Caddie Golf Tours

The St Andrews caddies returned to work on the Old Course and the other links courses after the enforced layoff, due to Covid-19, stopped them working on March 24th. St Andrews caddies with their golfers on Swilken Bridge This has been a tough time for the caddies who would have been working flat out with the majority of the 170 registered during the season looking at doing 2 loops a day. As it is we have close to 45 caddies available for work on the St Andrews Links caddying 2 loops a week. Caddie work is expected to increase as we move into the month of August and visiting golfers return to St Andrews and Scotland.   Caddies with golfers on Old Course 18th green A few expected restrictions are in place: suitable distancing, golf bag is placed on a complimentary push trolley with sanitized handle, no handling of players clubs or golf ball, caddie to provide hole information and shot advice as normal. No one in the group is allowed to touch the flagstick. Outwith that it is busines...

Golf: 5 rounds:  * Old Course, Dumbarnie Links, Crail Balcomie Links, Castle Course, Lundin GC Stay: 5 nights at 5 star Fairmont Hotel St Andrews, in shared room Cost: from £1350 per person (subject to availability) * Old Course tee time accessed through local Ballot with assistance from Caddie Golf Tours and green fee paid direct to Starter. Alternative local golf arranged if unsuccessful. Golf in Scotland is returning and this summer the golfer has an opportunity to play the greatest Open venue at St Andrews and our exceptional links courses located around the town. Contact Caddie Golf Tours to discuss your golf tour options. 

The St Andrews Links Trust will be opening the celebrated Castle Course on Monday 27th July after the forced closure in late March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  It should be noted that due to Covid-19 there will be some restrictions in place, the main one being no access to changing facilities but the toilets are available in the clubhouse, and the Halfway Hut will be open for limited snacks and drinks from 09:00 - 16:00 each day. The driving range will also be available for a quick warm up before your tee off as is the practice putting green. Please contact Caddie Golf Tours for information about golf at the Castle Course, St Andrews, and across Scotland.

Good news from the St Andrews Links Trust with the opening of their excellent Golf Academy from 1st July. It will be open to golfers from 12 noon through to 7pm, seven days a week where you will be able to access: driving range from the grass in front of the Academy. No covered bays are open Short game area, with numbers of golfers limited Limited daily lessons from St Andrews Links PGA Instruction Team Custom Fitting Sessions at the Callaway Performance Centre With the Scottish Government easing Covid-19 travel restrictions from Friday 3rd July it is expected that there will be an increase of visitors to the St Andrews area, and Scotland, from around the country. It is expected that accommodation, restaurants, bars and the wider Scottish tourism market will begin to reopen from 15th July.

A great but tough day of matchplay golf on the Old Course St Andrews against Donald, my good friend and St Andrews caddie. He kindly gave me 3 shots each side. It is the 19th June and St Andrews has been afflicted with the haar, a sea mist, for the last 6 days. Visibility got quite bad out at the Eden Estuary and the par 3 11th hole, as can be seen from Donald's tee shot, only 160 yards to the pin! It did begin to clear as we played the back nine and by the time we reached the 17th we could see the town of St Andrews from the tee position. The match is over, as Boyne drove OB from the 16th tee, Donald winning 4&2. From the 17th tee both drives find the thin slither of fairway, remarkably, Boyne 200 yards from front edge of green and Donald 180 yards. One makes bogey and he par!

The St Andrews Links Trust have announced today that local ticketholders in St Andrews can now play golf in 3 or 4 balls with golfers from no more than 3 households. This will allow us to golf with local friends and also the option of inviting one or more guests to join us.  This announcement is in line with the Scottish government's physical distancing 2 metre rule and the travel restrictions of 'broadly' 5 miles which, if truth be known, is being loosely interpreted.

