Planning a golf holiday in the UK that can offer you much more than just a regular holiday? Golf in the UK and Ireland is more than a round on a famous fairway. It is a journey through dramatic coastlines, historic clubhouses, and landscapes that test skill and stir emotion. While there are plenty of golf courses you can find, each course carries its own legacy, shaped by wind, weather, and centuries of play.

With Halcyon Golf Travel, you can make the most bespoke golf trips that are tailored around tee times, routes and off-course experiences. These golf holiday trips are personalised and crafted for comfort, challenge, and unforgettable moments.

These holidays allow you to experience fairways like destinations and sharpen your golfing skills while you’re having a good time. Whether you’re chasing bucket-list courses or discovering underrated gems, these six picks capture the essence of a luxury bespoke golf journey across Scotland, Ireland, and England.

St Andrews – The Old Course, Scotland

While Scotland is known for its outdoor adventure and rugged mountains, it is also where you can have a great golfing time. St Andrews is where golf feels timeless. The Old Course blends natural links landscapes with centuries of stories, creating a setting every golfer dreams of experiencing at least once. With wide fairways, sudden gusts, and those unmistakable undulating greens keep every shot is kept honest.

Walking the famous first tee, standing on the Swilcan Bridge, and finishing along the stretch facing the town give the round a sense of theatre you won’t find anywhere else. The atmosphere alone makes it unforgettable.

To make it even better, you can add a stay in a classic Scottish hotel, wander the medieval lanes, or take a breezy walk along West Sands Beach, and your visit becomes much more than a tee time.

Royal County Down, Northern Ireland

While you are exploring Northern Ireland, you would want to look out for golf courses that can offer you an amazing golfing experience. Sitting beneath the purple peaks of the Mourne Mountains, Royal County Down delivers a visual punch that few courses on earth can match.

This is old-school links golf in its purest form, which means it offers blind tee shots, rumbling fairways, heather-lined hazards, and greens that demand both precision and imagination. Every hole feels like a riddle written by nature and solved by patience. Golfers also have to focus on the wind, which is an integral part of the course.

But what makes Royal County Down unforgettable is the atmosphere. You’re not just playing a course, as you’re stepping into a landscape crafted by dunes, sea, and centuries of golfing tradition. It’s rugged, beautiful, and deeply rewarding and certainly one of the best courses you can enjoy in the UK.

Sunningdale Golf Club, England

If you are somewhere close to London, Sunningdale feels like stepping into a golfing dream. The landscape here is packed with towering pines, golden heather, immaculate fairways, and that unmistakable sense of old-world charm that only true classics carry.

The Old Course is the star here, and that is where you will be strategic while playing your shots. It’s the kind of course where good shots are celebrated, bad shots are punished fairly, and every swing feels like it belongs in a postcard. Unlike other golf courses, this one has a hint of sophistication in the design, subtlety in the challenges, and a gentle rhythm that keeps you smiling even when the scorecard doesn’t.

This is where you can experience the purest forms of golf in the country and also be close to popular cities and towns. You can always spend a day in London and make the most of your trip. This course is ideal for travellers who appreciate strategy, scenery, and a round wrapped in a little bit of grace.

Kingsbarns Golf Links, Scotland

If you are looking for golf courses that also offer amazing coastal views, it has to be Kingsbarns Golf Links in Scotland. This one offers wide fairways to help you make bold shots, the North Sea glimmers just a few steps away, and every hole seems designed to make you pause, breathe, and grin like a kid on holiday.

What sets Kingsbarns apart is the balance to help you make mistakes, but at the same time challenge your skills and provide that scenic backdrop. While you are here, you will be playing along sweeping dunes, elevated tees, and cliffside views that feel more cinematic than real. On a sunny day, it’s magic, but on a windy day, the course will test your character.

Also, when you are done with golfing, you can head out to Dundee and enjoy some of the things to do in Dundee, offering you a much-needed break in Scotland.

Royal St George’s, England

Set along the Sandwich Bay coastline, Royal St George’s is wild, windswept, unpredictable, and absolutely iconic. If you are good at your golfing skills, you should try a game here and see where it goes. The dunes are towering, the fairways ripple like waves, and the bunkers test your patience.

This is an Open Championship venue through and through. You feel it the moment you step onto the first tee. Every hole has intent which demands angles, clever traps, and greens that test your nerve as much as your touch. Unlike other golf courses, Royal St. George’s is quite straightforward right from the moment you walk on it. It challenges you boldly, but rewards you generously when you rise to the occasion.

Also, the vibe here is thrilling and keeps you on your toes with the sea air flowing, the rolling landscape and a sense of history all around. For golfers seeking a true test wrapped in pure coastal drama, Royal St George’s is the definitive English experience.

Muirfield, Scotland

When you are thinking of golf in Scotland, Muirfield is one of the options you can choose. Known for its immaculate layout and no-nonsense approach to the game, this is one of those courses that rewards precision over power and patience over bravado. Everything here feels deliberate, right from the fairways, the wind, even the shadows stretching across the turf.

If you are unsure why this course is so popular, you must play a round at Muirfield, and you’ll understand why it’s held in such high regard for generations. The course is beautifully old-school in the best way you can think of.

The course comes with strategic bunkering and a rhythm that keeps you thinking from the first tee to the final putt. And once you’re done, the surrounding East Lothian landscape reminds you why Scottish golf has such a hold on the soul. It’s a place for golfers who appreciate purity, craft, challenge, and tradition.