Playing Golf in Scotland

I have been fortunate enough to play some golf in Scotland (the Old Course, Carnoustie, Kingsbarns & Elie) and wanted to share some of my thoughts when playing in what I consider to be the greatest golfing country on the planet. Mind you, these are my thoughts and opinions based on my experiences, but I think they would apply to most die hard golfers.

1. Be prepared - When I say be prepared, I mean be prepared for anything. If you make the trip to Scotland and play golf for any extended period, you will experience it all. It will be cold, it will rain, it will be sunny, you won't understand a word you playing partners say, your playing partners will talk non-stop (see Kingsbarns below), there will be no yardage markers, etc. The key is to love the experience and just remember, you are playing golf in Scotland. When I played Carnoustie it rained six times during the round. By the third time, I quit digging out my rain suit and just ignored it. Be prepared.
2. Love the Wind - If you are not a good wind player, or at least relish the challenge when the wind blows, you will not have a very good time in Scotland. Think about it for a second. You are on an Island, that is not very big and is pretty far north when you look at a globe. The wind blows all the time. Sure, there are sunny spells when the weather is in the 70's, but wait 5 minutes, it will change. Learn how to hit som knock down iron shorts before you go, you will be hitting a lot of them.
3. Playing the Old Course at St. Andrews - Once you get over the fact that you just tee'd off on the Old Course and the lump in your throat goes away, you actually have to play golf. The Old Course is not long, there is no water, and the greens are huge. The hard part of the course is the bunkers, the wind and the greens are huge. I had the good fortune to play with a local hotel and oub owner who arranged for me to get on the Old Course and plays the thing probably 25-30 times a year. The best piece of advice he gave me was to play the course down the middle. He didn't mean down the middle of the fairway, but the middle of the course. Most of the holes go out in a straight line and come back on that same line. There is a patch of light, wispy rough that divides the holes. He explained that for the average player, the rough is not that bad, and is much better than being in the bunkers, which happen to be in the middle of the fairways. You will get frustrated to hit good tee shots down the middle of the faiway that take a bad bounce and put you in the pot bunker; you have no shot at the green. If you are going to miss it, miss it towards the middle (left side of the fairway going out and coming in). You will at least be able to get a club on the ball and get it to the green.
4. Skip Kingsbarns - Standing on the tee's the views are magnificent and it looks absolutely beautiful. That being said, I hated the course. I walk when I play golf, and the course was very spread out with very long distances between the greens and the tee's. That is not how golf is supposed to be played in Scotland. Also, I had the misfortune of playing with three Americans. The problem with these guys is that they liked to talk golf as opposed to play it. Kingsbarns in pretty wide open and right out in front of you. But this one guy would walk up to the tee box on every hole and say "So, What have we got here" and would proceed to disect the hole like he was playing the Open Championship. Five minutes later he would proceed to hit a big slice into the rough. Dude, just hit the ball. Anyway, these guys made the round very unejoyable, but nevertheless, the course is way to spread out. Most people like it, but it is not for me.

Anyway, that's my travel tip for the day. Happy Thanksgiving.