How do you know when the best time to plan and book your golf trip to Scotland is? Well, that rather depends on where you want to play.
We have covered some information on the specific booking information for a couple of the major Championship venues on other blog entries - Muirfield and St Andrews.
Muirfield and St Andrews require the most advance planning and you really need to have your group and dates in place by late August the year before travel. Bookings for Muirfield can be made up to 15 months in advance of play. For St Andrews applications for Old course times open on the first Wednesday of September the year before play. Both courses request the names of all golfers in the group at the time of booking.
The other Open Championship venues in Scotland are Carnoustie, Royal Troon and the Ailsa course at Turnberry.
For Carnoustie and Royal Troon you will have a better choice of times if you are able to book sometime in the year before you intend playing - booking diaries tend to open in late summer, but you can still find slots three to four months in advance of play, or nearer if you are lucky.
If your trip is focused on the Open Championship venues then you need to start your planning in June/July the year before travel.
If the Old course and Muirfield are not in your plans then you have more time to work with.
The more popular courses will become busier quicker. The better known courses such as Kingsbarns Golf Links, Royal Dornoch, Prestwick, Gullane and North Berwick West Links will have considerable visitor demand and the earlier you can plan the better.
As with Troon and Carnoustie, clubs such as these tend to open their booking diaries in late summer the year before play. They are always happy to hold requests on file and deal with them in date order as and when they start to allocate visitor times. Kingsbarns Golf Links and Castle Stuart have no members so all their tee-times are for visitors.
For an itinerary covering this level of Championship courses we would suggest ideally having your plans in place by December the year before play.
Most courses in Scotland are members' courses so booking diaries will open once all the members' events and competitions have been scheduled. Lesser known or non-championship courses may only start taking visitor bookings at the start of the New Year.
The more flexible you are on where you wish to play the later you can book your trip. There are many courses that will have plenty of choice of times quite close to the dates of play and 'walk up times' for small groups are often possible. Just bear in mind that accommodation can also get busy in popular golfing areas in the main season.
If you have a very specific itinerary in mind, or particular courses that must be part of your trip, then the earlier you can plan the better.
If you are booking with a tour operator do bear in mind that they may have a cut off point beyond which they will not arrange bookings - for example two or three weeks in advance of play.