Scottish Open Attracts Impressive Field

July 6, 2011July 6, 2011 PerryGolf Staff

The Barclays Scottish Open, which takes place this week at Castle Stuart, has attracted arguably its strongest ever field; with 5 of the top 10 in the world competing. Moving the venue from Loch Lomond appears to have had a positive effect, not only on the players competing, but also on ticket sales, with advance sales reportedly reaching an all time high.

Notable entries for the event include world number’s 1 and 2, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, as well as three time major winner Padraig Harrington, who has opted not to play the event in recent years. Coming over from the PGA Tour are Martin Laird, Brandt Snedeker, Justin Rose and Gary Woodland, who all join tournament regular Phil Mickelson. A special mention has to go to Matt Kuchar, who is returning to the event having played in it as an Amateur in 1998. As a personal friend of PerryGolf (he stayed with the company when he played at Loch Lomond 13 years ago), we wish him well.

Edoardo Molinari certainly has his work cut out to successfully defend his title!

By Keith Baird. Keith has been with PerryGolf for over 10 years and is one of our Golf Travel Specialists.

Scottish Open to move to Links Course

December 6, 2010November 24, 2010 PerryGolf Staff

One of the biggest tournaments on the European Tour calendar is set to move venue in a bid to lure some of the world’s biggest stars. The tournament, which is held the week before The Open Championship, is currently based at Loch Lomond GC and has been there since 1996. Loch Lomond is one of the best courses in the world but as it is a parkland style course; some bigger name players prefer to practice on a links course the week prior to the Open Championship. There has been speculation as to who the main contenders are and it seems as though it has been narrowed to 2 potential candidates – Castle Stuart near Inverness or The Renaissance Club in East Lothian. The Renaissance Club is the more mature of the two, having been open for two seasons, a pretty remarkable stat for the two main contenders for this highly regarded event.

Click here to read more.

By Gary Sheppard. Gary has been with PerryGolf for over 4 years and is one of our Golf Travel Specialists.

Castle Stuart ~ Best Overseas New Destination

November 22, 2010November 12, 2010 PerryGolf Staff

Castle Stuart, which runs along the banks of the Moray Firth in the Scottish Highlands, was recently voted the best new overseas destination by Golf Digest. The course, which was co-designed by Mark Parsinen (Kingsbarns) and American architect Gil Hanse (Craighead Links at Crail), opened in 2009 and it has already taken its place amongst Scotland’s greats. Not only has it made the Highlands a much more appealing destination, but Scotland as a whole. With Royal Dornoch (Scotland’s #3 course) and Nairn (#14) its best and closest neighbours, 3 or 4 nights in the Inverness area make for a great addition to any Scotland tour.

I recently had the opportunity to play it for the first time and loved every minute of it. Other than the fact that the rough needs some time to mature – to make it more of a challenge – you wouldn’t know it was only a new course. With reasonably wide fairways, you might be forgiven for standing on the tee and thinking it looks relatively straight forward, but with the impetus put on getting the right angles from where to approach very tricky greens, it’s definitely a thinker’s course. If you’ve been to Scotland before and you’ve played the more famous British Open rota courses, but you’ve never made it up to the Highlands, now is the time…and Castle Stuart should definitely be on your list as one of the ‘must plays’.

By Keith Baird. Keith has been with PerryGolf for over 10 years and is one of our Golf Travel Specialists.

Donnafugata Golf Resort, Sicily

November 8, 2010December 16, 2010 PerryGolf Staff

Gary Player opened Donnafugata Golf Resort in scenic Sicily, Italy this month. An accomplished golf course designer Player has designed such courses as Leopard Creek Golf Course in South Africa and Montagu at Fancourt Resort.

This new addition is one of many design projects for Gary Player.

By Denise McKee. Denise has been with PerryGolf for over 10 years and is responsible for our Mediterranean programs

Machrihanish Dunes now on Golf World’s Top 100

November 4, 2010October 25, 2010 Mhairi

Having only opened last year, it is a fantastic achievement for Machrihanish Dunes to have appeared on Golf World’s 2010-2011 Top 100 Best Golf Courses of UK and Ireland.

The list is calculated by voters based all over Europe and it identifies the best courses from a broad range of designs – parkland, links and heathland.

Click here to read more about the development of this still very new course.

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