DEVELOPING SITUATIONS across the sports world:

1. The Buss family just sold the Lakers to the Dodgers (Mark Walter)

2. The Rays are closing a deal with a Jacksonville real estate developer. Price tag: $1.7b. Move to Jacksonville: guaran-frickin-teed. MLB will try baseball in yet another Florida city.

3. Connor McDavid will go another season without a Stanley Cup. Florida Panthers are NHL’s Champs. Florida is good at hockey and so, so bad at getting people to attend a baseball game. History’s mystery yaknow.

4. Kevin Durant

5. NBA Finals will end tonight in Indiana…..or do the Pacers have one more comeback in them….?

The Man with the Plan. Literally. He organized the whole trip. Here’s The Hairy Putter:

Let’s give it up for my man KMARK. He’s done a tremendous job of capturing the highlights and spirit of our early goings in Scotland, and his astute observations are almost as consistent and creative as his hybrid play between 175-230 (conditions depending). That said, you didn’t think I’d let him have all the fun, did you? 

In today’s Travel Pad, I’d like to walk us through a few items:

1. A touch more course recapping

2. Logistical insights and learnings around East Lothian

3. A look ahead to Fife (with a side quest up to Aberdeen)

The courses: Kilspindie - Luffness New - North Berwick - Dunbar - Gullane No. 1

Kilspindie - To both a local and a well-traveled visitor, it’s safe to say we got our “introduction round” spot on. 5500 yards, but I was forced to clean grooves on 13 of my clubs. Stout 3-shot 5s and short, iron-mandated 4s yielded a total diversity of shots. Periods of heavy rain, shifting winds, and magnificent sunshine yielded a total diversity of layering (mental and physical). Our introduction was proper; 9 more links routings were waiting.

Luffness New - What a treat this was. I’ll challenge KMARK slightly on his “no visitor” claim, as Luffness has followed suit with Muirfield in being more accommodating to visiting golfers in recent years. But it’s almost assured that your visit to Luffness won’t manifest with as much depth and poignance without the company of a member. We missed The Lunch (chefs need rest too), but I wouldn’t trade our experience for any other roll of the dice – heated match, hotter soup, and a euphoric mix of gin & tonic, French white, and kummel + espresso. To say nothing of the vintage Old Tom original routing…

North Berwick - I’d been looking forward to this round since 2019, when a younger, more foolish HP visited Scotland for the first time. I caught glimpses from the East Links (Glen Golf Club) and heard moans in pubs when I told folks I missed out on the West Links (North Berwick). We maintained a presence and attitude during that 4-hour walk that I’ll surely never forget. I think it’s impossible to have more fun on a golf course than during an afternoon like we had on North Berwick. A total delight that I’ll be searching for adequate words to describe for quite some time. Bear with me.

Dunbar - A hidden gem no longer, that’s for certain. Undoubtedly still a gem, but the only thing hidden is the marvelous routing squeezed between the meandering coastline and accompanying red sandstone deer park wall that ultimately defines the narrow strip of links. Old Tom, Ben Sayers, and James Braid all got their mits on this sliver of heaven since 1856, and the results are nothing short of genius. It's a player's course for brave shot-makers and soulful adventurers. If I never make it back, it will be a grave mistake.

Gullane No. 1 - KMARK may have been harsh when he described a few holes as “throwaway,” and given our play amid 35 mph winds, it’s hard to find the courage to really press him on the matter. There’s no denying the championship bona fides of the property, and the green fee + modern clubhouse certainly agree. I found the course to produce some of the more tasteful bunkering of the trip, and the set of par 3’s might well be all-world Handsome. Would I prioritize another loop on a return trip? Likely not, without a member. No. 2 might be in the cards instead.

From our rental house in Gullane (shoutout One Fairways - elite accommodations, truly), you can find 21 golf courses within a 30-minute drive. The floor is stupidly high (Kilspindie, Gullane No. 3), and the ceiling rivals the very best in the world (Muirfield, North Berwick). All of 45 minutes from Edinburgh, which is absolutely accessible for an evening’s dinner (Chez Jules) and drinks. Musselburgh is host to the oldest operational golf course in the world (6-time Open host) and yes, exists within a functioning race track. No matter your golf or cultural fancy, you're bound to find it from a stay in East Lothian. 

The two hitters in terms of lodging are Gullane and North Berwick. NB undoubtedly offers more optionality in both dining and beds, while Gullane is a notch more central and available to Edinburgh. Fact is, you can’t go wrong between the two – just be mindful of the local operating hours in these sleepy Scottish vacation towns. Late mornings and early nights are common, so plan your coffee and dinners accordingly.

I don’t aim to map out the A-Z logistical hurdles faced or a comprehensive list of resources utilized with this post, and I’m certainly no Top-100 expert on the matter of Scottish golf adventures. What I am, however, is a keen purveyor of old-world golf, and now someone with a bit of experience bootstrapping a few proper golf trips at home and abroad. If this intrigues and you’d like to follow up with questions, vague or specific, drop me a line directly via [email protected] or @TheHairyPutter on X.com (the everything app; it’s all happening on X). Few things I’d rather chat more about with the audience.

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Every trip, regardless of whether it's for golf or your honeymoon, begs the question at one point or another: Are we biting off more than we can chew? For this adventure, the plan was to split our time between East Lothian (Gullane) and Fife (St. Andrews). The longing siren in the back of my mind was the unshakable fact that Cruden Bay:

1. Might be the most intriguing golf course in the world

and

2. Exists north of Aberdeen, a good 2 hours past of St. Andrews.

It was sure to be a big bite, a Michelin-starred bite at that. But suffice it to say, the journey was every bit as taxing and breathtakingly worth it as I could have possibly imagined. We’ll cover those details and more in the next Travel Pad installment, but for now, I’ll leave you with the remaining itinerary to ruminate over.

Cruden Bay - Montrose - Lundin - Elie - Crail - Old Course (with a twist) - Town of St. Andrews