Caddie Golf Tours

The author of  'A Course Called Ireland'  Tom Coyne and has settled into St Andrews with his family for a couple of weeks while he golfs around the area before continuing his quest to play the links courses of Scotland which he will record in a book to be called 'A Course Called the Kingdom' to be published next year. Tom Coyne & Boyne after our round at Kinghorn GC I met up with Tom last Sunday, 10th May, to golf with him on an Old Tom Morris course called Kinghorn GC about 30 miles south of St Andrews. It was windy but it did not spoil our fun on a super wee links golf course. Tom Coyne tees from the 1st Old Course St Andrews The following day at 08:40am I caddied for Tom on the Old Course St Andrews. He had a decent front 9 that had a couple of birdies but also included a couple of bogeys and one unfortunate double. Pitching to the Old Course 17th green  The back 9 holes started with him driving the 10th green but landing on the right side ...

On Monday as I approached the 17th Road green, whilst caddieing on the Old Course St Andrews, I pointed out to my golfer that the Open's Claret Jug Trophy was being photographed on the 18th tee by the R&A's photographer and we might be able to get our pictures taken with it. Timing is everything and we got lucky, also the photographer was very kind to let us have a few moments with this iconic little trophy that has been in existence since 1873 when it was presented at St Andrews after local golfer Tom Kidd who won with a two round total on the Old Course with 91 + 88 = 179. Curiously the first name on the Claret Jug belongs to the 1872 Champion, Young Tom Morris. There was no trophy to present the previous year when Young Tom won the 12th Open at Prestwick, for the fourth time in a row, so they inscribed his name before presenting it to Tom Kidd. Great to see the little trophy up close again and a delightful surprise for the golfers playing their first r...

On a wonderful Easter Sunday in St Andrews we took the opportunity to take our guests Lauren (niece) and Catherine, from Toronto Canada, onto the legendary Himalayas Putting Green that sits adjacent to the Old Course St Andrews. The Himalayas Putting Green at St Andrews This is the second oldest 18 hole golf course in St Andrews, founded in 1867, and originally named as the St Andrews Ladies Putting Club  and it stills plays a large part of golf in the town today. The Himalayas Putting Green The club have regular meetings during the week when it is closed to the public for a couple of hours and the  Ladies  play their matches. It is a wonderful tradition, kept very much alive. The girls in front of the Ladies Clubhouse There was some serious competition played in our match and no quarter was given as the following photographs show... Himalayas 1st tee at St Andrews A tricky putt from the road on Himalayas St Andrews A decisive putt on Hi...

The St Andrews Caddies Charity Fund The old St Andrews Caddie Pavilion. Over the next 3 months a series of charitable events will be organised by the St. Andrews Caddies in support of The Keepers of The Green (Registered Charity SCO33783) which provides powered wheelchairs to residents of St. Andrews and local areas in greatest need of them . http://www.keepersofthegreen.org St Andrews Caddies David Coyne, Jimmy Reid, Tam Robertson and John Boyne, with the help of their fellow caddies aim to raise upwards of the £ 3000 British Pounds required to purchase a powered wheelchair which will be presented to a local resident during the build up to the 144th Open Championship being played at St. Andrews in July 2015. Current Running Total = £ 2250 British Pounds Local Caddie Kevin Fogarty has created a website for the Charity highlighting the donations received and who from. A Blog, a Charity Auction page and an Events Gallery with some photographs of the fund r...

Old Course St Andrews We made an application to golf on the Old Course St Andrews this afternoon with the Ballot system and have been allocated a 13:20pm tee time...Fore! http://www.standrews.com/Ballot/Ballot-Results?date=20/03/2015

A short pictorial video of the wonderful Castle Stuart Golf Links located in the legendary Highlands of Scotland. This great links has attracted many plaudits from around the world and in the recently published Golf Monthly Top100 Courses in UK & Ireland 2015 it ranked in 23rd position, a couple of spots behind Kingsbarns Golf Links which was also created by Castle Stuart's owner and co-designer Mark Parsinen. The course held the Scottish Open in 2011, 2012 and 2013 when Luke Donald, Jeev Mikel Singh and Phil Mickelson claimed the Championship respectively. The Scottish Open is set to return to Castle Stuart in 2016.

