Affiliate Disclosure
Last updated 22 June 2026.
The short version: some of the outbound links on Birdie Brae are affiliate links. If you click one and go on to book or buy, we may earn a small commission. It costs you nothing extra — the price is the same whether you use our link or not.
What “no affiliate spin” actually means
We say it a lot, so here is the precise version: affiliate links never affect which courses we recommend, how we rank them, or what we say about them. We do not take payment to feature a course, push it up a list, or soften a review. The green fees, the honest verdicts, and the “don't bother” calls are written exactly as they would be if there were no commission attached to anything. The affiliate links pay for the site; they do not buy a place in it.
If a recommendation and a commission ever pointed in different directions, the recommendation wins. That is the whole deal.
Which affiliate programmes we use
The main ones, and where they show up:
- Accommodation — the “where to stay” maps and hotel links use Stay22 and partners such as Booking.com.
- Other bookings & gear — links to things like car hire, rail tickets, golf retailers, knitwear and whisky shops may be turned into affiliate links automatically by Sovrn Commerce.
- Travel & golf insurance — the insurance guide and comparison tool link to insurers we may be paid a referral fee by.
Where a link is an affiliate link we mark it (it opens in a new tab and is tagged rel="sponsored"), and the accommodation maps carry a one-line note under them. You are never required to use our links — you can always search for the same product directly.
Why we use them at all
Birdie Brae is free, has no paywall, and runs no intrusive display ads. Affiliate commission — mostly from people booking somewhere to stay near a course — is how it pays for itself. It only works if you trust the recommendations, so keeping the two things separate is in our interest as much as yours.
The legal bit
This disclosure is here to comply with UK Advertising Standards Authority guidance and the affiliate networks' own terms. For how affiliate links interact with cookies set on the partner's site, see our Cookie Policy; for how we handle data, see our Privacy Policy.
Questions about any of this? Get in touch.