The Complete Beginner's Guide to Playing Golf in Scotland

If you live in Scotland and you've decided to take up golf, the first thing to ignore is the reputation of the place. Yes, the game was probably invented here. Yes, the Old Course at St Andrews is forty miles from wherever you're reading this. None of that matters. Most of the people who play golf here aren't very good and aren't very serious about it, and that's the version of the game you're joining. Not the postcard.

We're writing this because the standard beginner's guide tells you to spend nine hundred pounds on a half-set of clubs and book six lessons before you go anywhere near a course. That's one way to start. It isn't the way most of us did it. Most of us borrowed three clubs from a relative, paid eight pounds for a bucket of balls at a range somewhere outside town, and worked it out from there. The expensive way is fine. The cheap way is also fine, and you'll have more fun.

A few things, in roughly the order you'll need them.

On clubs

You do not need a full set. You need maybe four. A 7-iron, a putter, a hybrid or fairway wood, and a wedge will get you round any short course in Scotland without anyone noticing. We've watched grown men play a respectable nine holes at Musselburgh with two clubs and a sense of humour. The full bag is something you grow into, not something you start with.

If you're buying, the place to look is a charity shop, eBay, or the second-hand racks at any club pro shop. A used set from five years ago plays exactly the same as a new set. Pay £80 for something that someone else paid £600 for new, and worry about it again in two years.

If you're a leftie, or if you want a ladies' set, the second-hand market is a bit thinner but still real. American Golf in Glasgow and Edinburgh do part-exchange. Most local pros will sell you a serviceable starter set for around £150. Don't let anyone tell you that you need fitted clubs in the first year. You don't.

On lessons

We'd say yes to lessons but only at the beginning. One or two with a club pro to sort out your grip and your stance is genuinely worth it. After that, save the money for actually playing. Most of what makes you better at golf is rounds, not coaching. The pro will tell you the same thing if you ask honestly.

A lesson costs around £40–£60 in Scotland in 2026. A group session through Edinburgh Leisure or Glasgow Life is cheaper, sometimes free if you're a member of one of the council fitness centres. The PGA's Get Into Golf scheme runs introductory sessions in most regions for under £20 a head. Worth checking before you pay full whack.

On where to play first

Don't go to a links course. Don't go to a famous course. Don't go to anywhere that says "championship" on the sign. Not because they wouldn't have you. They would. But because a 5-handicapper has a bad time on a links course in a wind, and you're not a 5-handicapper yet. The wind will eat you alive, the bunkers will swallow you, and you'll come away thinking you've made a terrible decision when actually you've just picked the wrong course for a first outing.

The right course for your first proper round is a par-3 or a short nine-holer somewhere quiet. Portobello in Edinburgh. Bridge of Allan in Stirlingshire. The 9-holer at Tobermory if you happen to be on Mull. Ruchill in Glasgow if you want pure pitch and putt. None of these will judge you. The starter at most of them has seen everything.

When you graduate to eighteen holes, pick a flat parkland muni. Carrick Knowe in Edinburgh, Linn Park in Glasgow, Hazlehead in Aberdeen, Strathclyde Park in North Lanarkshire. They're cheap, they're forgiving, and there'll be at least three other people on the course who are worse than you. Don't worry about the score. Don't keep one if you don't want to.

A note on etiquette

Most golf etiquette is common sense and noise control. Don't talk while someone is hitting. Don't walk on someone's putting line. Don't take a divot on the tee box. If you're slow, let the group behind through. If you've lost a ball, give it three minutes and move on. If your group is two players, let a faster four-ball through. That's about ninety per cent of it.

The other ten per cent — the bit about not standing in someone's eyeline, the bit about raking the bunker, the bit about replacing your divot — is stuff you'll pick up by watching. Nobody is born knowing how to rake a bunker. Nobody who matters will mind if you don't.

What you should never do is panic. Slow play in golf comes from people thinking too hard about what they're meant to be doing. Hit your shot. Walk to it. Hit it again. The whole thing should take you and a friend about two and a half hours for nine holes. If it's taking you four, you're either thinking too much or you're at the wrong course.

On the cost of starting

Cheaper than people imagine. Here's a fair budget for someone starting from nothing in Scotland in 2026:

• Half-set of second-hand clubs and a bag: £100
• One lesson: £50
• Range balls, twelve sessions: £100
• Six rounds at a muni in your first season: £100

Total: £350 over the course of a year, and you'd be playing properly by the end of it. Compare that to a season of football boots, kit, and league fees, or a bicycle, or skiing, or anything else with the same hours of fresh air in it. Golf is, despite what the marketing says, one of the cheaper outdoor pastimes if you want it to be.

What we wish someone had told us

That nobody is watching. That the bad shot you just hit is forgotten by everyone except you. That the four-ball waiting on the tee behind would rather you took your time and hit it cleanly than rushed and hit it sideways. That every Scottish golfer worth knowing started badly and stayed badly for years. That the round itself is the point, and the score is barely a footnote.

Get a few clubs. Find a quiet course. Go.