The Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation
St Andrews, Muirfield, Carnoustie, Turnberry, Royal Troon, Royal Portrush, Royal Birkdale, Hoylake/ Royal Liverpool, Royal Lytham, Royal Lytham, Royal St Georges, with Portmarnock, Kingsbarns plus the St Andrews New and Jubilee Courses
The Pantheon of Golfing Greatness
Very few golf vacations can stand on the strength of their title alone. The entire Open Championship rotation in a single trip doesn’t require any plugging.
The golf travel industry is fond of using the phrase ‘playing/ walking, in the footsteps of legends’. There can be no doubt however that it legitimately applies to The Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation. Every course is storied
The biggest question it poses however is ‘can it be done’?. The answer is ‘just about’, but as you might imagine, it isn’t an easy assembly, since getting these fabled links to line up for us involves navigating tournaments, competitions as well as a minefield of visitor playing restrictions. Any itinerary that looks to weave together Royal St Georges, Carnoustie and Royal Portrush is also going to throw us a few geographic challenges to overcome as well
To view Itinerary Summary arrow right or swipe left >>>>>>>>
The Itinerary
- Sunday – Dublin (non-golf)
- Monday – Portmarnock
- Tuesday – Royal Portrush (fly to Liverpool)
- Wednesday – Hoylake/ Royal Liverpool
- Thursday – Royal Birkdale (TBC)
- Friday – Royal Lytham
- Saturday – Drive to Scotland (Turnberry is possible)
- Sunday – Turnberry (Prestwick is possible)
- Monday – Royal Troon
- Tuesday – Muirfield (must be a fourball)
- Wednesday – Edinburgh non-golf (North Berwick or Musselbugh are possible)
- Thursday – Kingsbarns
- Friday – St Andrews Jubilee Course (St Andrews town)
- Saturday – St Andrews Old/ New Course
- Sunday – Carnoustie
- Monday – Train to London
- Tuesday – Royal St Georges
Important note – We will contest St Andrews Old Course ballots for Weds, Thurs, Fri & Sat. Please read the day of the week as XYZ / St Andrews Old Course. We can contest 3 singles ballots for play on Thurs, Fri & Sat
Sunday - Dublin (non golf)
You might legitimately ask what Portmarnock is doing on an Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation? The reason(s) are simple
At some point we have to play Royal Portrush. If we use Dublin as our port of arrival, we can reduce the number of domestic flights we need to make to one
Flights to Dublin are usually less expensive than those to London or Edinburgh
Finally, we’re also trying to future proof the integrity of the structure. There are credible rumours that the R&A is seeking to add Portmarnock to the rotation. We think this one has legs and will run.
Portrush has been incredibly successful commercially for the R&A. Portmarnock, on the outskirts of Dublin, would be Portrush on steroids
We lose nothing by starting in Dublin either. The city is charismatic and buzzy and we’ll likely welcome a day to draw breath before we launch into this
Monday - Portmarnock
With a rich history closely aligned to the progression of golf in Ireland, Portmarnock has hosted numerous Irish Open Championships, the Walker Cup, Irish Amateur Championships and the British Amateur Championship, and the rumour that it’s being lined up as the next course to be introduced to the Open rotation doesn’t look like dying down (we think this one has legs)
From Sam Snead to Seve Ballesteros, some of golf’s best-known names have tested their skills against this majestic narrow tongue of shallow dunes-land, just north of Dublin.
Considered by many as one of the fairest links courses in the world it delivers an incredible challenge and true test of golf.
Perhaps five-time Open Championship winner Tom Watson summed up the links best during his visits saying, “There are no tricks or nasty surprises, only an honest, albeit searching test of shot making skills.”
Tuesday - Royal Portrush
Royal Portrush is constructed on an area of natural dune land framed by limestone cliffs. The Open was held here in 1951, and won by Max Faulkner. In 2019 it returned, Shane Lowry playing the elements best of all to prove a popular local(ish) winner, whilst Scottie Scheffler obliged in 2025 (note how quickly the R&A came back!)
