I AM golfing since 1990 and I finally took a long-awaited opportunity to travel to the home of golf, over to Scotland last Thursday with some college friends.
Like all of you, I have seen the vast variety of historic golf courses in Scotland over the past few decades on TV, magazines, and social media however I never took the step to travel there, possibly mainly because of the number of amazing courses we have on offer to play here in Ireland.
But I am now hooked on returning there after this unforgettable short trip and I am looking to arrange an annual trip back over to Scotland and begin to play the incredible amazing courses on offer there.
Last Thursday morning early, I drove to Belfast Port to catch the 11:30am ferry to Cairnryan in Scotland. The ferry ride itself is a modest two hour and fifteen-minute journey and thankfully the sailing was smooth as I am known to feel sea sick on some of our lakes.
Once we arrived in Cairnryan port it is just over one hour to reach Prestwick town where you have almost 20 courses within thirty minutes of the surrounding area.
On the drive to Prestwick after a half-hour from the port you pass the doors of Trump Turnberry, a prestigious golf course which is a sister course to Trump Doonbeg here in Clare.
Trump Turnberry, like all the Trump resorts, leaves you with a want for more. Their courses are manicured to perfection, the food is always delicious and their staff friendliness leave you with a longing to return to their resorts. This course is a must play should you take that journey across the Irish sea.
Further up the road, another half an hour later we landed at Ayr town which has sprawled together with Prestwick town to become one vast townland area.
We stayed at the stunning Fairfield’s Hotel where the staff and facilities were everything you could wish for and more.
The following morning, we travelled only 20 minutes to play Troon Lochgreen. This course like so many in Scotland starts off inside the town and extends its way southwards towards the countryside before finishing off back in the town to play the final 18th hole.
Troon Lochgreen, although it is not a championship course, is where Jack Nicholas first played in a tournament to try to qualify to get into The Open Championship, which he managed to achieve and play in his first ever Open Championship.
The course partly links and partly parkland and it is a very enjoyable, well-manicured course to play and although it wasn’t as challenging as our next two rounds it was an ideal friendly course for warming up for the tougher Championship courses, we had ahead of us.
Although it was the easiest of the courses we played, it still offered enough challenges to make it very enjoyable. Some of the holes were shorter however hitting the fairways was key on the shorter holes if you are to score well.
The houses that surround some of the fairways of Lochgreen are big enough to mistake as hotels. You can easily get distracted by the styles and sizes of these mansions and their beautiful designs. With green fees available under £40, Troon Lochgreen is well worth a visit early in your golfing trip to Scotland.
One of the nicest aspects of travelling to Scotland was how friendly everyone was to us. The Scottish truly love the Irish and everywhere we went, we were treated with open arms especially by the members of all the courses we played.
Every time I was packing away my clubs in the car park after the round, I was approached by members of the club to check if I had enjoyed my round and that they would love to see us back again in the near future.
I had heard about this friendliness before I travelled to Scotland but to experience it in person it definitely leaves you longing to return again.
In next week’s article I will discuss our next round which we played at the stunning Dundonald Links Golf Club. Although I had never heard of this course before I will never forget my day out at Dundonald Links. From start to finish the resort was just amazing from the quality of the clubhouse to the incredible golf course, Dundonald links is a course everyone needs to go visit and play at I will discuss in detail the whole resort and how you can play it early up until April every year for an incredible £199 for two rounds of golf and an overnight stay at their lodgings including breakfast which is an amazing rate considering the green fee alone in the summer is £245.
