"I urge you to make this book your travel companion. It is  comprehensive, thoughtful, and, in literal truth, invaluable."—James W. Finegan, author of  Where Golf is Great, Blasted Heaths and Blessed Greens, and many more

Golf in Scotland: A Travel-Planning Guide with Profiles of 68 Great Courses

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Rave Reviews of Golf in Scotland from Golf's Greatest Contemporary Writers

"If getting your money's worth in everything from rental cars to green fees is a prime consideration in putting together a Scotland golf trip, I urge you to make this book your companion. It is  comprehensive, thoughtful, and, in literal truth, invaluable."—James W. Finegan, author of         Where Golf is Great, Blasted Heaths and Blessed Greens, and many more

"Allan Ferguson has paved the way . . . . Take an iron or two out of your bag and carry this book instead."—Michael Bamberger, Sports Illustrated; author of To the Linksland

" Golf in Scotland is an excellent guide to the Scottish links, their inns, and many other amenities of the Scottish game."—Michael Murphy, author of Golf in the Kingdom
and The Kingdom of Shivas Irons

"If you're inclined to travel to . . . Scottish courses, your best guide is Allan McAllister Ferguson's Golf in Scotland."—Lorne Rubenstein, Toronto Globe and Mail, author of A Season in Dornoch

"Laced with history and local lore as well as the nitty-gritty of modern golf travel, Golf in Scotland may prove an indispensable guide for the wise golf traveler."—James Dodson, author of The Dewsweepers, Final Rounds, and A Golfer's Life

BOOK INFORMATION
   Highlights/Contents/Excerpts/How to Order/Media and Buyer Info

Allan Ferguson's indispensable guide to golf in Scotland

Highlights of Golf in Scotland: A Travel-Planning Guide with Profiles of 68 Great Courses
•When to go

• Where to go

• Ten Itineraries that work

• How to bargain with tour operators

•Eight ways to get a tee time on the Old Course at St. Andrews

• The best places to stay

• A car rental agency priced 20-30% below the brand names

• Over 170 websites for trip planning

• Complete contact information and extensive descriptions of sixty-eight great Scottish courses

Table of Contents

Prologue - AVOID THE TOURS!

PART II - HOW TO PLAN A GOLF TRIP TO SCOTLAND: STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

APPENDICES - Golf Readiness Checklist, Useful Internet Sites, Tourist Information Offices, Daylight Hours, and Annotated Bibliography

INDEX

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***Excerpts from Golf in Scotland by Allan Ferguson***

opinionated - quotable - entertaining - honest - literate - informative - fun

On Golf Travel

"Many intelligent people end up buying overpriced golf trips to Scotland. They simply give up and turn their travel decisions over to an expert. I want to change that situation. I want to make you the expert."

"Apart from the dollars-and-cents side of travel, there's something more important—and that's what you gain from the process of creating a trip. It's like foreplay. . . . Getting there is half the fun."

"This is probably the single most important piece of advice I can give: Don't hurry. Savor the clubhouse (the golf equivalent of 'smelling the roses')."

"The more money you spend on accommodations the more you separate yourself from the ordinary people, the customs, and the heart and soul of Scotland (or, for that matter, any other place)."

The Courses

"Tour operators and their compliant allies in Scotland already have turned some of the finest golf courses in the world into ghettos for the rich—overpriced, overplayed, and now off-limits to most visitors (including Scots) of average income . . . . The more expensive Scottish golf becomes, the more it turns away people who love golf but who do not have a lot of money. That, in short, is the budding tragedy of Scottish golf."

"Maybe it was the persistent sixty-mile-an-hour gale blowing off the North Sea when I played Gullane #1, but, to my mind, this is the least enjoyable, most overbearing, and most overrated of Scotland's marquee courses."

"Machrihanish. Machrihanish. Mock-ri-hon-ish. The syllables roll off the tongue, conjuring visions of Celtic clans, pipers, and warrior kings in some mythical medieval kingdom."

(More on Machrihanish) "Out on the golf course you encounter 'Balaclava' (#6), 'Bruach Mor' (#7), 'Gigha' (#8), 'Ranachan' (#9), 'Nocmoy' (#10) and 'Kilvian' (#13)-and, at this point, you're likely to wonder, 'Where am I? And what language is this anyway?'."

"Sitting atop the great bluff overlooking the linksland, with its red russet roof and white facade, the Turnberry Hotel looks as if it might have been transferred wholesale from colonial America—maybe George Washington's Mt. Vernon on steroids."

(More on Turnberry) "Now what do you think about forking over the money for Turnberry? It's not an easy decision, but remember that classic bumper sticker: 'We're not extravagant. We're just spending our kids' inheritance.'"

In General

"Traveling to St. Andrews carries with it an undeniable sense of drama. I think of it as a modern-day pilgrimage to Shangri-La or Oz . . . . It's everything one hopes for and maybe a little more."

(On parking in St. Andrews) "First, take whatever advice and help your lodging host can provide. Second, take whatever space you can find and be damned glad you got it. Third, before getting into your car, think about the possibility of walking."

"If your travel agent says, 'I have your ticket to Glasgow and you only have to wait one hour and thirty minutes to connect in London,' your reply should be, 'Go back to the drawing board and give me three hours to make that connecting flight'."

(On golf carts) "In Scotland, golf is still considered a walking game. And, if the day ever comes when that can no longer be said, that day will bring an end to the game of golf as it has been played for centuries. In the United States, under the influence of USGA professionals and golf management companies who think their economic lives depend upon 'cart revenue,' that game is already seriously ailing if not dead."

"Most of the time you're probably going to be disappointed in the Scottish idea of water pressure. As the kids say these days, 'live with it'—that's just the way it is. Look at it this way: you'll probably have a heated towel rack in your room and, unlike in America, each room will be unique."

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How to Order

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To order the Collins Touring Maps of Scotland and Ireland

1	Scotland Map - CHARGE IT to MasterCard or Visa on our secure shopping cart - ORDER NOW   Ireland Map - CHARGE IT to MasterCard or Visa on our secure shopping cart - ORDER NOW
2	CALL US - charge it to MasterCard or Visa. Toll Free 1-800-835-6692

          

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Media and Buyer Information

Title: Golf in Scotland: A Travel-Planning Guide with Profiles of 68 Great Courses
Publication Date: August 1, 2005
Publisher: WFPublishing, 1743 S. Marion St., Denver CO 80210, ph 1-800-835-6692
ISBN 0-9710-326-2-9
Retail price: $22.95 USD; $25.95 Canada; £12.95 UK
Wholesale Purchasing: Call for information

Synopsis: Seven chapters offer advice on when to go, where to go, lodging, tee times, and other travel decisions. Designed to help travelers save money and plan their own golf-centered trips to Scotland. Extensive descriptions of sixty-eight Scottish courses feature complete contact information. Appendices include useful websites, a golf-readiness checklist, and a bibliography for further reading. Indexed.

The Author: Allan McAllister Ferguson helps travelers make affordable golf-centered trips to Scotland and Ireland through his business, Ferguson Golf. He makes frequent trips to conduct research and refresh his contacts. He was born in Decatur, Illinois, in 1944. Mr. Ferguson is a jazz guitarist with three CDs to his credit. He is retired from careers in politics, library science, and business. During the 1980s he and his wife, Ruth Wimmer, changed the look of commercial baby toys with their line of black and white infant development products, still sold under the trade name, "Wimmer-Ferguson Child Products."

Golf in Scotland

Allan Ferguson's indispensable guide for the savvy traveler

Ferguson Golf • 800-835-6692 • aferguson@fergusongolf.com

For links to useful sites click on the golf ball!!

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