Booking a golf vacation in Scotland. St. Andrews. Even non golfers will find this helpful

I've covered this subject before in this blog, and now the Worlds economy is in meltdown, and less disposable income out there, people want a good deal.

We offer FREE help and advice to people who choose to use this service. Just email us at
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I can't emphasise enough times that a trip to Scotland, and in particular St. Andrews/ Fife, that all the things you require are already there.
Its a jigsaw puzzle, and by following this post you'll save you, your friends, family, golf group, golf society hundreds, if not thousands of pounds or dollars.

Most Golf Tour Operators insist that you play those ''Trophy'' Courses, insanely making the visitor travel hundreds of miles in true ''Wacky Races'' style in a short period of time.



If the golfer has travelled from America/ Canada, they have already lost a nights sleep, are jet lagged to hell and are accommodated in places that bear no resemblance to what this great country has to offer.

So lets look at the pieces of this vacational jigsaw puzzle, piece by piece

1. Flights
2. Transportation including Airport transfers
3. Accommodation
4. Golf and trips

The Internet has made the World a VERY small place. Just think, 15 short years ago, for most, to do this was almost impossible, now all you have to do is put your cursor over the link and click it!

We have a wealth of golf and things to do in the St. Andrews area. It is stupidity in my opinion to spend so much of your holiday on the road when you can be bashing the fairways in one area. It doesn't make sense, we Brits DO NOT, and WOULD NOT do it ourselves if we were going away, so why do the vultures that are Golf Tour Operators make you do it? Simple, they make lots of £$£$£$£$ by making you think that you cannot do it yourself and adding on commission

Lets start helping you to SAVE money, the dummy's guide to booking a Golf Trip to St. Andrews and pay homage to the Home of golf. If you have any questions, as I've mentioned email us at golfgroups@aol.com

Flights

If you are flying in from overseas, these are the usual suspects - Do shop around, and its worth noting that group bookings can save money with some companies.

a) http://www.cheapflights.com/book-flights-online/?fromdeals=1

b) http://www.vayama.com/

c) http://travel.priceline.com/flights/

d) http://www.opodo.co.uk/

e) http://www.ebookers.com/shop/home

f) http://www.expedia.com/

Please also remember to include Travel/ Medical Insurance, it wouldn't be the first time someones golf clubs, or luggage has gone missing, or worse still, someone has needed medical assistance.
Excuse me for being blunt, but during my time in the Forces I was taught a saying that has lived with me ever since ........

''Prior planning prevents p*ss poor performance!''

Transportation

I have my own personal preference on what I would do, and I'll explain why.

I'd book the services of the likes of our Transportation Director, Bill Murray and his team, from Mac Mur Tours who will pick and drop you from the airport, and take you to the golf courses, or on day trips


1/ We drive on the other side of the road over here
2/ Vehicles here are mainly gears & clutch and not automatic
3/ The price of gas/ petrol is extortionate!
4/ Local knowledge, knowing all the places to go, eat and avoid!
5/ Flexibility
6/ Bill wears a kilt, is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and is a real Scot!

The other option is to hire a vehicle from the ''usual suspects''. Like everything on here it can be booked online.

Here are a few for you to choose from, but the one I have found the best by personal experience is http://www.expedia.com/ which is a website you may find that can kill 2 birds with one stone, as they tend to have excellent deals on flights too, but both can be booked individually

www.hertz.co.uk

www.avis.co.uk

www.ArnoldClarkRental.com

http://www.alamo.co.uk/

www.enterprise.co.uk

http://www.europcar.co.uk/

www.thrifty.co.uk

Accommodations

Having flown in, and found your way to St. Andrews, you need to decide what type of accommodation you require. If you have a good budget, we can get the best rates at the Old Course Hotel, Resort and Spa. However, take a look at the choices here, in and around St. Andrews to suite all budgets.

Our personal choices would be the likes of Kinburn Guest House a 9 iron from the town, or if you want a little bit of history, Ladywell House in Falkland, 20 miles outside town, and a place that was the former residence of Frances Shand Kidd, the mother of Lady Diana.

Golf, Golf and more Golf !

We know our golf, we play it, live it breathe it, we enjoy seeing people playing these courses...

• The Old Course **Open venue** New Course, Eden Course, Jubilee, the new Castle Course (all these are St. Andrews Links Trust Courses)

• The Dukes. St. Andrews
  
• Kingsbarns
• Links with History such as (Crail Balcomie Worlds 7th Oldest Course 1786), Lundin Links, **Open Qualifying venue** (1868), Scotscraig **Open Qualifying venue** (1817) , Ladybank Golf Club **Open Qualifying venue** (1879)
• Carnoustie Championship**Open venue**
• Monifeith, Panmure, Royal Montrose - **Yet more Open Qualifying venues**

You can of course pay a premium rate for an Old Course GUARANTEED time, we also work with the Old Course Experience who offer this service and can get you one, but as we have proved having got dozens and dozens of Golfers onto the Old, there really is no need to pay over the odds... Just follow these simple instructions.......


