Group Golf Trips
The 12 Best Scottish Golf Courses for Group Trips
Courses with large locker rooms, welcoming starting sheets, a proper 19th hole, and the kind of variety that gives a group something to argue about for months afterwards.
The obvious answer to "best courses for a group trip" is Old Course St Andrews and Muirfield. Both are wrong. The Old Course ballot means you cannot book a timed group round reliably; Muirfield is members' guests or invitation only for the most part. Neither is a practical group venue.
What actually makes a course work for groups is different from what makes it famous: a starting sheet flexible enough to absorb 8 to 16 visitors, locker rooms that don't require a shoehorn, a catering operation that can feed a hungry pack within an hour of the last ball coming in, and staff who have dealt with golf societies before and do not visibly flinch when you phone.
Here are twelve that genuinely deliver.
1. Carnoustie Golf Links — Championship Course, Angus
Carnoustie Championship is the hardest links in Scotland, a fact the course makes no apology for and neither should you. What makes it work for groups is the Links Management Committee's straightforward approach to visitor bookings: group tee times are available most days (contact the starter's office directly), the locker facilities are proper, and the town of Carnoustie itself — two minutes' walk — provides pub lunches at reasonable prices and accommodation within staggering distance.
The course rewards groups who want a serious, legitimate test rather than a tick-box experience. Holes 15, 16, 17, and 18 will produce arguments that last the rest of the trip. The green fees sit in the upper bracket for Scottish visitors' courses; book 12–18 months ahead for summer Saturdays.
Practical note: Contact the starter's office, not the general visitors' line, for group bookings. Group discounts typically apply at eight or more players.
2. Crail Golfing Society — Balcomie Links, Fife
Balcomie is small, old (founded 1786, though the course has moved since), and almost entirely free of the self-importance that afflicts some Scottish clubs of similar vintage. The Fife Ness setting — sea on three sides, the Balcomie farmhouse visible from the green — gives it a character that newer courses cannot manufacture.
For groups, its virtues are practical: the Golfing Society is accustomed to visitors, the booking process is straightforward, the green fees are reasonable relative to the coastal Fife market, and the 19th hole in the old clubhouse is exactly what a 19th hole should be. The Craighead Links is available for a second round the same day.
Practical note: Green fees are in the mid-range for Fife; the combination of Balcomie and Craighead is excellent value for a full day.
3. Royal Dornoch Golf Club — Struie Course, Sutherland
Everyone knows Royal Dornoch Championship is one of Scotland's finest links. Fewer know that the Struie Course — a shorter, less celebrated layout sharing the same turf — is often the better choice for a group's second or third day. Green fees are considerably lower, it rarely fills as tightly, and it allows the group to spend time at Royal Dornoch without 18 people attempting to bankrupt themselves on the Championship.
A day combining Struie in the morning and Championship in the afternoon, or two separate days at each, is the standard Dornoch group itinerary for good reason. The clubhouse handles groups capably, and the town has enough accommodation options that a Dornoch base for several nights is feasible.
Practical note: Royal Dornoch is 60 miles north of Inverness. Factor in the drive; it rewards commitment.
4. Blairgowrie Golf Club — Rosemount Course, Perthshire
Scotland's finest inland heathland for groups. Rosemount sits in birch and pine with heather rough that punishes waywardness without making the round a four-hour survival exercise. Blairgowrie Golf Club has long been comfortable with visitors and golf society days — the locker rooms are large, the catering is competent, and the competition format works on any of the three courses (Rosemount, Lansdowne, or the shorter Wee Course).
The central Perthshire location makes it accessible from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, or Aberdeen without a full day's drive. For a group that cannot agree on a coastal region, Blairgowrie is a useful neutral ground.
Practical note: The club has an active visitor and society programme. Phone the secretary's office rather than booking online for groups of eight or more.
5. Boat of Garten Golf Club, Cairngorms
A heathland course in the Cairngorms National Park that is regularly cited, by the people who have played it, as one of Scotland's great under-known courses. Small clubhouse, modest green fees, Highland setting, and a layout that James Braid fashioned from terrain that should not, by rights, produce golf as interesting as this.
For groups, it offers something different: not a links, not parkland, but genuine Scottish heathland with pine and birch and the occasional red squirrel crossing the fourth fairway. The green fees are among the most reasonable for the quality, and combining it with a Speyside day — distillery in the morning, golf in the afternoon, or the reverse — is a proper use of a Scottish afternoon.
Practical note: Limited accommodation in Boat of Garten itself; Aviemore (10 minutes) has considerably more. Book the tee time well ahead for busy summer weeks.
