A week of golf in Scotland: the itinerary that works

A week of golf in Scotland fails for one of two reasons: too many rounds, or too much driving. The country is small enough that you can base yourself in three places and never spend more than ninety minutes in the car. Here is an itinerary built around that.

Days one and two: East Lothian

The coast east of Edinburgh has the densest concentration of links golf anywhere. North Berwick, Gullane and Musselburgh sit within a short drive of each other, and the standard of the second-tier courses here is higher than the first tier in most countries.

It is also where the Genesis Scottish Open is played: The Renaissance Club, at North Berwick, hosts the 2026 edition from 8 to 12 July. If your trip coincides, factor in road closures and full hotels; if it does not, you have a coast to yourself in the shoulder months.

Base yourself in North Berwick and walk to the first tee. Two rounds in two days, with the afternoons free.

Days three and four: Fife and St Andrews

An hour and a half north, St Andrews Links Trust runs seven public-access courses: the Old, the New, the Jubilee, the Eden, the Strathtyrum, the Castle and the nine-hole Balgove. Six can be booked in the normal way.

For the Old Course, enter the daily ballot. It is drawn two days before play, except Fridays, since the Old Course is closed on Sundays. Entries close at 2pm, results are usually out by 4pm, and you enter as a group of two to four with names, home clubs and handicaps, maximum 36 for men and women.

Enter the ballot for both your days in Fife and book the New or the Jubilee as your guaranteed round. If the ballot comes in, you have a bonus. If it does not, you have still played championship links on the same turf.

The shape of the week, and why it matters

The most common mistake on a Scottish week is thirty-six holes a day for six days. Nobody swings properly by the second afternoon, and the last two days become work rather than golf. One round a day, with a second only occasionally and only as nine holes late in the afternoon, produces better scores and a far better week.

Three bases rather than six is the other half of it. Unpacking once in each region and driving twenty minutes to each course beats a new hotel every night, and it means a wet morning can be swapped for a dry afternoon without rearranging the whole trip.

Put the hardest course early. After eighteen holes into the wind on day one, the second morning is the one where legs are heavy, and a flatter, shorter course is the better round then.

Travelling without a car

More of this trip works by train than people assume. East Lothian is on the North Berwick line from Edinburgh, Fife is served through Leuchars for St Andrews, and the Highland line runs north through Inverness towards Dornoch, with a short taxi at each end.

A golf bag counts as luggage you carry and stow yourself on Scottish trains; reserve a seat near the multi-purpose area. And ask each club about hire clubs in the same call as the tee time: resort courses almost always have them, traditional clubs less often.

Days five and six: the Highlands

North again, and the character changes: fewer people, bigger country, and links laid on a coastline that feels a long way from the Central Belt. Royal Dornoch is the name everyone knows; the coast around it holds several more that take visitors without ceremony.

This is the part of the trip to keep unhurried. One round a day, a long lunch, and the drive itself as part of the holiday rather than an inconvenience between tee times.

The four things that decide the week

• Book the tee times before the accommodation. The times you get should decide the shape of the trip, not the other way round.
• Three bases, not six, with each cluster inside twenty minutes end to end.
• One round a day, the hardest course first, and a second round only as an afternoon nine.
• Shoulder months if you can: May, June and September have the same golf at lower rates and quieter tee sheets.

Day seven: go home the long way

And leave a day of slack in the plan. Weather on the east coast turns quickly, and a week with no spare morning is a week where one bad forecast costs a round you paid for.

Resist the urge to fit a final round on the morning of the flight. Play nine somewhere on the route instead, or spend the morning on a practice ground working on the bump-and-run you have just spent a week learning the hard way.

When to go, and what it costs

July and August are the busiest and dearest weeks of the Scottish year, and they are also the ones where the famous names are hardest to book. May, June and September have the same courses in comparable condition, quieter tee sheets and lower rates, with the trade-off being less reliable weather.