The Dunluce Links is home to one of the most stunning par fours in golf, the 411 yard 5th hole. A dogleg hole played from an elevated tee towards the ocean, it rewards the daring shot across a wide expanse of rough. An overly long approach shot will end up on the sand of the White Rocks beach which lies just beyond the rear of the green however. Carnage!
Calamity Corner, the 210 yard par 3 16th hole is the other feature hole. Between the tee and the green is a yawning chasm, which must be cleared to stand any chance of making your three. This is a score wrecker coming at a decisive moment in the round.
Wednesday - Hoylake/ Royal Liverpool
Hoylake first hosted in 1897, but was dropped in 1967 having hosted a total of 10 Opens. It was re-introduced in 2006, when Tiger Woods memorably won an emotional event. In 2014 Rory McIlroy followed him for his solitary title, and in 2023 it was turn of Brian Harman to lift the claret jug as he fired a 65 in the second round that opened up a decisive gap that he defended without event.
Hoylake is normally regarded as the least striking of the Open venues, its first six holes being pancake flat. It’s a course you rarely ‘get’ first time as its challenge is in adjusting your stand for the subtle undulations that can otherwise find us chopping down if we aren’t concentrating fully.
For the 2023 championship a controversial par 3 was introduced which certainly caught the eye, but probably looked a little bit too much like the manufactured transplant that it was.
Thursday - Royal Birkdale
Royal Birkdale first hosted in 1954 but has made up for lost time since. Set amongst towering dunes that look as if they belong in Ireland, Birkdale is widely held to be England’s ‘best’ links course
The distinctive art deco clubhouse overlooking the 18th is arguably the courses signature, but that would be to do disservice to the 6th and 13th holes
It remains the only English venue where Tom Watson triumphed and hosted in 2017 when Jordan Spieth having got himself into an almighty mess at the 13th had the presence of mind to exploit a line of sight ruling to limit the damage to just a bogey before coming home with a ‘wet sail’ to beat Matt Kuchar
Along with Lytham and Muirfield, it is one of just three venues to have hosted the Open, Ryder and Walker Cups, the Ryder Cup memorably in 1969 in what became known as ‘the concession’.
“I don’t think you would have missed it, but I wasn’t going to give you the chance, either.” – Jack Nicklaus
Friday - Royal Lytham
Royal Lytham is a strange course aesthetically, being surrounded by houses. It’s the one links that hosts the open where you don’t get views of the sea. It also has the unusual quirk of opening with a par 3
The course first hosted in 1926 and has done the honours a total of 11 times now.
A few years ago Faraway Fairways got a database of every score posted on every hole for every round at their most recent Open Championship. We then conducted an adjustment for prevailing conditions, based on a allowance system borrowed from horse racing. So what was the most difficult course on the Open rotation? To our surprise, it was actually Lytham. A closer inspection of the scoring suggests that two of its brutal part 5’s allied with the most bunkers on the rotation was the reason.
The course is probably most associated with two European names however. Seve Ballesteros is a two time winner here, memorably in 1979 when he drove into the overflow car park (his shot, not his vehicle) and had a car moved to allow him to play without penalty
Tony Jacklin won here in 1969 to record an incredibly rare hoe victory
Saturday - Drive to Ayrshire
At a shade over 200 miles, and an estimated 4.5 hrs road time, the drive between Blackpool and Troon is the longest single push we’ll undertake.
We’ve scheduled this as a break day, but it needn’t be completely necessary to treat it as such? If we wanted to, we could theoretically play Turnberry on Saturday afternoon, Prestwick on Sunday afternoon, and pick Troon up on Monday morning as planned? Prestwick is the home of the original Open Championship from 1860, so the integrity of the Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation would be maintained
Would we want to accept nine consecutive days of golf however? or would we prefer to ‘take our time’ and leave Blackpool when we feel ready to do so?
Second Sunday - Turnberry
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
Second Monday - Royal Troon
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.
Second Tuesday - Muirfield
Frequently ranked inside the world’s top 10, Muirfield is the ‘blue-blooded’ aristocrat of Scottish golf and always immaculately presented. It doesn’t really have any weak holes. So impressed was Jack, he went back to Ohio and built Muirfield Village in homage to the original.