6. Machrihanish Golf Club, Kintyre
The first tee at Machrihanish — drive across the beach — is photographed so often it has become a cliché, but it remains one of the most thrilling opening shots in Scottish golf and a group trip needs at least one of those. The course beyond the opener is a proper old links in wild Kintyre, regularly described as one of the best courses most visiting golfers have never played.
Machrihanish's virtues for groups include: genuine warmth in the clubhouse (the welcome is not performed), green fees well below the marquee market, and the Machrihanish Dunes next door if the group wants a second day. Getting to Kintyre requires either a long drive down the peninsula or a ferry from Arran, but this is part of the experience rather than an argument against it.
Practical note: Campbeltown is 5 miles from the course and has accommodation. The Ugadale Hotel is the upmarket option; self-catering in the area is available.
7. The Golf House Club — Elie, Fife
Elie is a proper links on the East Neuk of Fife: short by modern standards, with a periscope on the first tee used by the starter to check the previous group's position on the fairway. The periscope alone justifies inclusion. It is a club that takes its golf seriously while maintaining a sense of proportion about itself, which is harder to find than it should be.
For groups, the welcoming attitude to society days and the excellent 19th hole facilities are the relevant points. The East Neuk of Fife location makes it a natural companion to Crail, Lundin Links, or Anstruther on a multi-day Fife itinerary.
Practical note: The periscope starter system means tee times operate to their own logic; respect it. Book through the club's visitor contact.
8. Lundin Golf Club, Leven, Fife
A James Braid links on the Firth of Forth, immediately east of Leven Links, with standing stone ruins in the middle of the course that serve as the most unusual hazard in Scottish golf. Lundin is a proper members' club that has historically been welcoming to visitors and groups — good locker facilities, reasonable food, and a location that sits conveniently between St Andrews and Edinburgh.
For groups who have played Crail and Elie and want a third Fife round, Lundin is the natural completion. It plays differently from the East Neuk courses — more sheltered, flatter — but the standing stones on the fourth fairway are worth seeing.
Practical note: Call ahead for society bookings. Green fees are mid-range for the Fife market.
9. Golspie Golf Club, Sutherland
If Dornoch is booked out or the budget runs ahead of Royal Dornoch's fees, Golspie is the course to consider first. It sits 10 miles south of Dornoch on the same coastline, shares something of the same turf and wind, and costs a fraction of the price. The club is small and genuinely welcoming to visitors in the way that small Scottish clubs often are when they are not pretending to be larger than they are.
The course itself is varied: heathland, links, and woodland sections, with enough elevation change to make the views interesting. A group day at Golspie combined with a walk through Dunrobin Castle grounds produces a proper Scottish afternoon.
Practical note: Very easy to book; phone the club directly. Excellent value for groups on a Sutherland trip.
10. North Berwick West Links, East Lothian
North Berwick is the oldest continuously played golf course in East Lothian and one of the finest. The Redan — the template par-three that has been copied on courses around the world — is here, and a group round includes the pleasure of playing it and arguing about the right line for an hour afterwards.
The practical group credentials: the town of North Berwick itself is very well served for accommodation, food, and evening entertainment; the train from Edinburgh reaches the town directly; and the golf club, while popular, has a workable visitor programme.
Practical note: Book well in advance for summer. Peak-season green fees are at the upper end of the East Lothian market, but the course justifies them.
11. Montrose Links — Medal Course, Angus
Montrose is the fifth-oldest golf course in the world if you believe the records, a fact it mentions without embarrassment. The Medal Course at Montrose Golf Links is a proper Angus links — windswept, unforgiving of wayward iron play, with the kind of turf that rewards ground game. It is also genuinely affordable.
For groups on an Angus trip centred on Carnoustie, Montrose is the obvious supporting day: close enough for a short drive, different enough in character that it doesn't feel like a lesser version of the same round. The Links Trust runs visitor bookings efficiently and the group discount threshold is at the standard eight players.
Practical note: Park at the Links Clubhouse. The Montrose Golf Links Trust manages visitor bookings centrally.
12. Murcar Links, Aberdeen
Aberdeenshire's under-appreciated gem, immediately north of Aberdeen on the Balmedie coastal stretch. Murcar is a proper links — narrow, with gorse that means business and views across to the North Sea — and it has long been a favourite of Aberdeen-based golfers who know better than to make too much noise about it.
For groups using Aberdeen as a base, Murcar and its near-neighbour Royal Aberdeen offer a two-day Aberdeenshire coastal itinerary that does not require a long drive. Royal Aberdeen is the marquee venue; Murcar is where the group relaxes and plays without the price pressure. The clubhouse is sociable, the catering competent, and the welcome to visiting groups genuine.
Practical note: Book directly with the club. Green fees are moderate for a course of this quality and setting.
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