thank you, this whole thing just sucks balls
hope your timeline comes to fruition
cheers
Ive got a Scottish trip booked as well May 7-17. Feel like its 50/50 at this point.
Question for those of you travelling to Scotland (or even locals)…
If you have a large group would you normally book a driving service or rent a car and drive yourself? If it’s the former, do you have any recommendations for a good company to go with?
I think it depends if you’re going to St Andrews, staying in the town, and only playing there before going home. If so, just get taxis at the airport or arrange a couple of minibuses to pick you up and take you from the airport and back again.
You can walk everywhere in town, from the links to the main streets for shopping and restaurants. It’s genuinely not very big and taxis are easy enough to get out to the Castle course, Kingsbarns, etc for one off trips. In fact, having a car is just a pain in the arse as you need to park it somewhere.
If your trip includes driving to Carnoustie, Elie, Crail, Leven, etc then hire a car.
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We use Stephen at SRL Executive Travel (https://srlexecutivetravel.co.uk/) and I cannot recommend highly enough. Such a great guy and super easy to work with.
When I’ve been over for non-golf buddies trips I have rented a car. The freedom of movement is great, but parking can be a challenge, and driving in the wrong side of the road can be somewhat stressful the first day or two until you get the hang of it. Ha!
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I booked everything myself and rented a car through Enterprise because I get a huge discount through my work. Got a van. Not sure if thats a good idea but hopefully well find out come May. Im sure it will be adventurous haha.
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I’ll second @The_Cad_Says’s take on this one. I’ve rented a car in the past, but I was also bouncing between courses on both sides of Edinburgh (North Berwick is SOO worth the stop if you can). We didn’t really move the car during our time in St. Andrews. I’ve also gotten to St. Andrew’s by jumping on a train and simply getting a taxi between the station and the R&A if you’ve got limited destinations and are looking to travel on the cheap.
As a side note, I highly recommend setting aside a half day to a day to check out Edinburgh if you’ve never been. It’s far and away my favorite city in the world. Have a killer trip though, I’m jealous.
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Updated U.S. COVID testing requirements take effect next week. I hope Simon has adjusted the itinerary to bus us all to get tested within three days of the flight home.
Thanks @The_Cad_Says @IRBS @Sweet_Cupn_Cake and @jcw1993 . The feedback is really appreciated.
We’ve got a group of 8 planning to head over in October. For a variety of reasons this is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for the majority of the group so we’re trying to bite off quite a bit in an 8-10 days trip. Fly in to either Glasgow or Edinburgh, drive straight up north for 3 days playing Nairn, Brora, Castle Stuart and Dornoch, then setting up shop in St. Andrews with a few days trips scattered in - Carnoustie one day, Muirfield/North Berwick another, Crail and Elie hopefully as well. Plus a couple rounds on the various courses in town. Given how much ground we intend to cover, a car service seems to make sense with the exception of the three days or so we will stay/play right in St. Andrews.
Our final half-day is set aside to tour around Edinburgh @jcw1993. I’ve been before but none of the others have. It’s a wonderful city, I absolutely love it.
Thanks again all…
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From a Scottish person I can confirm that’s a great itinerary
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So, given that I highly recommended Galvin Green, I wanted to follow up since some of their newer stuff isn’t as good. I bought a few more jackets - end of the year sales and had to return a couple of them. Specifically the sleeve lengths and design that I gave high marks too, have changed in newer versions of some jackets and not for the better. The sleeve design is no longer as convenient as previous designs.
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I went all in on Galway Bay jacket and unlined pants and have played 2 rounds in light to heavy rain, temps in the low to mid 50’s. No issues with rain soaking thru and the fit and finish is top notch. Only complaint I would have is the pants pockets are deep, so getting to the bottom of the pocket can be a challenge. Definite recommend from me.
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Muirfield is offering refunds or rebooking another year out on upcoming reservations:
Dear Desertduffer
We hope you are well?
Due to ongoing restrictions being in place for Covid meaning travel to and from Scotland may be impacted with regards to quarantine rules/ flight cancellations etc, we are reaching out to all golfers due to play with us in the coming months to see how everyone would like to proceed with their booking.
Our Committee has met and have advised that we can offer parties the following options:
- We can re-schedule your game to 2022 but you would have to book in the same month as you were scheduled to play in this year.
- We can offer you a full refund for any money paid to your booking.
- You still intend on visiting for your scheduled game this year.
We will be opening our diary for 2022 bookings on 17th March 2021, which means we are aiming to have as many people who wish to move to 2022 complete by this date. This is to try and ensure that those booked in 2021 who won’t make their game this year secure the date they would like in 2022 before we open up to the rest of the public.
If your group would like to move to 2022, can we ask that you try, where possible, to let us know before 17th March 2021 to avoid disappointment.
If you would like to opt for a refund, we would require your long card number and expiry date to enable us to process that for you.
If you have any queries at all, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Kind regards
Joanna Bent
Bookings & Merchandise Manager
The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers
If the The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers actually called you DesertDuffer that email needs to be framed.
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Muirfield has been very accommodating throughout this mess, as have most clubs over there. I’m scheduled to play Muirfield the end of April. Carnoustie is offering a 50% refund or rescheduling up to March 31st 2024 at the original rate paid. At this point rescheduling for a third time doesn’t seem enjoyable so I may take my money and run.
Does she hope you’re well or not?
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This is good info to know. I’m feeling increasingly less confident that our October trip will happen as scheduled.
Reschedule for ‘22…just finished doing that last week myself
We are supposed to be over 29 May - 6 June - I really don’t want to reschedule our trip again, but it is what it is I guess. Our driver has been great at feeding me info and he says its all up in the air at this point.
We’re in that nether world over here of a massive spike levelling out due to lockdown and the vaccination effort kicking in, but having to wait 2-3 weeks to see what happens before making any plans.
It’ll most likely be opening up by then. We just passed 10million vaccinations today which is about 15% of the population. We should have another 10m done in about 3 weeks. Then we have to see if it’s reducing transmission. If it is, we’ll be opening things up pretty quickly.
The worry as far as you guys are concerned is the mutations around the world causing us to impose heavy quarantines to incoming travellers. It may we’ll be that the borders are still essentially closed, even if we’re opening up.
Either way we should have a better idea in about 3 weeks.
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