My name is Ru Macdonald. Some might say I’ve left every golfer’s dream job to type this first newsletter to a handful of golfers. Thanks for coming.

Linksland combines my passion for Scottish links golf and eight years experience as a senior social media lead for the DP World Tour and Ryder Cup. I’ve been lucky to travel the world and see first-hand some of the world’s best golf experiences, leaving me in little doubt that Scottish links golf is unrivalled.

But I’m sure you’re wondering…

"Why would you want to leave a job where it’s your job to capture Rory McIlroy’s sunrise warm up on a quiet driving range in Dubai?”

The truth is, having golfers from all over the world visit Scotland and fall in love with my country and our links golf courses is my passion. During college, I hosted a podcast that allowed overseas golfers to come on and relive their Scottish golf trips. I worked in St Andrews for a small high-end golf travel company and I caddied. I was immersed in Scottish golf trips and have an itch to scratch.

I feel uniquely placed to help as many golfers as possible make the pilgrimage to Scotland and with over a decade of experience both in travel and media, hope to turn this passion into a sustainable business.

But it’s only January, 2025 and you’re talking about planning a golf trip for the summer of 2026 now!? That’s correct. Increased demand has golf courses extending their booking windows. More golfers are travelling on golf trips and a strong economy in the US, Scotland’s largest inbound golf market has created unprecedented appetite for tee times across Scotland’s best links golf courses.

The good news? Neither the Open Championship or AIG Women’s Open will take place in Scotland in 2026 meaning less disruption to some of the Open rota venues.

Planning a Scottish Golf Trip - Where to Start?

Pick 2-3 Regions

Scotland’s main links golf regions are as follows:

• St Andrews

  Notable courses in the town that are managed by the St Andrews Links Trust include the Old, New & Jubilee Courses. A short drive out of town will take you to Kingsbarns, Elie, Crail and Dumbarnie.

• East Lothian (Southeast)

  The second busiest golf region in Scotland is home to courses such as Muirfield, North Berwick Gullane 1 & 2, Kilspindie and Dunbar.

• Scottish Highlands (North)

  Quintessentially Scotland, perhaps my favourite region in the country is home to such courses as Royal Dornoch, Brora, Cabot Highlands and Nairn.

• West (Ayrshire)

  On the other side of the country and near Scotland’s largest city Glasgow you will find the likes of Royal Troon, Prestwick, Western Gailes and Turnberry.

• Aberdeen (Northeast)

  Home to three Top 100 golf courses in Royal Aberdeen, Trump International Golf Links and my home club Cruden Bay as well as some fine links courses in Murcar, Fraserburgh and Peterhead.

*Note that I missed off a lot of good links golf courses…we can get into some of them on a future newsletter.

Despite Scotland’s landmass being approximately half of Florida state or a fifth the size of California, rural roads can make a routine 80 mile journey considerably lengthened.

A good example of this is the 42 mile drive from Inverness, Scotland’s fifth largest city to Dornoch. Despite some good roads, this route is for the most part not highway. The driving time in a car would be 1 hour.

The most common mistake I see golfers make is trying to play too many courses, too far away. This mean more time in a bus or car, less time playing golf and no real opportunity to exhale and enjoy where you are. Instead it’s a new day, new hotel and no time to get to truly know a place. What Scotland has that Ireland doesn’t is a strong concentration of tier two and three links golf courses.

Trust me, slow down. You will fall in love with Scotland and our golf and be back very soon.

Pick two to three regions and spend 2-3 nights at each.

St. Andrews?

The elephant in the room. Believe it or not, St. Andrews as much as it draws people to Scotland, it can be a bottleneck. Golfers are often set on playing at The Home of Golf and if they can’t guarantee themselves a tee time, they don’t commit or head to Ireland instead!

Unfortunately the problem is only getting worse. We will dive into this on a future newsletter but I’ve been told by a number of golf tour companies with guaranteed Old Course tee times that they’ve already sold their 2026 inventory.

Pursuing a guaranteed Old Course tee time provider while unlikely, would result in buying a package. These packages include costly hotel room nights, additional rounds of golf and other auxiliary purchases. They’re called premium packages for a reason.

Every August the St Andrews Links Trust, the organisation that oversees the running of the seven St Andrews Links golf courses open the ballot for 2026 Old Course, St Andrews advanced reservations. We of course will be on hand to share more about this closer to the time.

At this stage, most of you will be insistent on visiting St Andrews. I don’t blame you, it’s a special town with or without a tee time.

Factor in a St Andrews portion to your trip. Leave enough time in town to enter the daily ballot on more than one occasion. Avoid staying Sundays when the Old Course is closed.

Action points

For now consider what 2-3 regions you want to visit. Other key elements to a trip are as follows:

• Tee times

• Flights

• Ground Transport

• Accomodation

We will address each of these on upcoming newsletters but be ready to book your first tee times as early as March, 2025.