The Old World
UK & Ireland
Where the game was born, and the light never quite leaves.
On UK & Ireland
The oldest golf on earth, and still the best argument for the game: Scotland's ancient links, Ireland's wild dunes, England's heathland and Open coast. Between the rounds, the pubs, the pours, and the long northern evenings that made golf a way of traveling in the first place.
This is our home water. We know it street by street.
From the notebook
No two journeys share an itinerary. These are the places we return to, and the ones we send people to when they trust us.
- The Old CourseScotlandThe round you owe yourself, arranged the right way.
- North BerwickScotlandThe most fun a serious golfer can have.
- Royal DornochScotlandWorth every mile of the journey north.
- Cruden BayScotlandThe drive up is half the argument.
- Royal County DownNorthern IrelandThe most beautiful golf course in the world. We will not be argued out of it.
- Royal PortrushNorthern IrelandAn Open venue that still feels like a discovery.
- Ballybunion, Old CourseIrelandThe dunes that made America fall in love with Ireland.
- LahinchIrelandGoats on the course, genius in the routing.
- Sunningdale, Old CourseEnglandHeathland perfection, followed by the best clubhouse lunch in golf.
- Royal BirkdaleEnglandThe fairest test on the Open rota, in dunes that mean business.
- St EnodocEnglandCornwall's church-in-the-dunes, pure holiday golf of the highest order.
And more we argue about.
Off the course
- The drinkA warehouse dram on Islay, a stout poured properly in a Dingle snug, and English sparkling from the Sussex chalk.
- The waterA cold swim before breakfast in the North Sea, a boat out to Skellig Michael when the sea allows, and sailing out of Salcombe on the Devon coast.
- The tableSeafood off the day boats in Fife, chowder and brown bread in Kinsale, Whitstable oysters at the source, and a Sunday roast done the way it was intended.
- For the non-playersEdinburgh and Dublin and London in whatever measure suits, the gardens at Powerscourt, castles and galleries, and a day of doing gloriously little.
A week here, roughly
One country done fully, or two stitched by a short flight. Scotland's links in the gloaming, Ireland's dunes and welcome, England's heathland with London evenings. Three nights where the golf is biggest, a night somewhere small that surprises you, lunch treated as a fixture rather than a pause. The light stays late. So does everyone.
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