St. Andrews, Scotland

When my parents were planning their visit, my dad mentioned that playing golf in the home of golf was a bucket list item for him (it was a bucket list item for Shane too!) so we said as long as we were able to get a tee time, we would spend a couple of days in St. Andrews.

We were able to secure a couple of tee times. The first was at one of the best courses in Scotland, Kingsbarns, and the other was at St. Andrews on the New Course which runs beside the famous Old Course, where the British Open is played every five years.

My dad and Shane golfed the Kingsbarns course when we first arrived in St. Andrews. Even though the weather forecast wasn't great when we arrived, the rain managed to the hold off and they were able to play the whole round. They loved the course and my dad almost got a hole in one!

While my dad and Shane golfed, my mom and I hiked along the coast and then explored the town. The hike along the coast was beautiful! We didn't intend to hike as long as we did but we really enjoyed the path we stumbled upon ... and it never seemed to end. 

After hiking along the coast, we headed back towards the town, strolled through the three main streets that make up St. Andrews and toured the remains of the St. Andrews Castle. Our B&B overlooked the castle grounds but we had extra time so thought it might be worth to go inside. Once inside the castle ground, you could tour an underground mine. A lot of people were skipping it, claiming that they heard it was extremely narrow in the parts, but my mom wasn't bothered so underground we went. Neither of us were able to stand up and one point I thought I was going to get stuck crawling through an opening to access another part of the mine, but since we both managed to make it out alive, I'd say it was worth it. 

That night, we went to a couple of pubs that a caddie had recommended and then had dinner at The Jigger Inn, the restaurant known as the famous 19th hole to the Old Course. 

The weather forecast for Friday, when my dad and Shane were scheduled to the play the New Course at St. Andrews Links, did not look pretty - cold, rain and sleet. They both agreed that regardless of what the weather did, they would at least play one hole. 

When we woke up on Friday, the weather was as bad, if not worse, than the previous night's forecast. The wind and rain were out of control. I thought the roof of our cute B&B was going to blow-off.  

When my mom and I had headed out to go to a few shops, and to drop off a change of clothes at the clubhouse for my Dad and Shane, we thought the rain had stopped. That lasted all of 10 minutes before a new storm cloud moved in and we had to take cover. It was not pretty. 

Considering that we could barely walk through the storm without getting blown over, we had no idea how my dad and Shane were playing golf. They managed to play 8 holes, which given the conditions was quite the feat. Their caddie was extremely friendly, and when they had decided to turn in the weather cleared a bit, so he took them to the 17th and 18th holes and they were able to semi-finish out the round. 

Despite the weather conditions, the golf was worth it!