Turnberry, Troon & Prestwick, Golf Vacation

Turnberry, Royal Troon, Prestwick, Machrihanish, Western Gailes, Machrihanish Dunes, Dundonald and Shiskine

Ailsa Craig from Turnberry golf course, with lighthouse in middle ground

The Character of The Tour

The Turnberry, Troon & Prestwick, Golf Vacation is laid out as an eight night duration, that follows a twin centred, daily back-to-base model.

This is a low mileage/ low intensity transport burden, especially when we consider that about one third of it is on a single journey.

We’ll use a car ferry to get from the Kintyre Peninsula to the Ayrshire coast via the Isle of Arran.

Once visiting golfers have ‘done’ St Andrews it isn’t long before their attention turns to Scotland’s Ayrshire coast and the next cluster of world-class links, the Turnberry Troon and Prestwick Golf Vacation

We perhaps need to note however that the Ayrshire coast is amongst the weaker Scottish regions for non-golf interest, and whereas there might be a few options for a little bit, there needn’t be depth to hold six days of interest. Anyone considering this with non-golfers might be advised to think carefully

Itinerary

Perched on the western most tip of the Kintyre Peninsula, Machrihanish is wild, remote, windswept and very, beautiful. As you might expect being just 12 miles from Northern Ireland, the coast shares some Irish traits, notably dramatic high dune systems, whereas the subtle undulations in the fairways are more Scottish. This is pure links theatre.

Golf Digest has rated Machrihanish as high as the 57th best course in the world. It’s top drawer. It also possesses what many regard as the finest opening tee shot in the UK, played over the beach onto the fairway beyond, and daring you to carve off more and more until you perish. It sets the tone for an exhilarating round.

It would be criminal however to suggest that Machrihanish is one great opening hole and that’s it. The entire front nine are exceptional and magical experience is we sail our over rolling fairways and dunes. The greens are firm, fast, true and are positioned in the most varied of locations. Some are sunk in punchbowls allowing us to run out, whilst others are on a raised plateau or flattened dune tops which will slam the door, or challenge us to ride the wind all the way into the target. There are blind tee shots, fabulous sea views, undulating rippling fairways and exciting rugged dunes.‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌

Scotland is the home of golf (you’ll this strap line a few times!), but in terms of finding a course that most faithfully observes the games foundations we might turn to something surprisingly modern, built in AD2009. If you want to experience a links challenge similar to that which the games pioneers faced, then ‘Mach Dunes’ this is the perfect symbiosis of natural landscape and hazard in harmony might be close to it.

The pioneers who took to the links land didn’t have mechanical earth moving machinery. They looked into the landscape, worked with it, and went about conceiving their own challenges. In time consensus emerged which gave way to the adoption of ‘routes’ which duly became courses.

Of its 270 acres only 7 have been subject to earth working. The rough is managed by two flocks of roaming sheep with grazing rights, and bunkers are developments of burrowing animals! This is authentic links, and actually genuine.

The course was designed by David McClay Kidd (of Bandon Dunes fame), so has pedigree. It’s possibly taken a bit of time for the golf travel writers to realise that this is a fine golf course and not some sort of eco-project

The 12 hole course at Shiskine is likely to be one of the most unusual and fun courses we’ll ever play (yes we said 12 holes).

Everyone loves a dramatic par 3, and Shiskine has a plethora of them (seven in total), and they often play from dramatic tee boxes or hit into equally stunning locations. Not everyone shares the same affection for blind shots however, and Shiskine has nearly one of them on every hole

The course is set on a post glacial, post volcanic landscape due to a geological fault-line that bisects the island, which makes it even more dramatic.

Shiskine can only be described as idiosyncratic. The 3rd and 4th, “Crows Nest” and “The Shelf”, offer real excitement, nestling underneath the dramatic basalt Drumadoon Cliffs. One plays up to a high green perched well above us where we’ll find a wicked putting putting surface. The other is a tee shot returning the other way which challenges us to launch a shot into the sea as we aim at the small target below

We noted that Arran can potentially offer us a bit more than just Shiskine though, so it would perhaps be remiss not to mention a nine-hole gem on the other side of the island called Corrie, that we might be able to add using a protocol of ‘turn up and play’ and put the green fee in an honesty box

Often described as the area’s ‘hidden gem’, Western Gailes embodies much that is typical of the Ayrshire links sandwiched as it is between the sea and the ubiquitous railway line.

