Golfing Your Way Through Scotland

A summer rain blowing in from the North Sea across St. Andrews Bay had turned this famous old gray town even more gray and sent tourists scurrying into the Woolen Mill for shelter.

Seven American golfers were preparing to tee off on the Old Course.

Despite the weather that soon would get worse, they set off under their colorful umbrellas, elated at the chance to play the course.

What the heck, I thought, if you are going to play St. Andrews, what better way to conjure up the ghosts of Tom Morris, Harry Vardon and Bobby Jones than to play it in wind and rain.

St. Andrews--the name stirs visions of fairways shrouded in mist, dreaded rough of heather and gorse, pot bunkers so deep that you need a ladder to get in and out of them, and greens so large that a football team could play on some of them.

It is the most famous golf course in the world. Not the best, mind you, but the best known.

The opening scene of “Chariots of Fire” was shot here. When the runners in the film left the beach and headed for town, they crossed the first fairway and ran past the clubhouse.

Heavy Traffic

It seems that the dream of all serious golfers is to play St. Andrews and, judging from the heavy traffic on the Old Course on this day, most of them are having a go at it. Tee times are hard to get, unless you are a single. If you show up on, say, a Monday or a Tuesday without one, you are likely to be told to come back Thursday.

But there is an easy way to beat this problem. Take a golf tour. Dozens of packages are available.

I recently played some of Scotland’s most famous courses on a tour organized by the USC Alumni Assn. and run by Sundance Travel of Newport Beach. It’s the way to go if you want your tee times and caddies reserved, and transportation for you and your clubs to and from the courses.

But some courses are not easy to find.

We played six courses in nine days, our itinerary taking us first to St. Andrews, then across to the West Coast of Scotland to Turnberry and finally to Gleneagles.

Our large motor coach took us through gorgeous rolling countryside past lochs, bens and castles, and to Edinburgh one day for sightseeing.

Can Visit Castles

Non-golfers in our group of 14 browsed through castles and shops while we played the Old Course, Carnoustie, Ailsa (Turnberry), Old Prestwick and the King’s and Queen’s courses at Gleneagles.

Ailsa, on a former bomber base on the Firth of Clyde, was the site of the 1986 British Open, won by Greg Norman. Ben Hogan became known to Scots as the “Wee Ice Mon” after he won the British Open at Carnoustie.

Old Prestwick was dropped from the British Open schedule long ago and, although it has some unusual and terrifying holes, it is forgettable. Your time could be better spent playing either St. Andrews or Carnoustie twice.

Carnoustie, reached easily from St. Andrews, is perhaps the quintessential Scottish course. Caddies there still rhapsodize over some of Hogan’s shots.

The first thing you notice about most Scottish links is that they look like our run-down municipal courses. They make such American favorites as Cypress Point, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst, Riviera and Augusta National look like royal gardens.

As Nature Left It

The Scottish terrain was shaped by nature and is virtually treeless. There are no man-made lakes with plastic or concrete bottoms, no fairways smoothed or shaped by bulldozers.

Holes at the seaside courses are on land claimed from the sea and left to the whims of nature. Some fairways, notably at St. Andrews, undulate so severely that you can get seasick staring down them.

The sides of some pot bunkers are so steep that they have to be sodded. Shots cannot always be struck forward, either from the bunkers or the gorse. A wise player soon learns to hit sideways or backward to return the ball to the fairway.

Most U.S. golfers today aren’t accustomed to playing with caddies. On Scottish courses they are as necessary as a driver or wedge. Without one you might not finish your round, because you will either run out of daylight or golf balls. Or both. Caddies can find your errant shots in the gorse as easily as a bird dog can find a quail.

Blind shots are common on Scottish courses, and unless you are familiar with the territory, you may get lost without a caddy. A good one is a bargain at a fee of $15 to $20 U.S. Lost balls can cost you more than that.

No Electric Carts

Electric carts are not allowed on courses here, and not even hand trolleys are permitted on the championship links. Good caddies are getting scarce here, too, so it is important to reserve one.

At St. Andrews the best address for golfers is the Old Course Hotel on the 17th fairway, the infamous “road hole,” where shots over the green must be played from the paved road.

At the hotel your clubs are stored in the pro shop--in a sauna, in fact, if they are wet--and golfers are delivered to the first tee in a van.

The restaurant and many of the rooms offer fine views of the 2nd and 17th holes and the North Sea.

The luxurious Turnberry Hotel is a splendid old Edwardian-era building atop a hill overlooking two golf courses and the Firth of Clyde. An elongated white wooden structure with a red roof, it reminds you of San Diego’s Hotel Del Coronado without all the turrets.

Elegant Dining

From its paneled public rooms and elegant dining room, one has a splendid view of the sea. Turnberry is also the place to stay if Old Prestwick is on your schedule.

Gleneagles, the perfect stop to end your tour, is one of the world’s best hotels--and one of the finest golf resorts. It has four courses of varying lengths and difficulty on its 610 acres in the lovely, rolling countryside of Perthshire, an hour’s drive from Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Flowers, trees and shrubs abound on the spacious grounds surrounding the 53-year-old gray stone building.

One of the courses, King’s, was the site of the 1987 Scottish Open. Nicklaus has played it frequently.

Tax Included in Price

Double rooms in the five-star hotel cost from $160 to $210 U.S., and a large suite costs about $315. Rates include a 15% value added tax.

For guests traveling on their own, a full Scottish breakfast costs $13.50, lunch $25 and dinner $33. Our other hotels, including the Park Lane in London, charged similar rates.

My 14-day tour, “In Quest of the Classics,” cost $3,700 per golfer, an average of $264 a day.

The price included round-trip air fare from Los Angeles to Edinburgh via London, 12 nights in four luxury-class hotels, full English and Scottish breakfasts, 10 dinners, cocktail parties every night, all transportation by private motor coach and all greens fees. Non-golfers in the group paid $3,490.

Dancing Every Night

At Gleneagles and the Old Course Hotel, tour members had an option of dining in gourmet rooms or receiving an allowance for the more expensive meal. Dinner for two with a modestly priced bottle of wine in the Eagles Nest at Gleneagles costs from $100 to $150. Coffee can be taken in the Drawing Room, where there is dancing every night.

Gleneagles’ parkland courses resemble U.S. golf resorts more than St. Andrews, Carnoustie or Turnberry.

The hotel offers some bargain golf packages, known as “breaks.” Between May 1 and Oct. 31, you get two nights’ bed, breakfast and dinner, plus two rounds of golf for $265 per person. During the winter the price drops to $225.

If you think golf is a humbling game when played on simple, well-groomed U.S. courses, you will have even more respect for the game once you have played here. It’s a sporting experience you won’t soon forget.

For more information, contact In Quest of the Classics, 8383 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 534, Beverly Hills 90211, (213) 655-4866.

Sundance Travel, 170 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach 92660, (800) 424-3434 or (714) 759-1691.