1/ Adavanced booking via the Links Trust

2/ The daily Ballot - the lottery. We are more than happy to help you put your name in

3/ Get up early and wait by the first tee - and I mean about 5am! It does work

It is important that you check for busy dates on the Old, if the Course has an event on, forget it, choose different dates to come!

The New, Jubilee and Eden Courses can also be booked directly by yourselves online, saving you lots of dollars!

Things to do in and around St. Andrews

Have a look at this page, which we hope may help. If you want any further help or suggestions, please email us!

Last but not least, we also own the World famous Barber's Pole which gives clients ''a free nip of whisky with every haircut'' as featured on ABC Sports and National Press!

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AT THE HOME OF GOLF!

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Society of Liverpool Golf Captains Centenary event - Organised by St. Andrews Golf Vacations

In 2006, Steve Cooke, Managing Director of St. Andrews Golf Vacations had a phone call asking a mysterious question, ''Can you organise a golf outing for 350 people?'', it was a chap called David Morris, who was from the Society of Liverpool Golf Captains, and an ex Captain of Dean Wood Golf Club

David went on to explain that in 2008 it was the Societies Centenary and it was only fitting that it be held at the ''Home of Golf''.

The Society is steeped in History, it comprises of Captains and Past Captains from 27 Golf Clubs in the Liverpool area, two very famous ones, Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) and the 2008 Open venue, Royal Birkdale.

The requirements seemed simple enough on paper, but the logistics were not quite as simple as that, however as Steve explains, there are no such things as problems, only solutions!

• 3 Golf Courses of excellent standard in the St. Andrews area.
• Extra carts at Golf Courses.
• Lunch/ food at Golf Courses
  
• Accommodation for 350 people.
• A venue for a welcome reception.
• A venue for a gala meal for 350 people, to include top table.
• A venue for the Captains to utilise as a scoring room
  
• Restaurants in St. Andrews for evening meal
• A photograph of 350 people outside the Royal and Ancient.

The first thing to be done was to look at the ''busy dates'' in the area for 2008, so not to have any major conflicts. Steve created ''St. Andrews Golf Vacations'' after falling in love with the Golf Courses in the area as a young lad when holidays in the 1970's were spent in St. Andrews, a distant cry from industrial West Yorkshire where he lived in Wakefield.
Steve joined the RAF in 1983 just so as to get posted to Leuchars, a long par 4 to reach the famous Links across the Eden River!

This enabled him to represent the RAF at golf and play all the great local Courses and fall in love with them.
Having visited 3 ''links with History Courses'' with David Morris and members of the Society, it was decided to approach Ladybank and Crail, 2 of the Worlds oldest golf courses to check availability, and to see if they could cater for such large number. These things have to go through committee's and a nervous wait was had by all to see if we could be accommodated

Meantime, Steve Cooke had approached Jason Schellenberg from the Old Course Hotel, to see if he could kill 4 birds with 1 stone!

His idea was :

1. To utilise the Old Course Hotels ''Hall of Champions'' for a welcome reception, which he hoped could be eventually granted ''civic reception'' status given the magnitude of the occasion.
2. To utilise the Old Course Hotels ''Hall of Champions'' for the prize-giving meal
3. The Old Course Hotel was purchased in 2005 by Herb Kohler, and came with its own Golf Course, the St. Andrews Dukes. Mr Kohler has spent millions of pounds on an already great Course, and is one of the best in the area, it seemed fitting that this be requested as one of the 3 courses
4. To request a scoring room for the Captains to peacefully (if not painfully!) go through over 300 cards a day

The dates were pencilled in for Sunday August 17th to Wednesday 20th August 2008

After a few weeks wait we had secured the big pieces of this gigantic jigsaw puzzle

Sunday - Welcome reception - Hall of Champions - Old Course Hotel, Resort and Spa

Monday- Wednesday - Golf at Crail Balcomie, Ladybank and the Dukes

Wednesday Evening - Prize giving meal at the Hall of Champions - Old Course Hotel, Resort and Spa.

The Tom Morris Junior room at the Hotel was also to be used for the Captains to score in on Monday- Wednesday

The next small problem we had was where to accommodate over 300 people.
Gordon Brown had just been in St. Andrews and opened the newly refurbished David Russell Apartments, part of the St. Andrews University accommodation, and during term holidays would be open for the general public to use.
Linda Richardson & Kim Malherbe (Conference and Group Services, University of St Andrews) were approached, and this was seen as the ideal location to house the majority of the group.