Muirfield instigated a then revolutionary design of two loops of nine. This was to prevent players dialling into the wind of the traditional out and back nine and adjusting. This design ensures that the wind is constantly changing direction so as to test all aspects of your game and reading of a ball in flight. All three paradigms of golf design penal, heroic and strategic.
The prestigious roll call of Muirfield Open championship winners is perhaps its best testimonial. Player, Nicklaus, Trevino, Watson, Faldo, Els & most recently of course, Mickelson. It offers golfers choices and then requires you to execute. It is a golfers, golf course.
Muirfield is notoriously exclusive however, access is limited. Booking early isn’t just advised, it’s pretty well essential.
Second Wednesday - Edinburgh (non golf)
We’ve scheduled another break day for the Scottish capital, as we need to start thinking about freeing up space to launch our St Andrews Old Course campaign, for once we finish at Muirfield we head over to Fife
Edinburgh is a perfectly good place to dedicate the best part of a day to, and provided we can get into St Andrews for about 16.30 on Wednesday afternoon, we’ll also be able to enter the singles ballot for play on Thursday
It would be remiss however not to perhaps note that if we wanted to keep the treadmill of golf rolling, then the scope to play the world top-50 ranked course, and final Open Championship venue of North Berwick exists. It’s only 5 miles from Muirfield. Indeed, we could also play the surviving 9 hole Old Course at Musselburgh, which hosted the event six times, last doing so in 1889
Second Thursday - Kingsbarns
There are records of golf being played at Kingsbarns from 1793, but the modern course opened in 2000, and is set on three-tiered levels, sloping towards the coast. Nearly every hole has stunning views of the North Sea.
Kingsbarns quickly racked up rave reviews and earned a world ranking of about #50, a position which it’s held more or less since.
The par 5, twelfth hole that plays along the arching shoreline to an exposed green, and the par 3, fifteenth, which involves playing a tee-shot across the waves, are often considered to the courses signature assignments. It was the fourth and fifth that caught Tom Doak’s eye when he described as Kingsbarns
“as piece of construction work, Kingsbarns is one of the best projects I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it for myself”
Perhaps of greatest significance is the number of times it beats more illustrious neighbours in surveys amongst visiting Americans since its always immaculately presented.
Kingsbarns completes the trio of East Coast giants that host the European Tour’s Dunhill links challenge each year alongside Carnoustie and the Old Course.
Second Friday - St Andrews Jubilee Course
The Jubilee in question was that of Queen Victoria. This course therefore dates to 1897. It’s a quite typical links for the area, threading its way through low dunes, and without any double greens. The raised tees afford the golfer stunning views across St Andrews Bay and the town beyond.
It was only in 1988 that the Jubilee course came of age when Donald Steel was asked to upgrade it, adding length, interest, and challenge to the layout. Slowly it started to build up a reputation and loyalty. Today most judges agree the Jubilee is St Andrews’s most underrated course. Some go even further and regard it has the toughest links in the family now.
Second Saturday - St Andrews Old Course
There is little point writing about the St Andrews Old Course as you’ll pretty well know about it. Instead we’ll focus on how it ‘fits in’
We’ll contest Old Course ballots across various days when we’re able to do so dependent on availability and our proximity to play it. This means its fluid as to where it drops in. If we have to play it on another day, then we’ll look to rearrange which ever course was affected by this for Saturday and remove the unpaid New Course (we don’t have to prebook and prepay the New Course).
For the purposes of this presentation, the Old Course is something of a placeholder to help reassure you its there, but it could appear anywhere dependent on how the ballot behaves
If we completely fail with the Old Course, then the New Course will slot in just to ensure we aren’t left empty handed
Second Saturday - St Andrews New Course (alternative)
“New” in the context of St Andrews means 1895!
The course is often said to be the town’s favourite. It’s a tighter and more defined course than its regal neighbour, and aided by yellow gorse bushes, it tends to be more aesthetic too. The ‘New’ runs adjacent to the Old course and as a consequence has similar characteristics. The fairways are undulating but not as dipped as the Old course, leading to fewer hanging lies. A traditional out and back nine, only the 3rd and 15th share a green. The burn wends its way through a low dune system and features some particularly charismatic holes. The 464yd tenth is often cited as the pick. Think about it logically. It’s likely that the newer course that was designed for purpose, would be the better golf course than the ancient artefact. The good folk of St Andrews know!