With the horrendous Covid-19 virus lessening in Scotland we are now moving into the third week of golf here in St Andrews. Only the Castle Course, on the outskirts of town, remains closed. Hopefully it will reopen in July. During my game on the Old Course last week with good friend Doug Clements, founder of the Kingsbarns Whisky Distillery, we both commented on how brutal the rough had grown and that it must be 10 years since we had seen it as penal. The weather has been perfect for the rough growing: damp in March then warm through April and May. The best advice I would give to any golfer to get out of it, amateur or pro, is grab your wedge, choke down, take the easiest exit and swing hard. Good luck. Old Course 17th Road hole rough The Old Course is superb condition, especially so with a limited number of staff working since the coronavirus and lockdown. There are a few bunkers to finish off from their winter reworking but it really does look ready for The Open. Unfortunately we now ...

The Scottish government have allowed the resumption of golf in Scotland, and St Andrews, with the majority of golf courses now open for play with a few restrictions/guidelines in place. The local golfers at St Andrews are being allowed to play in 2 Balls with a 12 minute space between each tee time. The golf courses initially opened last weekend were the Old, New, Eden as 2 nine hole layout, and the small 9 hole Balgove. The demand was exceptional high after 9 weeks of no golf for the St Andrews golfers and on Tuesday 2nd June the Jubilee Course was opened.   The round over the Old Course with Donald, my golfing pal, took us 3 hours 20 minutes. A little slow mainly due to a good chat with the Caddie Master who we met out on the course and had not seen for 9 weeks.   There is hope that the by the end of June all the St Andrews Links courses will be fully opened, probably still with only 2 golfers playing together, but as yet there is no indication as to the lifting of travel re...

The Caddie Master at St Andrews has created a hardship fund to assist the Caddies who work here on the St Andrews golf courses, and because of the coronavirus Covid-19 will have no income this year, or very little. You can help the St Andrews Caddies by making a contribution, no matter how small, on the following GoFundMe page:  https://www.gofundme.com/f/st-andrews-caddies Thank you for reading and contributing...FORE!!!

Over the last couple of months of this horrendous Coronavirus Covid-19 and its sudden impact on the world, and in our case golf in particular, Caddie Golf Tours have been in constant communication with our golfers, home and overseas, about the various scenarios this will have on their 2020 Scotland Golf Tours. Carnoustie Championship 18th With the British government placing the whole country in a 'lockdown' on 24th March, the most disruptive for all would be to cancel and return money deposited or even fully paid. All terms and conditions about cancellation fees written into our contracts have been revisited and revised due to the horrendous nature of this virus. Kingsbarns Golf Links 12th tee The overriding thought has been to reschedule the golf tours to a later date. The difficulty doing it for later this year in 2020, is no one knows when the 'lockdown' will be lifted, our golf courses and accommodation opened and even if international travel would be...

Dear golfers, During this Covid-19 pandemic our priority is the health and safety of our clients, community and the country. Following the direction given by government Caddie Golf Tours are accepting of the restrictions on daily movement and are continuing to work from our office, at home, here in the historic village of Kingsbarns, located 7 miles from St Andrews. We are here and available to discuss your g olf tour to Scotland and St Andrews, later this year, or through to next year 2021. Please contact us on +44 (0) 7967 345 969 or email at caddiegolftours@gmail.com We look forward to welcoming you to golf in Scotland as soon as we possibly can and hope that in the meantime you all stay safe, take no risks and look after your families. Yours sincerely, John Boyne.

Caddie Golf Tours, took some time out last Sunday from the ever threatening Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic to golf 9 holes on the Castle Course St Andrews. Little did I think that this would be the last round of golf I would play. Within a couple of days the St Andrews Links Trust had closed all their courses, including the Old Course, on the advice/orders from the British Government. The Castle Course was deserted with those few golfers that were in sight playing solo golf due to the Covid-19 virus, as was I. With the whole country now in an enforced shut down I will look back on these 9 holes with fondness and enjoy the images captured. It is beginning to look like it will be at least June before we get another opportunity to golf here in St Andrews and Scotland, a long layoff but hopefully the putting practice on the hall carpet will produce results...Fore!