All that was left to do was to put the garnish on the whole occasion.
Here is what else has been achieved

• On Sunday 17th August, the reception has indeed been given a ''Civic'' status, and the Provost of Fife, Cllr Frances Melville will open up proceedings by welcoming the Captains to the Home of Golf. Joyce Falconer, from BBC1 Scotland Soap ''River City'' fame will also be giving the Captains a Scottish welcome. A young piper by the name of John Heaton- Armstrong will be piping in the Captains at the Old Course Hotel
• The staff at each of the Golf Courses have been nothing short of fantastic, helping to sort out Carts and food on a daily basis. Special mention must go to the Professional at Ladybank, Sandy Smith who has gone above and beyond the call of duty on several occasions

On Wednesday 20th August, it appears that this group are going to break a couple of records

1. Campbell Savage (Royal and Ancient) will be in charge of what is believed to be the largest every group photograph outside the Royal and Ancient, which it is hoped will include the Captain of the R&A, Mr David Harrison. What will make this more spectacular is the fact that the Society will all be wearing long tailed red jackets (see picture below) Having obtained a temporary road closure from Fife Council/ Fife Police, the Captains will be piped by the Fife Constabulary Pipe Band to the Old Course Hotel for pre meal drinks


2. It is believed that the meal will be the largest ever meal sitting in the ''Hall of Champions'', guests invited Gavin Hastings OBE, Provost of Fife, Cllr Frances Melville and the Captain of the Royal and Ancient

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Society of Liverpool Golf Captains event being organised by St Andrews Golf Vacations

Over 340 Golf Captains will be coming to St. Andrews in August 2008 which will see some record breaking fetes achieved and never seen before at the Home of Golf

More news coming soon...




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Golf: Society of Liverpool Golf Captains to celebrate their centenary with St Andrews trip

Event proudly orhanised by St. Andrews Golf Vacations


THE RED-COATED captains from across Merseyside are going to St Andrews, where they will be photographed on the steps of the famous old clubhouse, as part of the centenary celebrations for one of the most prestigious golf organisations in the country.

The Society of Liverpool Golf Captains is 100 years old and events planned for this year will also recall its early beginning at Woolton Golf Club when secretaries, captains and treasurers of selected clubs were invited for a game of golf followed by a dinner.

The Society has developed to become very special. Its membership includes the captains and past captains, more than 700 men from 27 clubs, and its status and popularity is so great that it is impossible to accept the captains from other, more recently established clubs. Quite simply, no more could be accommodated at the annual dinner and golf competition.

The society may not be the oldest but as Geoffrey Leece, past captain of Huyton and Prescot who is now writing a history of the society, says: "We are the envy of many in other areas because of the strength of our society and we traditionally wear red coats. Others do not do that, but some are now following us."

So, as usual, the society’s annual dinner in Liverpool last month was a red-coated evening and for the three-days autumn meeting at St Andrews the society members will be in red coats at the old clubhouse before they go to dinner at the Old Course Hotel. Between 250-300 are expected to be there.

It is not clear who at Woolton invited the captains, secretaries and treasurers to that first get- together in 1908, although a J.F Clegg was a prominent figure at Woolton and indeed in the Society.

"Cleggie," as he was called, was in turn Woolton’s secretary, treasurer, captain and president, a naval architect by profession and, according to a Woolton history, a "very masterful personality."

In addition to Woolton, the clubs represented for the 1908 match and dinner were Royal Liverpool, Formby, Birkdale, Bromborough, West Derby, Heswall, Wallasey, Huyton, Ormskirk, West Lancashire, Chester, Leasowe, and one among the lost courses of Merseyside, New Brighton.

The evening was obviously a success because the idea was repeated before and after World War One, in 1911, 1912 and in the early 1920s. Then the golfers were known as the Liverpool and District Captains, Ex-captains, Hon. Treasurers and Secretaries Competition.

The Competition was renamed as the Society of Liverpool Golf Captains in 1938 and the secretaries and treasurers were phased out.

Clegg was secretary of the Competition from 1929 until he became the Society’s first captain in 1939. The other key figures in the history of the Society include Jack Stanway Johnson, a past captain at Childwall and secretary and treasurer of the Society for 30 years until retiring in 1992, and Harry Hayco, a captain at Huyton who in 1924 presented a trophy to the Society.

Members will again play for the Hayco Trophy at the annual competition this year.

The events this year include the annual competition, played each year at the home course of the captain, which this year means Derek Walkden’s Haydock Park, and a centenary dinner and dance at the arena at Kings Dock.

Also, the Society will play a match against the Bolton Society.

At Woolton, where it all started, a centenary match between the Societies of Liverpool, Edinburgh and London is being held in June and the St Andrews Night Dinner, always one of the biggest nights in the north west golfing calendar, will be a very special evening, again an engagement for the members of the society. A full pheasant for each guest will be part of the seven course menu.

Cleggie will undoubtedly figure in the memories of many.

The man who the Woolton history recalls had the air of a man used to command, was undoubtedly a major influence in the formative years of the society, a great power in the Woolton club for nearly 50 years.

His memorial service was held in 1953 and in the years following it must have seemed difficult to imagine the Woolton club without his commanding presence.

But then if you are ever at Woolton, perhaps at nighttime when the shadows lengthen or later as midnight nears and you perhaps imagine a figure at the far side of the lounge by the window... well, his ghost is said to frequent the building.

Kind Regards

Steve Cooke

MD St Andrews Golf Vacations www.scotlandgolftouring.com
134 South Street.
St Andrews.
Fife
Scotland
Telephone +44 1337 858888

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