A friend of mine just told me he was getting married in Italy late October this year and I figured I'd try to get some golf in if I'm going to fly all that way. I'd appreciate any recommendations for courses as well as travel.

My initial thought was to fly into London and head to Scotland and play a course or two in that region before making my way to Italy. I believe we will be staying around Pisa but not sure yet. Thanks in advance.

I personally wouldn't go to London (assuming your intent is golf. I love London but better places for golf and it's not really on the way to anywhere). Getting from London to Scotland isn't super easy. You'll have to take a flight or drive 8 hours.

You can get to Edinburgh direct from New York, Chicago, Atlanta, or DC. That would be WAY easier than going to London first (in my opinion).

American doesn't fly to Edinburgh from the US but United and Delta do.


I'd also consider flying into Manchester and playing near there. You've got Hoylake, Birkdale, and Lytham all close.

Or Dublin.

Both are easy to get to and have flights to Pisa. If you're in Scotland you'll have to connect.

Best bet for quick trip is fly into Manchester (Singapore airlines has a direct out of houston)

Or fly into Edinburgh like bagger suggested

Aggie369 said:

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Best bet for quick trip is fly into Manchester (Singapore airlines has a direct out of houston)

Or fly into Edinburgh like bagger suggested

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This is a great idea. Fly direct to Manchester and rent a car and Head to Liverpool from Manchester and play there. Some great great courses in that area - Royal Liverpool, Royal Birkdale, and Royal Lithum & St Anne's to name just three.

Or fly direct to Italy and play there - lots of good courses to choose depending on where you will be.

I would agree with this if the focus is playing links golf. However, if OP is looking to play a couple of rounds: Sunningdale (old) is about 25 minutes from Heathrow and is amazing. Sunningdale (new), Swinley Forest, St. George's Hill and Walton Heath are other really great options that are super close and convenient to LHR.

Flying to Manchester or Edinburgh are also great options, but I wouldn't sleep on these London area courses.

As others have suggested, don't fly to London if you want to hit Scotland.

Edinburgh is a little of an hour drive from St Andrew or like 45 minutes from North Berwick. I am driving this summer, but a few years ago we took the train from Edinburgh to St Andrews, which was easy.

We are flying in to Edinburgh this summer (red eye) landing at 8am and playing golf that day.

Thanks for the input so far. Scotland was the obvious first choice for golf but if there is enough cool courses around London (not set on flying here but I've never been and thought it would be cool to do tourist things as well) and in Italy, then I might have to go back and do a Scotland specific trip. I also don't know if anyone else going would be interested in playing golf so there's a possibility of playing as a single.

Would all of the courses in that time frame be hitting off fairway mats? I wouldn't want to travel all that way and spend the money to do that, I'd much rather go back and do it right.

Train doesn't go to St Andrews proper. Closer you can train is five miles away in Leuchars. Train there then hop a taxi for the five mile trip.

Yes, we grabbed a taxi to/from the train station.

If London it is, consider staying at Wentworth. They only have a couple of rooms, but they are in the clubhouse proper and give you the right to play the course. All 3 courses are worth playing, but obviously you'd want to play the West course just to say you did (it hosts the BMW Championship). The Edinburg course is the second-best. The East course feels like it is from the very early days of golf (because it is), but is still worth a round.

Virginia Water - where the club is located - is actually quite close to Heathrow, maybe a 20 minute taxi ride. The room rate is reasonable, especially to anything you'd pay in London proper.

I did all of this back in about 2014, when I had to hold extend a business trip to London into a second week. I got permission to switch hotels from the West End out there because it was cheaper...and got to play golf all weekend on top of it!