A wonderful selection of tournament golf is anticipated throughout 2015 when the best male and female, professional and amateur golfers descend upon Scotland, the Home of Golf. After last year's Ryder Cup at Gleneagles this is setting up to be another year for Scotland to show off our golf courses that are available for all to play. The Amateur Championship 15th - 20th June, Carnoustie Championship Course Approach to Carnoustie 18th green 

As golfers begin to shake of winter and prepare to golf 2015 many are going to be focusing their attention on traveling to golf in Scotland and, as the excitement grows for this year's 144th Open Championship at St Andrews, the question arises: How do you golf the Old Course without an advanced and guaranteed tee time? Ballot success for our 'Ganebring 4Ball' from Sweden. Answer: The Old Course Ballot This is the historic lottery held by the St Andrews Links Trust every afternoon, except Friday, for a number of un-allocated tee times on the Old Course. Applications are made 48 hours before your day of play  Applications are accepted before 2:00pm  Phone +44 (0)1334 466 666 You can apply in person at the Old Course Pavilion or Links Trust Clubhouse The golfer submits at least two names  Home club membership and handicap details of all golfers are required Request 'play at any time' to increase the chances of success The Ballot result is available ...

We have been updating our 2015 golf packages over the last month and a selection of classic Scotland links golf offers are now on our web site at caddiegolftours The Gailes Golf Experience includes three rounds of classic links golf, one each at Glasgow Gailes Golf Course, Western Gailes Golf Course and Dundonald Links that will surely satisfy the most enthusiastic of golfers.   Glasgow Gailes was established in 1892, re-designed by legendary Willie Park Jr of Musselburgh in 1912, and is a wonderful traditional links. It is held in such high regard that the R&A have selected it as the sole Final Open Qualifying course in Scotland for 4 years, 2014 - 2017.  Glasgow Gailes GC 14th tee Western Gailes, circa 1897, is a Scottish links golf course that should be on every golfer's must play list. It has been host for Final Qualifying when the Open Championship was played at Royal Troon and Turnberry and has hosted the Curtis Cup and 8 Scottish Amateur Championship...

This last week I was delighted to receive, through the post, confirmation from the St Andrews Golf Club of my Membership for this year and the competition Fixture List for the 2015 golf season. With the 'interruption' of the 2015 Open Championship at St Andrews in July, the Old Course is closed for 4 weeks, and the New, Jubilee and Eden courses are also affected with the assembly of the infrastructure for the great event, but all the St Andrew golf clubs do find a way to massage the golf calendar to include our local competitions. I did manage to get down to, and retain, an 8 handicap in 2014 so this year my challenge is to enter the 1st tier at the St Andrews Golf Club and for that I require a 7 handicap or less. I am going to need some seriously good and productive practice...Fore!                                                       ...

A trip across to St Andrews and our first Old Course tee time of the New Year at 10:20am. Thankfully we have decent weather with a 18 - 20 mph wind from west. 1st tee Old Course St Andrews http://www.standrews.com/Ballot/Ballot-Results?date=08/01/2015

Approach to 1st green Old Course St. Andrews.  The annual golf match between the St. Andrews Caddies and the staff from the Links Trust, who run the massive golf operation here in St. Andrews, continued last Thursday. The caddies still smarting from defeat last December 2013, their first setback in over 8 years, were out for revenge. Nick drives from 2nd tee Old Course St. Andrews.  Good weather conditions prevailed thankfully with temperature holding between 6-8'C for the majority of the round. Six matches are played and there is an individual Stableford competition with the obligatory Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive also included. Stuart, one of our opponents stuck in bunker on 5th...free drop!  The course was in fantastic shape considering the time of year and the amount of rounds that are golfed over it during a year. Obviously there are a few areas that the greenkeepers were working on as they progress with preparations for the 2015 Open Championsh...

St. Andrews Caddies at the Eden Course A great day of golf on the Eden Course with the St. Andrews Caddies annual 'Dinger Bell' and 'Stumpy Memorial' being played in wonderful late November weather here in St. Andrews. Scotty plays his approach at 1st hole Eden Course St. Andrews There was some good scoring from the caddies with Scotty B coming out on top in the Dinger Bell Trophy after tying with a net 65, gross 72, with yours truly, John Boyne, shooting a gross 73. A count back gave Scott a better outward nine with his 38 against my 39. A delighted Scotty with his prizes Scott also came out on top in the second playing of the Stumpy Memorial Trophy, instigated last year, managing to score 41 stableford points against my 40 points...runner-up again!

In the build-up to the 2015 Open Championship on the Old Course in St. Andrews the greenkeepers have been busy with their preparations for the tournament over the last couple of years and it will continue over this winter period. Hell bunker Old Course St. Andrews When golfing at St. Andrews last weekend I snapped this photograph of the gargantuan Hell bunker, on the 619 yard Par 5 14th (523 yard for the local golfers), that is being re-built using the revetting method employed by the greenkeepers. The bunker sits 115 yards short of the green's front edge with the town of St. Andrews as a backdrop.

