prepared to walk. In fact, it is quite normal to carry your own
bag (the cooler climate makes this a little easier) but for
those of you unwilling or unable to do this, do not despair as
there a couple of solutions.
- At every club, pull
carts are available to hire for a modest fee
- At many of the more
famous clubs, particularly those in Scotland and Ireland it
will be possible to organise caddies in advance.
Clothing
Be prepared - never leave home
without waterproofs and an umbrella! It also makes sense to have
plenty of layers, at the height of summer temperatures can get
as high as 90 but be as low as 50, anything is possible.
Also, a small word about
shorts. Some of the more blue blooded establishments will only
permit shorts when accompanied by knee length socks. Don't ask
me why, having tried to reason with officials I am none the
wiser! However, it can be a little embarrassing so I suggest
that if the club has the name "Royal" in front of it
or shows any signs of stuffiness, either wear long trousers or
be prepared to have your friends laugh at you.
Driving
Yes, we drive on the wrong
side of the road! However, you quickly get used to it, your
first experience of getting it wrong usually fixes you for life!
A few points to know:
- Speed limit is 70mps on
motorways (up to 20mph above should be OK), 60mph on main
roads in rural areas and 30mph in built up areas. There are
a lot of speed cameras in place, so watch out!
- Drink driving laws are very
strictly enforced, one beer should be fine, two at the very
maximum.
- The roads in the Republic
of Ireland are very slow, allow plenty of time
Currency
In the United Kingdom
(including Northern Ireland), we still use the Pound, in Ireland
it is the Euro. There is no real border between Northern Ireland
and The Republic, you will only know because the roadsigns have
changed. ATM's are available at all banks and accept a wide
range of cards. Most restaurants and shops accept credit cards,
although be aware that many pubs will only accept cash.
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For
those of you not familiar with golfing on our shores, I've set
out below a few handy hints!