RSG - Scotland 2004 - A Trip is Born

This trip was born at RSG-Ohio in 1999.  When I was playing with Thor we were 
talking about how great it would be if some of us could go to Scotland and 
play some of the great courses.  I was trying to describe to him the type 
of courses, the style of game and the overall attitude to the great Gemme 
that was particular to Scotland and the Scots. The conversation came up 
again later that evening and we all agreed that it was just a dandy idea, 
and it was left pretty much that way.  We revisited the topic every year, 
both during our games and afterwards in the bar, always thinking that it 
would be just a great thing.

Thor has a Yahoo Group mailing list for RSG-Ohio, where all the upcoming 
info for not only RSG-Ohio, but RSG-Pittsburgh, RSG-Hershey, RSG-Cinci and 
various other little get-togethers are planned and discussed.  It was, IIRC 
in the June of 2002 that a few posts were made concerning a possible trip to
Scotland, when Guy Cooper (Coops) suggested that since I was from Scotland,
and since Mark Koenig had been there on two golf trips, perhaps we should
look into it, just to see how much it would be.  Mark and I co-opted Thor 
for his input and we started off trying to put together a course itinerary 
that we thought would appeal to everyone.

Several considerations had to be given - we wanted reasonably priced B&Bs,
since fancy hotels meant nothing to us, only requirements were a clean bed
and a shower.	We also didn't want to move every day or two to another B&B,
constantly packing and unpacking.  The Old Course was a must play.  We wanted 
to be able to play 36 holes a day. If we were going we wanted to be there 
at least 10 days.

I contacted a couple of Travel Companies, which specialize in golf trips  
you see them in most of the golf mags, gave them the info above and asked 
for pricing.  Wow!!!  The best they could do was 10 days, 8 rounds of golf, 
no guarantee of the Old Course unless we popped for an extra $1200 a head, 
and all for the price of around 5 grand.  I forwarded some other suggestion
s and the best they could come up with was around $3,900.00, and that didn't 
include some of the courses we wanted to play.

By this time Thor had said that if we had a day off he was going to rent a 
car and go to play Royal Dornoch, which I previously hadn't considered for 
the usual reason - too far north.  I had been to Dornoch once before, on my
honeymoon, but not to play golf.  I did walk up to the clubhouse and look 
over the course, but that was it.  I started to read a bit more about the 
course, and soon realized that this was a must play venue, and we quickly 
added it to a rapidly forming itinerary.

We had now decided that if we were going to go, we had better plan and 
arrange everything ourselves, since it would be not only more golf, at 
courses we wanted to play, but much, much cheaper.

So using this amazing medium, we contacted all the courses we wanted to 
play, submitted an Application for Tee Times to the Links Trust in St Andrews 
in the September of 2002, asking for tee times on the Old Course for May of
2004.	I was able to make an excellent friend at the Links Trust office who 
helped guide us through the most advantageous way of sending in the form,
and indeed we met her in St Andrews when we were there, and a grateful 
group bought her drinks.  The long wait took place  we wouldn't hear back 
from the Links Trust until September/October of 2003, if we were successful in
our application.  We couldn't book any tee times or make any further 
arran gements until we knew our day and time on the Old Course, since all 
arrangements would hinge around that.

September of 2003 rolled around and there, one day, in the mail is a letter,
with the stamp of the Links Trust on the envelope.  I wanted to tear it open 
right at the mailbox, but resisted that temptation until I sat down in 
front of my computer.  Finally opening the envelope we not only have tee 
times, but exactly the times and dates we wanted woohoo!!!  Naturally a 
message was posted right away!!!!!

We then got down to serious work over the next five months of actually book
ing and making the appropriate deposits to all the courses we had selected.
I went back and forward with a couple of the B&Bs and the Bus Rental 
company, and was able to secure a discount at the Eagle Hotel and the Doune 
House, and a sizeable reduction in price for the 15 passenger bus that was 
our transportation for the trip. Mark Koenig acted as Treasurer of the group 
keeping track of all matters financial.  Mark and I were swapping about 6-10 
emails a day at one point.  Everything was finally settled by February of
2004, and then the serious waiting began..

The start of our golf adventure was May 4th at Glasgow Airport, and since 
our group was from Texas, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Ontario, needless
to say there were several airlines and timetables involved in making sure 
everyone would arrive at Glasgow at the appointed day and hour.  

In the end we played between 12 & 14 rounds of golf, with some in the group
playing as much as 17 rounds over 11 days, on some of the best courses you
would want to set foot on.  Starting at Dornoch - with 4 rounds, Cruden Bay 
for one round, on the way down to St Andrews.  Two rounds over Crail, 
(Balcomie and Craighead courses), a day off, then three days all-you-can play 
over all the StAndrews courses, except the Old. One round over the Old and 
finishing with one round over Carnoustie.   On the day off, four went to 
play Kingsbarns. 

We also arranged a match with a fine group of UK golfers from the newsgroup
uk.sport.golf, in Ryder Cup format for the Tuesday  Thor has written the 
details and we thoroughly appreciated the effort they made to join us in 
St Andrews.  The Match was announced on the Links Trust website and there w
as also a blurb in the local paper.


Thor has already written in magnificent prose, about the courses we played 
and I couldn't describe them better.  I'll only add that I am so glad he 
suggested playing Dornoch it is undoubtably one of the greatest links golf 
courses in the world, with a local atmosphere that has to be experienced to
be appreciated.  Just a magical place.  I'll also echo his thoughts on the
Old Course - it is still and will always be a world class golf course which 
one might play but will never truly master, since it will, like all links
courses, play differently every time you play it.  The nuances of the fair
ways, the bunkering, the greens still make it a joy to play, plus, it is 
"The Old Course" and hallowed ground.