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Favorite golf course

• davep043 12 Posts

  Tue, Mar 27 2012 9:41 AM

  Like many, I've been lucky enough to play quite a few places.  In Hawaii, I love the Prince Course on Kauai, and the Plantation on Maui.  In Ireland, I loved Lahinch, just a slight edge over Ballybunion and Waterville.   Congressional and Pinehurst #2 are great.  The Old Course is magical, and I'll get to try Carnoustie in June.  But so far, my favorite is Royal Dornoch.  I'm not sure if its the small-town atmosphere, the friendliness of the staff, or the great golf course itself, but I wouldn't complain if I had to play there for the rest of my life.

• Strykergeoff 15 Posts

  Wed, Mar 28 2012 6:30 AM

  Goodafternoon to you, Russian.

  I am playing St. Andrews with 3 mates next wednesday(4th April) for the first time. Can't wait as it has been a dream of mine to play at the home of golf. We are playing the Jubilie course on the tuesday as a warm up. We have as yet no course booked for the thursday and would be grateful if you could recommend one to me, we are thinking of playing carnoustie but not sure if three days of links golf might kill us!!! We live in southern Ireland and the weather here is amazing at the moment and was wondering if you might know what its's meant to be like in Fyffe next week.

  Thank you in golf

   

  Geoff

   

• davep043 12 Posts

  Wed, Mar 28 2012 7:59 AM

  Geoff,

  First, have a great time on the Old Course!  I was there last May, and will be back in June of this year, its an amazing experience.  If you have money jumping out of your pockets, there's no better addition to your trip than Kingsbarns, just a few miles south from St. Andrews.  We also played other two excellent courses for a much lower price:  Lundin Links, along the south coast of Fife, maybe a 20 minute drive, and Panmure, next to Carnoustie.  As for 3 days of links golf being too much, I'll tell you that my wife played 5 rounds of links golf in a week, and she's had a blast.

  If you'd like recommendations for pubs and restaurants, you might want to read the trip report I posted to Tripadvisor, at http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i15987-k4881920-Trip_report_golf_in_Dornoch_and_St_Andrews-Golf_Vacations.html

• RussianBlue 7 Posts

  Wed, Mar 28 2012 12:05 PM

  Hi Geoff,

  Dave has some excellent recommendations on local courses.  As for me, I'm jealous that you're going to be playing the Old Course.  It is beautiful be be prepared for wind.  Unfortunately I'm unable to play but you're going to be in the heart of golf country.  There are a few good courses close to Dundee which is about 15 miles from St. Andrews,

  For some reason, the weather in Fife or Tayside seems to change from minute to minute.  I'm in the States right now but my girlfriend who is in Dundee says that although the weather is  beautiful right now, there is snow in the forecast for Sunday.  You weather shows while you're here shows it to be cloudy with a 10% chance of rain.  Temps with a high of 10 and lows of around 4.  Like I said though, the weather is almost unpredictable.

  Have fun on your trip!

• Doublemochaman 2,009 Posts

  Wed, Mar 28 2012 12:38 PM

  RussianBlue... my ancestor's (the Earl of Gowrie) castle is near Dundee, on the Firth of Tay!  Alledgedly on a narrow strip of land between the sea and the mountains, in an area famous for growing strawberries.  One day I need to travel there... and play St. Andrews and Cournastie while visiting.

• alosso 21,037 Posts

  Fri, Mar 30 2012 12:22 AM

  Strykergeoff:

  I am playing St. Andrews with 3 mates next wednesday(4th April) for the first time. Can't wait as it has been a dream of mine to play at the home of golf. We are playing the Jubilie course on the tuesday as a warm up. We have as yet no course booked for the thursday and would be grateful if you could recommend one to me, we are thinking of playing carnoustie but not sure if three days of links golf might kill us!!!

  A great outing!

  Lundin, as already proposed, is very nice. Leven Links, the complementing course of the next village, is even better but a hard links course IMHO (played both of them).

  We also played both courses of Crail / Balcomie, quite close to St.Andrews. I'd recommend one of them for a leisure day. The Balcomie is a real links course while the other is more inland.

  If you are up for something different and don't mind an hour's drive, try Burntisland Golf Course, a testy and undulating parkland course with views to the Firth of Forth.

  More picturesque is the wee course of Anstruther (9 holes) with the hardest Par 3 in Britain - my bogey felt like a par there. Good food in the clubhouse restaurant or in the famous Fish&Chips outlet at the harbour.

  Carnoustie is said to be very hard - I'm dreaming of going there.

  Other than that, a spontaneous recommendation by a local might lead to an unknown gem in the shade of those great courses.

  I'm curious which one, the Old or Jubilee or any other, you will like best in the end.

  Come back and report please!

• Strykergeoff 15 Posts

  Fri, Mar 30 2012 8:25 AM

  Fellow golf manics

  Thank you all for your helpful replies, especially russian and dave. The posts were very helpful. Only 3 days left before we begin our dream trip to the home of golf. Weather is looking like it will good with a small bit of cloud cover. My aim is to beat 80 on the Old course so its practice, practice, practice for the next few days. I will write a post here when i get back at the end of next week to let you know how i got on. St. Andrews here we come!!!

• davep043 12 Posts

  Fri, Mar 30 2012 8:37 AM

  You'll have a brilliant time, no matter how the weather turns out. One last bit of advice for the Old Course.....take a caddy. The graphics of the Old Course here are amazingly accurate, but no matter how well you think you know the course, I guarantee that you'll find yourself on a tee somewhere out there, and have no idea where to try to play.

• Doublemochaman 2,009 Posts

  Fri, Mar 30 2012 8:55 AM

  I second Dave's motion... get a caddy!  Besides helping your score a caddy on a course like this can share stories, explain the history and act as a concierge to tell you the best place for an after-round cocktail or dinner.  When I played Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes I used a caddy and it totally enhanced the experience.  60 years from now the added expense won't matter... and tip your caddy well... especially if you're going to hire him/her again the next day.

• rp1966 46 Posts

  Sun, Apr 1 2012 2:20 PM

  I've played in quite a few countries but I would have to say that Canada is right up there for quality and value. I live in Quebec at the moment but was in B.C. for many years  my fav course is Furry Creek. If anyone out there has the chance to play there don't miss out.

   

  lol, I've played the "Furry Creek" a few times ;) but never at golf, what's it like?