Third Sunday - Carnoustie
Dubbed ‘Car-Nasty’, Carnoustie is considered by many to be the most difficult links in the Open Championship rotation
In recent years it has seen some dramatic finishes, none more so than in 1999 when Jean van de Velde took an eight at the 72nd hole to throw away the claret jug. Iconic images of him paddling in the notorious ‘Barry Burn’ have entered golfing legend. The final four holes are the hardest finish on the rotation. After the carnage of 1999 (6 over won) Sport Illustrated described it as
“a nasty antique that was brought down from the attic after 24 years …the rough was deeper; and the R&A made the fairways as narrow as an eel’s appendix scar”.
Whereas the eighteenth is the hole that has often generated the most drama. The par 3 sixteenth has the highest average scoring par 3 on the Open Championship rotation as indeed the closing four are the hardest. The Par 5, sixth ‘Hogan’s Alley’, is another famous hole with a punitive out of bounds fence running down it’s left
1999 Carnoustie reduced Sergio Garcia to tears after successive scores of 89 and 83
Third Monday - Edinburgh to London on the 'Flying Scotsman'
We can abandon any hire vehicle today and switch to the ‘iron horse’
We could fly from Edinburgh to London, but this will involve landing at Heathrow and then having to transfer to our hotel at St Pancras.
It’s actually going to be quicker (door to door) and a lot less aggro to use the train from Dundee to London’s Kings Cross station
If we wanted to add a bit of romance to the trip, it would be possible to drive to Edinburgh too and catch the famous ‘Flying Scotsman’ which traditionally at least were the simultaneous 10.00 departures from Edinburgh Waverley and London Kings Cross
Be sure to use 1st class though. Long distance train journeys in standard class can be quite grim
Third Tuesday - Royal St Georges
Located on the Kent coast, south-east of London, Royal St Georges is the second geographic outlier on Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation
Royal St Georges was the first English course to host the Open in 1894, and has subsequently gone onto do so 14 times, hosting again in 2021 when Colin Morikawa rode the crest of a wave.
It’s list of previous winners is probably one of the weaker ones though. It has thrown up surprises such as Ben Curtis, Bill Rogers, and Darren Clarke. This might be a testimony to the capricious fairways. Royal St Georges undulates more than any other venue and can spit a good tee shot into strange positions. Golf was never meant to be fair, or designed to make us look clever!
The signature hole is the fourth, famed for the giant ‘Coffin bunker’ that sits on your eyeline from the tee and would require that you launch an escape shot in the general direction of the International Space Station to extricate yourself
Non Golf Options
CLICK, button below to view non-golfers Edinburgh
CLICK, button below to view non-golfers St Andrews
CLICK, button below to view non-golfers Scotland (general)
CLICK, button below to view non-golfers Northern Ireland
Featured Group
What's Involved?
It shouldn’t need stating that this is a difficult itinerary to secure. Not only are we having to contend with at least one course hosting the Open each year and wiping out mid June to mid July (functionally the second half of July is usually a casualty too) we’re also needing to navigate a minefield of visitor playing restrictions, competitions and other tournaments. It’s not unheard for example, for either of the seniors or ladies Open championship to crop up a few weeks later on an R&A partnered course either.
