Rather than use generic countrywide data, Faraway Fairways have built our own. We’ve produced a weighted figure based on golfing destinations to reflect the typical composition of a trip, St Andrews (50%), Troon (25%) Edinburgh (15%) and Inverness (10%).
December is the coldest month. Rain needn’t be the enemy, but frost most certainly is. You can only play one round a day because of daylight now
AVERAGE ST ANDREWS WIND-SPEED
DECEMBER = 16.2 MPH
JANUARY = 16.3 MPH
FEBRUARY = 15.1 MPH
You will make significant savings. You will also be able to pick and choose where you play. Even the St Andrews Old Course has unfilled spaces on their tee sheet during December, January and February. So who, you might ask, thinks about playing winter golf in Scotland? Leaving aside the answers that relate to price, the other people who might be tempted are the thrill seekers looking for ‘an experience’ and the opportunity to test their game under challenging conditions.
Glencoe.
December is the coldest month of the year. Winter green fees are now in operation across all of Scotland’s courses. Outside of the festive periods hotel prices have dropped significantly now too.
The sort of person who is best placed to capitalise on this is likely to be mobile and flexible. These might be the golfers of southern England or the big cities of Europe, or even American’s who can get to a New York airport fairly easily. What you need of course is the freedom to make late decisions and the foresight to spot a weather window. You might be able to bend something of a Christmas shopping trip into things too as it can be quite an atmospheric time to visit
By definition, links courses are at sea-level, and needn’t be subjected to upland freezing. Perhaps the best courses in January are the links of East Lothian. The soil contains a particularly high sand content and they drain well and are less susceptible to frosts. If you chanced midweek, this would open up Muirfield (must be a fourball though), otherwise its courses like North Berwick, Gullane, Dunbar, and the Renaissance Club. East Lothian has the additional safety net of allowing you to use Edinburgh as your base.
Edinburgh will host two or three major rugby internationals at weekends in the winter dependent on the fixture cycle. This will create availability issues in the accommodation market.
Kingsbarns 8th
Durness image thanks to Lucy McKay Durness GC
Perhaps the bets courses to play in February are those on the west coast. With the north Atlantic Gulf-stream operating in your favour, February can be a surprisingly good month for playing on half price deals, albeit Troon will be shut for visitors. There is something of a quirk in Troon’s rainfall data which sees it dip to a level more consistent with June before rising again in March and throughout the spring. February is a surprisingly dry month elsewhere and vies with April for being the driest of the year.
We would advise avoiding the Highlands and Islands in both January and February. When the weather goes wrong here, it really can go wrong. This means snow and the possibility of gettign cut-off
At these northern latitudes we get extended daylight in the summer and reduced daylight in the winter. If you use the summer months judiciously, you can add what amounts to two or three days on a 7-10 day itinerary. You need to quickly get into the habit of realising that your day needn’t finish at five o’clock. If you go deeper into the evening you can easily play a second twilight round, or take-in some non-golf activity, (particularly landscape which isn’t opening time restricted). You can easily put 200 miles away in an evening in the Highlands for instance and still be back before dark
Being at sea level links courses don't freeze up to the extent you feel they might. There's still an enhanced risk of course, but the low season offers some very affordable half price options
Discover
A closer look at what's involved if playing in the months of June, July & August
discover
A closer look at what's involved if playing in the months of September, October & November
discover
Different rules & considerations can apply in St Andrews. We take a look at the best time of year to play the 'home of golf'
discover
