Golf Staycations: Where to Base a Golfing Trip

Britain and Ireland hold the majority of the world's links courses, and a golfing trip here is a genuinely different proposition from playing at home. Links golf is coastal, exposed, firm underfoot and heavily dependent on the wind, which means the same course can be gentle one day and unrecognisable the next. Planning a trip is mostly about picking a cluster and giving yourself enough days for the weather to vary.

The main clusters

Fife and the east coast

St Andrews is the obvious pilgrimage, and the town is unusual in that the golf is genuinely public and woven into the place rather than hidden behind gates. The wider Fife coast has a dense run of courses within a short drive, and North Berwick across the water adds more.

Ayrshire

Ayrshire holds several courses that have hosted the Open, strung along the coast within easy reach of one another. It is the strongest single base in the west for a multi-round trip.

The English coast

Lancashire's coast and Kent's both carry historic championship links. Northumberland is quieter, cheaper and spectacular, and is the value option among British links.

Wales

Anglesey and the Pembrokeshire coast have excellent, far less pressured links, and Tenby makes a pleasant base.

Planning a trip that works

Book tee times before accommodation

The courses are the constraint, not the beds. Championship links release times well ahead and the popular ones go quickly, particularly in summer. Fix the golf, then book somewhere to sleep near it.

Allow for the wind

Links courses are weather. A four-day trip gives you a much better chance of at least two good rounds than a two-day one, and the bad-weather rounds are often the more memorable.

Do not plan 36 holes a day

Links walking is harder than it looks and the ground is uneven. Most people find one round a day plus a walk is a better week than trying to maximise the count.

If not everybody plays

This is where most golf trips go wrong. The clusters above are, fortunately, in genuinely good places to spend a day not playing: St Andrews is a handsome university town with a beach, Northumberland has castles and empty coast, and Kent has both coast and countryside. Choose a base with something to do rather than a course with a hotel attached, and the non-golfers will forgive the whole enterprise.

Practical points

Check handicap requirements and dress codes in advance, as some championship courses require both and will enforce them. Confirm whether caddies or buggies are available, since a number of links courses do not permit buggies at all. And take waterproofs you actually trust.

See also our walking and seaside guides.