Reading the fickle wind that snaps in off the adjacent Firth of Clyde, is the key. The challenge is compounded by undulating terrain, and finely contoured greens cleverly set in the folds of the sand dunes. The line of dunes runs the coastal stretch from the 5th to the 13th. Another links staple appears at the 14th, an out of bounds wall. Pot bunkers and fairway burns, are also much in evidence, which combine with traditional vegetative defenders, gorse and heather to present <em>‘the’</em> archetypal links challenge.

We’ve never seen Western Gailes feature in a world-top-100 ranking, but it’s prominence in the same rating organisations Scottish lists us to conclude that it has to be world-top-200

Troon is a traditional links and has hosted the Open a total of ten times. Make your score going out. The inward nine against the omni-present wind is always a trial, made harder by hideously deep rough interspersed with thick gorse and broom.

The par 3, eighth, described by Willie Park as “a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a Postage Stamp” is the signature hole. The name stuck, and today it’s one the most recognisable short holes in the global game

It’s the par 4, eleventh, ‘the Railway Hole’, that’s the most feared though. In 1997 Tiger Woods carded an eight here. Jack Nicklaus was even more chewed up. He returned a ten in 1962. You have to wonder if there is a hole anywhere in world golf where Jack and Tiger have each signed for quadruples?

More recently Troon staged the memorable 2016 Championship. Henrik Stenson edged Phil Mickelson in one of the most stunning displays of head-to-head play in Major Championship history. They pulled a remarkable 11 shots clear, both shooting record equalling 63’s en-route.

The iconic Stevenson lighthouse sitting on its craggy headland in amongst the ruins of Turnberry castle, and with views of Ailsa Craig and the Isle of Arran out to sea, plus a tendency to put on spectacular sunsets, Turnberry is the most aesthetic of all the Open venues. In modern golfing legend Turnberry is forever etched in the pages of history as the location for the ‘duel in the sun’ from 1977 when Tom Watson narrowly prevailed over Jack Nicklaus with the rest nowhere. Myths are made in moments, but legends last a lifetime.

In 2016 the course finished it’s stunning redevelopment. The new holes 9-11, look set to become the signature stretch. Not so much Amen Corner, as perhaps a Rocky Horror! The fifth is the hardest on the course and has been toughened up further. The fourteenth, an infinity hole out to sea might become the most awe inspiring.

Is Turnberry the best course in Scotland? We don’t know, it’s a hotly contested accolade, but it’s certainly in any conversation

Flushed by the success of Kingsbarns, the ambitions of Ayrshire and Kyle Phillips conveniently and naturally collided as one wanted something similar, and the other wanted a new project. Phillips set about building another brand new links type course drawing on his observation of tradition through enhancing the existing, rather than manufacturing the phoney. It’s being faithful to this philosophy that leads us to think these courses are much older. Dundonald is starting to gain wider acclaim as it matures. In 2017 it became a European tour venue hosting Scottish Open won by Rafa Cabrera Bello (Rory missed the cut).

Dundonald is now established in the family of links just below ‘Major’ standard

World ranked top-100, historic Open Championship venue

Prestwick is the home of the first ever Open Championship of Golf, and therefore the genesis of all such modern variants played since. This is your chance to tackle the original ‘Open’ undulations, the narrowest fairway in Europe, and the continents ‘biggest bunker’.

Surprisingly for golf (but less so when you think how the game came to the west coast) Prestwick has a little of a ‘blue collar’ tradition to it

Today’s course remains surprisingly faithful. Unreasonable fairway ricochets, and a plethora of ‘blind shots’ abound. Six of the original greens played from 1860 are still in use. A number of holes, including the famous par 5, ‘Cardinal’ have only received the absolute minimal alteration over the decades. The opening ‘Railway hole’ is another timeless links classic.

Prestwick’s quirky and charismatic. To play here, really is to step back in time. No where is quite like it, nor can it be.

Image Hamish Bannatyne, Shiskine GC

Testimonial

From BB Canada

Single golfer with non golfer

“I told Alun the courses I was interested in playing and he prepared a stay and play package with 14 days of outstanding golf, but also tremendous site seeing opportunities for my wife.”

From JC Illinois

Golfer with non golfer accompanying

“His attention to detail is amazing--I think our travel plan booklet ran to forty-eight pages, with gorgeous descriptions of cities and sights, plus maps showing where to go to catch trains, or walk from trains to hotels, sights and golf courses, etc.”

From DF Alabama

Group leader (party of eight)

“I will cherish the memories for a long time- especially the wonderful times spent on and off the golf course with two of my brothers and brother-in-law. None of the memories and golf would have been possible or enjoyed without your tremendous planning and logistical support.”

