Nothing quite compares to a round of golf played on a classic Scottish links course. The experience has long been romanticized by both veteran and aspiring golf travelers, and every year televised broadcasts of the Open Championship remind those avid players of the unique thrill that a golf getaway “across the pond” can provide.
And so it goes that every summer, around the middle of July, enthusiastic golfers around the world find themselves hankering to book a getaway to the best links courses across the British Isles. Unless, of course, Mother Nature bestows bracing, winter-like weather during that championship week, which she is wont to do now and again. In those instances, the prospect of a Scottish golf vacation loses a bit of its luster, at least in the eyes of some. But that’s a different story for another time.
Should the customary Open Effect take hold this year, golf obsessives will soon be clamoring for airfare to Glasgow and tee times at all of the bucket-list golf clubs positioned up and down the Ayrshire coast. Many of those firm-and-fast courses are equal in their merit, but when it comes to upscale accommodations, one historic golf hotel stands a bit taller (both literally and figuratively) than all others in and around the seaside town of Troon.
You might not catch much of a glimpse of it during TV broadcasts of The Open (which says a lot about the towering nature of the grandstands that have been temporarily erected around the James Braid-designed links course), but with its red-brick façade presiding over the Old Course’s 18th fairway, the Marine Troon hotel commands your attention. Although Royal Troon was conceived 16 years earlier, it’s not a stretch to say the golf club and this 89-room property (first opened in 1894 and originally known as The Marine Hotel) concurrently came of age.
As one of five hotels currently open within the Marine & Lawn portfolio of properties, Marine Troon flashes an interior design aesthetic that overtly aligns it with many of those other hotels — a collective that includes the Rusacks St Andrews, Dornoch Station in the Scottish Highlands and the Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland. Unlike those other properties, however, Marine Troon is sparsely decorated when it comes to prints, photos or other mementos depicting golf. Instead, artistic maritime scenes don the walls, while woven seagrass and driftwood chandeliers hang from ceilings. They’re accents that do more to reflect Troon’s centuries-old allure as a seaside retreat than the town’s positioning near the epicenter of championship golf along Scotland’s west coast.
According to Phillip Allen, the president of Marine & Lawn: “It’s an ode to the seafaring history of the Ayrshire coast.”
That’s not to say that hotel guests won’t find subtle tips of the cap to golf. Bespoke, jewel-toned tapestry carpets lining the hallways and tumbling down staircases, for example, are adorned with effigies of golf clubs and the Claret Jug. There’s one not-so-subtle golfing element at the hotel, too: a more than 4,000-square-foot synthetic putting green (courtesy of Celebrity Greens) that rolls like glass and offers guests a first-class short-game practice area right along the periphery of a prestigious course that this year is hosting the Open Championship for the 10th time.
Inside the hotel, flavors that are delivered on plates and in glasses are just as distinctive as the ambiance. Venison filets and pan-seared Ayrshire scallops represent two of the many standout dishes that guests are likely to find on the menu at The Rabbit, the hotel’s upscale restaurant; while Curtis McConnell, manager of The Seal Bar, is spearheading a cocktail movement that embraces Scotch whisky. One of his creations, the Tam O’Shandy, is certain to please a vast segment of golf travelers. It first combines Aberfeldy 12-Year single malt whisky with Grand Marnier, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and a splash of simple syrup, and then is topped off with Tennent’s lager.
“Tennent’s is one of those draft beers that the Scottish public like to pretend they hate,” says McConnell, who explains that the cocktail shines for its ability to “balance the citrus notes of Tennent’s with fresh-pressed lemon juice and the stone-fruit notes of the whisky.”
Enjoying all of these things, potentially with a dog laying at your feet — Marine Troon, like all of the brand’s hotels, is canine-friendly — may feel a bit nostalgic. But that relaxed sense of luxury is a testament to both the destination and the vision of the brand’s ownership group. After all, as Allen explains, it was Marine & Lawn’s goal to develop world-class hotels in close proximity to some of the world’s most celebrated and historic golf courses.
“We’re trying to create hospitality experiences that match our guests’ experiences on the iconic golf courses that our hotels are adjacent to,” he says.
On the edge of the 18th hole of a course that this year hosts the 152nd Open Championship, the brand has done just that.