The Old Course and the other links courses in St Andrews have moved towards non gender specific tee markers for the 2020 season. No longer do they have a red disc for ladies, yellow for gents and white for the gents medal/competition on their tees. They have introduced green, blue and black to signify forward, middle and back respectively. Golfers are encouraged to play from the tee position that suits their game...Fore!

Work on the restructuring of the infamous Old Course 17th Road hole bunker is well under way for this 2020 golf season.  17th Road hole bunker Old Course St Andrews We extend best wishes to our golfers tackling this iconic golf hole on their visit to the Old Course St Andrews, and Caddie Golf Tours are here to assist with your Scotland golf tour. We look forward to hearing from you...Fore!

It was a delight this morning to receive an early Christmas present from the St Andrews Golf Club and my membership for the 2020 golf season. The 'Fixture List' for 2020 states an amazing number of competitions and I will have to look closely to arrange dates throughout the year, if allowed...Fore!

A few images from the Old Course St Andrews when it was played in the 'reverse' route at the end of November 2019. The Old Course awoke to a frosty day and a delayed start to the 'Shotgun' start from the R&A cannon! The golfers began at 11:00 am, a few hours later than the original 08:40 start. The 1st hole on the reverse route is the 17th 'Road' hole as we know it now in the modern era. It was rather odd to see the white flag fly on the 17th green and then to move onto the 2nd hole, which is the normal 16th, and a white pin but it soon became acceptable to see the white flags and red flags fly...strangely. The above photographs show the iconic 1st green with a back nine 'red' flag signifying that it is the 17th on this reverse routing of the Old Course. The final 18th green remains the same on the Old Course reverse course but, even with a delayed start, the hard overnight frost refused to lift from this famous green and t...

The St Andrews Links Trust officially announced last week that they are to reintroduce the reverse route on the Old Course for two days, 29th and 30th November. Golfers will have the opportunity to play the Old Course in the original clockwork direction, thus the infamous 17th Road hole now becomes the 1st, and then the 16th, as we know it now, will be the 2nd and so on. A red flag on 17th green "reverse" course If I remember correctly it was last played in reverse during April 2008, over an Easter weekend. A unique Ballot was held at the end of last week and those golfers who submitted an application have been informed if they were successful. The 1st green with red flag becomes the 17th green As it is the end of the year daylight hours are in short supply and tee times will be between 08:40 and 12 noon. Only 3 hours with 21 tee times adding up to 84 golfers. On Saturday 30th November a competition will be held for local golf clubs and is therefore limited...

The 2019 & 2020 winter green fees for the Old Course St Andrews have been published along with those for the full 2020 golf season. 1st tee Old Course St Andrews. 1st Jan - 31st March, low season, 95 British Pounds 1st - 19th April, shoulder season, 133 British Pounds 20th April - 18th October, high season, 195 British Pounds 19th - 31st October, shoulder season, 137 British Pounds 1st November - 31st December, low season, 98 British Pounds 18th tee Old Course St Andrews. Please contact Caddie Golf Tours to assist with your visit to golf Scotland and St Andrews, we look forward to hearing from you...Fore!

There is a common misconception that little golf is played in St Andrews and Scotland during the winter months because of our extreme weather. May I assure you all that we are not buckled under a ton of snow, rain and howling arctic winds through our winter, well not all the time. LB and I are now in our 4th year living in the historic village of Kingsbarns, only 6 miles down the coast from St Andrews and  winter golf is very much apart of life for local St Andrews golfers. 1st tee Old Course St Andrews All the local golf clubs, including mine at the St Andrews Golf Club, have a full program of winter competitions from beginning of January through to the end of March that I can participate in, if the mood takes, as well as just playing some fun golf with family and friends. The winter astro turf mat at St Andrews The visiting golfer should be made aware that golf on the St Andrews Links courses during the winter months, November through to March, is played f...