There are occasions when you happen to be in the correct place at the right time, and thankfully it finally happened to me. So, I am walking through the Scottish Golf Show on Sunday, the final day, during the last hour of the event and there in front of me is the Ryder Cup. It had been on display for that weekend, getting photographed with the golfers and visitors attending the show who had to queue in long lines to get their picture taken with it. Obviously I was delighted to stumble across the iconic Ryder Cup with nobody in sight and grab a couple of photographs before it was locked away in the 'vault' to be presented to the winning team at Gleneagles in September. I am sure many of us watched and loved the intensity of this years competition from the players and the spectators. I thought it was a marvelous tournament played in good sportsmanship. The Ryder Cup is an example of true golf...match play. If you wish to golf in Scotland please contact myself, Joh...

I drive my wee 2 door VW Golf, bought in late 2001, which has now done an astonishing 233,300 miles, into St. Andrews to pick up HK, my long time golfer from San Francisco. We are heading over to the Carnoustie Championship course for a practice round as we are participating in the European Tour's Dunhill Links Championship event. Old Course 07:20am  When I meet HK at the appointed time of 07:30am and place his clubs in the trunk of my old VW, he informs me that we have a second golfer (friend) to pick up at the Old Course Hotel. The golfer is the former VP, Dan Quayle. This was all beginning to become rather surreal. This is just a small VW Golf (sic) transporting a couple of golfers to Carnoustie. Simple journey...Fore! 1st Tee at Carnoustie Championshi We arrive, we play golf on Carnoustie, one of Scotland's greatest golf links, we depart and journey back to St. Andrews. It was a good day of links golf with HK, who played really well, and my new pal Dan... ...

Sunshine breaking through onto Old Course 18th green http://www.standrews.com/Ballot/Ballot-Results After two weeks of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club's annual Autumn Meeting held on the Old Course, here at St. Andrews, it is once again open for play to local and visiting golfers from tomorrow Saturday 20th September. It is expected to be an exceptionally busy week, many of the spectators  beginning to arrive  in Scotland for next week's Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, will naturally gravitate to St. Andrews looking to golf the Old Course. As can be seen from the above Ballot Results for Saturday the first tee time is 7:00am and last is at 3:00pm. A finite number are available so good luck to those entering the Ballot/Lottery next week. Golf on the Old Course will only last for one week as the European Golf Tour rolls into town with the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship being staged from Sunday 28th September until Monday 6th October. Carnoustie Championship and Kingsb...

For all the golfers out there considering golfing at St. Andrews next year, 2015, it should be noted that the grand Old Course will be closed for one month beginning 20th June - 21st July for the final preparations and playing of the 144th Open Championship, and the 29th upon the Old Course at St. Andrews. Iconic 'Golfer's Bridge' Old Course St. Andrews. There are plenty of opportunities to golf this legendary links before and after the Open Championship but we would advise missing the most awkward month to just turn up and play...September . This month has no tee times via the Advanced Booking Process and  very few tee times available via the Ballot/Lottery system, that is used throughout the year for those golfers turning up on speculation. This is  due to the R&A Golf Club's annual Autumn Meeting and the European Golf Tour's Dunhill Links Championship who both dominate the month of September in 2015. Old Course 18th green at St. Andrews.  Fr...

The date has arrived when golfers from across the golfing world are able to begin the application process for a 2015 Old Course tee time here in St. Andrews. 'Abernathy Party May 2014 Old Course'. It should be noted that the Open Championship is being played on the Old Course, for the 29th time, in July 2015 and the course will close for final preparations from 20th June until the 21st July. Caddie Golf Tours have assisted hundreds of golfers access the Old Course over the last nine years with good forward planning put in place. The most affordable route to achieve a tee time is to use the Advance Reservation Process from the St. Andrews Links Trust who will accept applications over a two week period beginning at 14:00pm BST on Wednesday 27th August through to Monday 15th September, 2014. They have decided this year to introduce a Ballot (lottery) to determine those successful in applying for tee times thus stopping the allocation of tee times on a first come fi...

Golfers, the time has come when after the final Major, a thrilling 2014 PGA Championship won by the golfer of the year Rory McIlroy, that our thoughts turn towards organising your 2015 Golf Tour to Scotland the Home of Golf.  The iconic Old Course at St. Andrews We at Caddie Golf Tours are ready and waiting to organize, advise and answer your many questions about golf, travel and accommodation in Scotland. This weekend, after golf at your club, would be a good time to raise the question with your golfing partners to the long talked about golf tour to Scotland. If golf on the the legendary Old Course is to be part of the golf tour it should be noted that the Open Championship returns to the Old Course in St. Andrews, for the 29th occasion, next year and this legendary venue will be closed to visiting golfers between 20th June - 21st July 2015. We look forward to hearing from you and answering your many questions about golf in Scotland...Fore!