AS from Colorado

Group leader (party of eight)

“Alun and Faraway Fairways created possibly the most memorable golf trip we have ever experienced. EPIC is the only word that comes to mind.”

AC, From Florida/ New York, 2025

Group leader (four ball)

“We were hopeful to secure a 4 ball at St. Andrews while avoiding the massive expense other operators had quoted. He was very clear about the plan for achieving a tee time at the Old Course through the ballot, including detailed instruction on how it could be done, and what our odds were. He suggested mid- to late April as the best chance of success and advised that this is also the least rainy part of the year. We took his advice and trusted the process. Well, he was right on all counts!”

From SB, Minnesota

Non golfer (accompanying)

“We wholeheartedly recommend Alun and Faraway Fairways if you’re looking for a golf trip that is effortless, enjoyable, and truly unforgettable—even for a non-golfer in the mix! My husband and I will be daydreaming about this trip for years to come. 5.5 stars!”

From JB, California

Group Leader (three ball)

“The best part was that the service was surprisingly affordable. They were thousands of dollars below other quotes that I received, in fact the prices were very similar to what I would have paid if I would have booked everything on my own.”

From JCA, Maryland

Playing partner of group leader

“I would and will highly recommend your company to anyone looking to plan an unforgettable golf trip. Thank You for putting together a fantastic trip for J.C. and me”

From WF Connecticut

Group Leader of eight

“I think all eight of us would agree that Alun at Faraway Fairways did an absolutely wonderful job of putting this “golf vacation of a lifetime” together for us. His focus on the details was extraordinary from the choice of courses and the timing of the tee times, the amazingly beautiful accommodations along with some excellent meal selections, and the transportation options he provided to get us from place to place.”

From DR South Carolina

Group Leader (two ball)

“You are about to tee it up in your Major. Seek wisdom, integrity and professionalism. Alun Davies and Faraway Fairways will not disappoint you. They cannot assure a calm sunny day with temperatures in the 70’s on the Old Course.”

From MM, California

Group Leader (fourball)

“One fantastic trip you organized, and more importantly took ownership of in terms of daily communication and stewardship during our 2+ weeks in Scotland and Ireland. The logistics were spotless…100% of the transports were on time and excellent, the lodging choices spectacular and the golf was off the charts in terms of quality and arrangements made”

DH from California

Solo golfer

“You cannot go wrong with the support Faraway Fairways offered. I did this trip solo and all last minute but I have already begun to plan the next trip which will include my best golfing buddies.”

Enquiry

We don't need to make this an ordeal by 101 filtering questions! In reality there are probably little more than half a dozen things we need to know to build out a proposal. The guidance below might help you frame answers

Duration - usually best expressed as a range up to a maximum

Time of year - can be anything from a specific date range to a named season

Travel class - Faraway Fairways uses 'Luxury', 'Premier' or 'Affordable' for generic purposes. You might choose to reference the international 'star' rating system. We're only looking for something to help steer us into the right sector

Self drive or hired driver - In broad terms, self driving is normally less expensive, and much more flexible, but some folk just don't want to do it

Must play courses/ must do places - a few name checks is all that's needed

Turnberry, Troon & Prestwick, Golf Vacation

Turnberry, Royal Troon, Prestwick, Machrihanish, Western Gailes, Machrihanish Dunes, Dundonald and Shiskine

The Character of The Tour

Itinerary

Testimonial

From BB Canada

From JC Illinois

From DF Alabama

AS from Colorado

AC, From Florida/ New York, 2025

From SB, Minnesota

From JB, California

From JCA, Maryland

From WF Connecticut

From DR South Carolina

From MM, California

DH from California

Enquiry

Enquiry

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Turnberry, Troon & Prestwick, Golf Vacation

Turnberry, Royal Troon, Prestwick, Machrihanish, Western Gailes, Machrihanish Dunes, Dundonald and Shiskine

The Character of The Tour

Itinerary

Friday - Machrihanish (world top-100 ranked)

Saturday - Machrihanish Dunes

Sunday - Shiskine

Monday - Western Gailes

Tuesday - Royal Troon (sometimes world top 100 ranked)

Wednesday - Turnberry (world top 25 ranked)

Thursday - Dundonald

Friday - Prestwick (world top-100 ranked)

Testimonial

From BB Canada

From JC Illinois

From DF Alabama

AS from Colorado

AC, From Florida/ New York, 2025

From SB, Minnesota

From JB, California

From JCA, Maryland

From WF Connecticut

From DR South Carolina

From MM, California

DH from California

Enquiry

Enquiry