Connoisseurs Choice

Royal Belfast 12th Hole

Royal County Down 3rd Hole - Aidan Bradley©

Royal Portrush Dunluce Course

Royal Troon Old Course

Turnberry Ailsa

Prestwick Old 15th Hole - The Narrows

Western Gailes 14th Hole

Enjoy your first 3 nights in the very heart of Europe’s most vibrant city, Northern Ireland’s Belfast. All of the top restaurants, city sights, entertainment, shopping and pubs, including world famous Crown Liquor Saloon are only steps away.

The next 4 night will be spent in Ayrshire on Scotland’s Southwest Coast with it’s star-studded cast of top quality links courses and rich cultural heritage.

Itinerary

Day 1
Arrive Northern Ireland
Spend 3 nights in central Belfast

Play Royal Belfast Course
Eighteen hole parkland course rolls gently to the shores of Belfast Lough. The course is very picturesque with many mature trees and many carefully placed bunkers. The greens are undulating and generally run towards the sea. A very pleasant course that presents a challenge to any handicap golfer.

Day 2
Play Royal County Down Championship Course
Founded in 1889, this course offers an exhilarating challenge to even the most experienced golfers. The setting of this links course is continually remarked upon for it outstanding beauty. The fact that this course has five blind tee shots and several obscured approach shots makes it all the more formidable to play.

Day 3
Play Royal Portrush Dunluce Course
One of Ireland’s most famous of links courses and the only club in Ireland to have hosted the British Open. Royal Portrush Dunluce course is laid out in a marvelous stretch of golfing country. Through a tangle of sand hills the course threads, its way, with the sweeping contours of dunes, lending infinite variety to your game. This course has been portrayed by many golfers to be one of the most challenging in the world. In 2019 Royal Portrush Dunluce Course will host the British Open for the first time since 1951.

Day 4
Transfer to Scotland by Ferry

Spend 4 nights in Southwest Scotland

Play Western Gailes
Bordered on one side by a railway line and the other by the sea, this is an exceedingly narrow layout, with an entire width no more than the two fairways permitted by the meager 130-acre site. But this course is golf magic, presenting variety and challenges, rarely found in a single course. The challenge is only compounded by the finely contoured greens, immaculately maintained and most ingeniously located, set into the folds of the surrounding sand dunes. Needless to say, pot bunkers are in no short supply and to add a little spice to the round, meandering burns pop up strategically and immediately in front of four of the greens.

Day 5
Play Royal Troon Old Course
One of the great links courses in Scotland, Royal Troon Old Course is a challenging test of golfing ability. It is a traditional out and back links layout with the opening few holes showing a kinder side of the course’s sometimes merciless character. These short par-4′s run picturesquely along the shoreline of the Firth of Clyde, offering an opportunity to soak in the scenery — Ailsa Craig to the distant south and to the west, the majestic mountains of the Isle of Arran. Enjoy the views while you may for there is serious work ahead. The Old Course is tough from beginning to end.

Day 6
Play Prestwick Old Course
Founded in 1851, a full 27 years before its neighbor, Troon Golf Club, Prestwick is a microcosm of golf’s history, not to be missed by even those with only a passing interest in all that has occurred in the 600 year since golf came to be. The very first Open Championship was held here in 1860, and Prestwick went on to host the event for each of the next 11 years. Best described as a traditional, classic links, the course has secured an ominous reputation for its blind holes, humps, hillocks and greens that may appear to be quirkily contoured. No less a shock to the first time visitor are the steep faced, pot bunkers, some of which are well over 6 feet deep.

Day 8
Play Turnberry Ailsa Course
Ranked as one of the the best in all of Britain and Ireland and among the world’s top dozen courses, Ailsa made it’s reputation at the 1977 British Open when it was the scene of the famous “Duel in the Sun” between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus and again in 2009 between Tom Watson and Stewart Cink, on the fourth occasion this remarkable layout has hosted The Open. Sophisticated, handsome and presenting a challenge of the first order, this stunning combination of nature and golf is one of a kind, providing a round of golf that will live in every player’s memory for years to come. Links golf simply gets no better.

Day 9
Depart Scotland