The window for trying to get a ‘full house’ is tight. We think late April and the second half of May are probably the best bets. There is also a window in August potentially so long as we don’t run into the women’s Open somewhere, but Royal St Georges only allows visitor Tuesday play in August
Muirfield only allows fourball play
The Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation is laid out as a seventeen night duration that naturally needs to observe a point-to-point itinerary. The only spell we get where we can slow down a bit and switch onto something more akin to a daily back-to-base model, will comes in St Andrews, which is where if we have any maintenance to attend to such as laundry, we should perhaps think of doing so. It otherwise only involves stays at:
- Dublin – 1 night
- Belfast – 2 nights
- Liverpool – 2 nights
- Blackpool – 1 night
- Troon or Turnberry (2 nights or 1 & 1 night)
- Edinburgh – 2 nights
- St Andrews – 4 nights
- Carnoustie – 1 night
- London – 2 nights
The minefield of visitor restrictions, competitions, tournaments, plus the knowledge that at least one R&A supported ‘Open Championship’ is going to be played on at least one of the hosting courses, means that availability where we might stand a chance of getting a full house is always very limited
We tend to think that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th weeks of May are our most productive window. Mid April can also work so long as we don’t overlap the St Andrews leg into the first week of May
August can be surprisingly more productive than you might imagine so long as we don’t run into the women’s Open anywhere, but we will be forced onto a Tuesday at St Georges in August
The first course to take bookings is Muirfield, who typically open their diary in February for just six days before closing it again, for play the following year. Because we’re limited in the numbers we’re allowed to support at Muirfield, we probably advise registering an interest in Oct-Nov the year before on something akin to a 20 month lead time
At about 950 miles, the Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation is a high mileage, high intensity transport burden, especially when we consider that we’ll be transferring an additional 570 miles to the train.
In total, this should demand about 26 hrs 15 mins of road time, which is an average of slightly under 1 hr 30 mins a day (that’s manageable).
There is an additional 10 hrs of train journey
- Edinburgh or Dundee to London Kings Cross
- London St Pancras to Sandwich (Royal St Georges) return
We wouldn’t normally advise the use of a hired driver for the Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation
We might consider using a combination of Edinburgh and North Berwick as our mid-point break instead of Gleneagles? This is a perfectly legitimate alternative and would generate a similar price, albeit it would be 50 miles further to complete this detour
The Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation can support Luxury, Premier and Affordable options. It perhaps needs to be noted however that sustaining luxury throughout this duration will become expensive and maybe the smart thing to do is use it selectively
The final two nights in London are an obvious candidate given that these involve the train and there is a rather convenient hotel that makes this very tempting
Turnberry is another possibility
The only destination we spend anytime at is St Andrews and we might need to find somewhere that offers a laundry service by then
As ever, the scale of non-golf activity depends on whether we’re adding extra value for golfers, or building a stand alone proposal for non-golfers to run alongside a golf programme.
The Open Championship Venues, Golf Vacation is much more likely to appeal to golfers than non-golfers however, and the pace that we’ll need to set means that our opportunities to indulge any non-golf are likely to be limited to places that we’re staying at, or places that happen to be on a natural line of travel. As it happens however, there is a quite good correlation
- Dublin with Portmarnock
- Giants Causeway with Portrush
- Magical Mystery Tour (Beatles) with Birkdale
- Liverpool
- Blackpool with Lytham
- Edinburgh
- St Andrews
- Glamis Castle & Scone Palace with Carnoustie
- London with Royal St Georges
Any non-golfers who might decide to come along needn’t be getting smothered by the demands of the golf. With the exception of the Ayrshire coast (Turnberry and Troon) they’re surprisingly well catered for
Muirfield only permit visitor play on Tues and Thurs, and only then as fourballs, up to a maximum of twelve per application. If we apply as anything other than a fourball, we’ll be rejected
Muirfield release their tee-times for play the following season in February. They are the first course to move and we need to be about 18 months ahead of the curve to succeed there
Tee-times are allocated by a lottery, albeit your chances of success are better if you go through a golf tour operator (GTO). Be aware however, GTO’s are limited to 20 nominated golfers per season, so in reality you probably need to get someone to support your application around Nov/ Dec of the year before that. Duplicate entries will lead to you being disqualified
Portmarnock only permits visitor play on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Sun afternoons
Portrush doesn’t permit visitor play on Weds, nor Sat or Sun mornings. Their week day play is a mixture of full and half days. Tues and Thurs are full days. Mon is afternoon only, and Friday is mornings only. In order to play the Dunluce links off a morning tee-time, Portrush now require that we play a second round on their Valley course over two days. We could find we get forced into this with the consequence that we’d need an extra night.
