As I recently wrote about, my son and I experienced an epic golf trip together to Scotland, giving us plenty of memories both on and off the golf course.
After getting the opportunity to play some incredible (and legendary) golf courses, it got me thinking about how to best prepare for links-style layouts — which offer a different type of test from many parkland courses most amateurs tend to play on.
With a little shift in mindset and some preparation, see how you can play your best if you ever happen to venture over to Ireland or the United Kingdom for some golf.
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1. Choose an area to visit
To avoid extreme amounts of driving, I suggest you choose an area in the country you’re visiting to spend as much time there as possible. We chose to center around Edinburgh, which was a lovely city with plenty of great courses around the area.
2. Upgrade your gear
When you’re playing 18 holes in Scotland, you better prepare for all four seasons. I’m partially joking, but you get the point — you’ll need to come armed with things like rain gear, jacket, pants, umbrella, and maybe even some gloves.
We were extremely fortunate that it didn’t rain more than a sprinkle, so our umbrellas stayed in the car. But it did get quite windy and cold on most of the days, so layering was important. I wore a golf vest much of the time, which was great because it kept me warm without restricting me while playing.
3. Walking? Pack lightly
We walked and carried our clubs, so having a light golf bag was really important. After doing some research, we found that the PING Hoofer Lite was the best option for us, since it had enough pockets to hold everything we needed, and is super light.
4. Learn to conquer the wind
The wind was crazy at times, causing us to rethink which club to use on many different shots. One we had to master was the knock-down shot — which means taking 5 to 10 yards off of a full shot for more accurate distances.
To do this, we had to move the ball position slightly back in the stance, helping produce a lower ball flight, and then drop the front foot slightly back to help realign the shoulders to make them parallel. Finally, the weight must be forward, helping to naturally limit the backswing length to about three-quarters.
5. Mind the fescue
The long rough off the fairway is something like I’ve never seen before, with much of it being nearly impossible to find your ball in, let alone hit from.
So if you ever find fescue like this, choose a more lofted club, and, at setup, lean your weight forward and allow your lead shoulder to get lower. By leaning both the weight and the shoulder, it will allow the clubhead to glance down the back of the ball due to the steeper approach angle — ensuring you make contact with the ball as much as possible before the grass.
6. Don’t let the bunkers trick you
Really deep pot bunkers are challenging, but they can really be fun to play from, too — as long as you have proper technique and understand how the ball gets out of the trap.
To do this, I suggest practicing from the sand before taking a trip to Scotland. So setup with your ball forward and the end of the club pointing more towards the center line of your body. When taking your shot, avoid the inclination to scoop the ball and just let the loft of the club do the work by gliding underneath and across the sand.
A good person to learn from is the “Short Game Chef,” Parker McLachlin. I really like how he teaches, since it allows for small mistakes to be made while still producing great results. Here is a link to his instruction platform.
7. Prepare for a lot of putting
Links-style courses often allow players to get creative in the short game — so having success when putting from off the green is crucial to control distance. If you’re able to do it relatively well, you can really put yourself in a good position to score low.
You must be willing to increase the backstroke length when farther away, meaning you can simply allow the putter to fall naturally to deliver the right speed and distance.
8. Utilize the bump-and-run
Given the firmness of the ground in Scotland, hitting bump-and-run shots is also a key to score low on these types of courses.
For a basic bump-and-run, you should grip down, narrow your stance, and lean toward the target with your weight and lead shoulder. From there, simply use a putting stroke with a bit of momentum, allowing the bottom of the club to brush the grass. While the ball will slightly get into the air, it will roll more than it carries — giving you more control of your shot.
9. St. Andrews singles draw
Since we hadn’t planned our trip much in advance, it was a bit more difficult to get onto some of the more famous courses like St. Andrews. We had entered the lottery to play there twice, but were unsuccessful those first two times. On the third attempt, my son actually got in!
I ended up caddying for him, and it was the best day together. It was so great to watch the lessons learned from playing all the other courses, which allowed him to shoot his best round of the whole trip.
10. Just keep trying
When playing these types of difficult courses, having a good attitude plays a big part in your success — you just need to persevere, be patient, and take what the golf course gives you sometimes. It’s easy to press and try to force difficult shots when you find yourself in trouble, but doing so will only cause greater issues.
Despite how you’re scoring on a given day, just enjoying yourself and accepting what you can control will, hopefully, lead to better golf.