The green fee spread within a single course is wider than the spread between two courses. Season, day of the week and time of day move it more than the name does, and a shoulder-month midweek round at a championship links can cost a fraction of the same round in high summer.

Budget the extras honestly. Caddies where they are customary, a hire trolley if you arrive by train, range balls before each round and the ferry or the long drive north all belong in the figure. So does accommodation in the two or three towns you actually base yourself in, which should be booked after the tee times rather than before.

How to play links golf if you have not

Links land is sand, and it plays nothing like inland turf. It drains in hours, stays firm for most of the year, and the ball runs a long way after it lands: a drive that finished at 200 yards at home finishes at 230 here, which brings bunkers into play that were never a consideration.

Land approaches short and let them run, and around the greens take the putter or a low runner rather than an open wedge on a tight lie. And into the wind, take more club and swing at eighty per cent, because a hard swing adds spin, spin makes the ball climb, and a ball that climbs into a headwind falls out of the sky.

Ten minutes on the practice green before each round is worth more here than anywhere else, because wind dries the surface through the day and a links green is quicker in the afternoon than it looked in the morning.

What to pack

Two pairs of shoes, because one pair needs a full day to dry after a wet round and you are playing six days running. Two gloves, for the same reason. Waterproofs that deserve the name, regardless of the forecast, and a hat that stays on in wind.

And your handicap record, in whatever form your union issues it. Several of these clubs ask visitors for one, and a certificate you cannot produce is not a certificate.

What to get right before you leave

An official Handicap Index: most links ask visitors for one, and some ask for a certificate from your home club or association on the day. In England, iGolf provides one for £47 a year without club membership.

Realistic tee selection: most of these links measure over 6,500 yards from the medal tees and play longer into the prevailing wind. Play forward and enjoy the week.

Waterproofs that let you swing, spare gloves, and shoes with grip left in them. And a booking pattern that puts the guaranteed rounds in first and the ballots around them, rather than a week built on lotteries.

Where to book, and what to ask

Book directly with the clubs wherever you can. The famous links open a visitor window a fixed number of months ahead and are effectively full for the summer within days, so the date that window opens matters more than anything else in the plan; it is published on each club’s own site.

For St Andrews, the Links Trust handles all seven courses and runs the daily ballot for the Old Course. For everything else, the club secretary is the person who knows what the website does not: whether a competition blocks the course on your day, when the greens were last cored, and whether there is a reciprocal rate for members of an affiliated club. Mention your home club when you ring.

Scottish Golf lists affiliated clubs and their visitor conditions, and the tee-time platforms are useful for seeing what is genuinely available across a whole coast on your dates rather than course by course.

If the headline names are full, the second-tier links on the same coasts are better than the first tier almost anywhere else, take bookings at short notice and cost a fraction of the price. A week built on those with one famous round is a better week than four days spent chasing ballots.

Booking and planning

• St Andrews Links: the seven courses and the Old Course ballot.
• Scottish Golf: club directory, visitor conditions and handicap information.
• Genesis Scottish Open 2026: 8 to 12 July at The Renaissance Club, if you would rather watch than play for a day.
• iGolf for a Handicap Index before you travel.

Green fees vary widely by course and season. Confirm each one when you book rather than budgeting from a figure in an article.

Where this shows up on a course

Three courses from our directory worth the detour.

• Moray Golf Club: Old Tom Morris laid out the Lossiemouth links in 1889, sixteen holes at first: revetted bunkers, gorse-lined fairways and a par 71 finishing back towards the town.
• Kilmarnock (Barassie) Golf Club: Championship links on the Ayrshire belt at a fraction of what the neighbours charge: fast greens, fair rough, and the honest caveat that it is not quite a pure links.
• Nairn Golf Club: Founded in 1887 on the Moray Firth, reworked by Old Tom Morris and bunkered by James Braid: 6,832 yards, the Walker Cup in 1999, and a beach in play from the first tee.

We have not played these courses; each page says what it is based on.