Royal Birkdale are currently only permitting play on Mon, Weds, and Thurs. We have seen this advertised as Mon, Weds and Fri before however, so its tempting to wonder if the Thurs/ Fri situation is unique to 2026 when they’ll host the Open, and whether they might restore Friday in the future? If they do, we might need to rebuild the itinerary as we wouldn’t be able to flip Birkdale and Hoylake (the logical mitigation) since Hoylake don’t permit visitor play on Thurs. We might need to go to Scotland first and come back for N/W England
Royal Liverpool/ Hoylake don’t permit weekend play or Thursday’s which is blocked out for members
Royal Lytham don’t permit visitor play on Saturday or Sunday morning. Mon, Tues, and Thurs are usually clear but we’ll need to play an afternoon time if seeking to play Tues or Thurs
Royal St Georges only permit visitor play on Tues & Weds, and withdraw the Weds offer for the month of August, meaning Tues is the only day of the week we could use
Royal Troon only permit visitor play on Mon, Tues & Thurs
Turnberry will allow play 7 days a week, but won’t permit visitors play a morning time unless they pay an horrendously expensive green fee. The only way we could play a morning time and avoid this penalty would be to stay at the hotel as a paying guest
Carnoustie whilst usually being open 7 days of the week, visitors will have to play afternoon tee-times at the weekend
There is no play permitted on the St Andrews Old Course on Sunday
The following courses operate the following handicap thresholds for gentlemen and ladies respectively
- Royal St Georges (18)
- Royal Portrush (18 & 24)
- Royal Troon (20 & 30)
- Hoylake/ Royal Liverpool (21 & 32)
- Royal Lytham (21 & 30)
- Muirfield (24)
- Portmarnock (24 & 36)
- Royal Birkdale (24 &36)
- Carnoustie (28 & 36)
- St Andrews (36)
With all the usual disclaimers of a lottery being random, and there being no such thing as a certainty etc plus the variable factor of availability for the specific week chosen, our prospects of winning a ballot on this programme would otherwise be considered very strong if we sought to use every opportunity to do so
We should be able to contest a total of four open ballots (Weds, Thurs, Fri & Sat) and three ‘singles’ ballot (Thurs, Fri & Sat), for a total of seven. This should leave us with quite a good chance of success
Green fees need paying in advance and are always non-refundable against a certain timeline
Green fees need paying in advance and are always non-refundable against a certain timeline
A St Andrews Old Course ballot is drawn 48 hrs before play, and we can safely assume that this is outside any refund window! Any win in the ballot therefore will send us into a clash with which ever course we had booked that day, and we’ll a loss of the green fee unless we can get the tee-time rearranged. For this reason we don’t necessarily want to fill every day of the week up with a paid green fee and golf course. That would be designing a forfeit (we are after all setting up to win a ballot and play the Old Course)
Luckily the St Andrews New Course can’t be prebooked, and every other tee-time after 09.00 is offered present-pay-and-play-on-the-day. This is a great way of putting a placeholder into the itinerary without taking on the liability of a prepaid green fee
We try to schedule the New Course in any St Andrews swing to max out this position. If we win a ballot on the day we were going to try and play the New Course, we simply play the Old Course instead. If we win a ballot on another day, then we look to reschedule the affected course onto the day we had the New Course inked in and avoid a forfeit that way. We’ll usually try and put the New Course last in an itinerary then to give ourselves the maximum length of runway onto which we might land the rearranged round
Perversely perhaps, we’re actually hoping not to play the New Course. The reason we wouldn’t play it, is because we’ve won a ballot and are playing the Old Course instead
Adding Non Golf Value
Edinburgh
Few trips to Scotland could really be considered complete without the Scottish capital. Edinburgh is frequently regarded as one of the UK’s most charismatic cities. Most visitors prioritise the castle, Greyfriars Bobby, Holyrood Palace, the various galleries, and increasingly its Harry Potter connection
London
Unless you’ve decided to route through London, the UK’s capital is only really a factor when a golf trip involves Royal St George’s. This snippet isn’t big enough to cover it, but then London is one of the few cities in the world where the place name alone is enough. Just be safe in the knowledge that you won’t be short of things to do!
Liverpool
The first question is do you have any interest in the Beatles? If you do, then that’s Liverpool sorted! Even if you don’t it’s still a very vibrant city with an artistic character. Other areas of interest are the waterfront, where you can always take a river trip on the Mersey, the Albert Dock, and city’s incredibly successful football team runs stadium tours
Testimonial
From BB Canada
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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