Sam & Carol
The Ewing family have had a long ( 30 years long) relationship with Lemon Bay Golf Club in the Southwest of Florida and as a result we have many friends there.
So when Ben McCoy,the Director of Golf, approached us about offering a week’s golf in St Andrews to be auctioned for the Better Shot Programme, we agreed without hesitation.
“Better Shot at Life” is Lemon Bay’s junior golf programme that runs through the summer months offering local children a weekly slot at the club. With an age range of 3-18 the children have coaching sessions each week led by the professionals, form golf friendships on the course and have lunch afterwards. The programme has grown over the years and last year was offered to 130 children.
The successful bid went to Sam and Carol Campbell, who planned to invite their good friends Greyson and Tommy Brown to join them on the trip.
As always with clients, the first thing was to sit down with them to establish just what they wanted from their week with us.
We established that they’d want to stay in St Andrews first but Sam really wanted to play Muirfield. We decided on 4 nights in each area – staying in the Scores apartment we’d used successfully before, and then travelling to Greywalls in Gullane in order to secure Muirfield.
They wanted to travel in August so we hoped the weather would be kind. They would play the Balcomie course at Crail, and Kingsbarns.
We agreed, as always, that we’d enter the ballot for the Old Course every day – and lo and behold we were successful!
August 15th 2025 will be etched in their memories forever!
The morning was chilly but they certainly didn’t complain as they stood in front of the Royal and Ancient clubhouse on the first tee of the Old Course.
Demand for Old Course times has always been high but since Covid, they’ve become even harder to secure so we were especially pleased that these lovely people had been successful.
Their tee time on the Old Course was at 06.40 and they should have been playing Kingsbarns at 11.00am. It was harsh that they’d need to choose between the Old or Kingsbarns so we managed to push back their Kingsbarns tee time to 2.00pm, allowing them to play both courses
They wanted to play 36 holes on the very best golf courses Scotland has to offer – and who could blame them!
It was a wonderful day!
Almost four hours later, they finished and had enough time to rest a little before we headed to Kingsbarns. They warmed up and met their caddies for the afternoon – and they could not have been luckier.
All four caddies were experienced even though they were young lads – students or just graduated- but they were full of fun and warmed to the group who really enjoyed their company. It could not have worked out better.
As the sun started to dip in the sky they made their way off the spectacular 18th green at Kingsbarns and revelled in the day they’d had.
And to top it all dinner was booked in the Seafood Restaurant, only minutes from their apartment. A perfect day to close their time in St Andrews.
Next morning we loaded the minibus and Sam summed it up beautifully –
“This stay as been magical… just magical”
It would be a hard act to follow but Gullane and Muirfield awaited.
They loved the tradition of Greywalls, enjoyed wonderful food , cosy bedrooms and great golf. They played Gullane, Muirfield and North Berwick and ate in great local restaurants or in their Michelin star “Chez Roux” in the hotel.
For Sam especially, the trip ticked many of his bucket list items.
He played the hallowed turf of Muirfield and loved both the course and the clubhouse …He played the Old Course ….and he had a wonderful round on Kingsbarns. For him, the experience of Gullane number one and North Berwick were the icing on the cake.
They were effusive in their thanks- they’d had the best time ever and for us that’s all that mattered.
“
Let’s allow Sam to have the last word…
What a trip! The whole thing was magical ….just magical!
We couldn’t have asked for more or for a better experience – we cannot thank The Links Connection enough.
Start your booking journey today!
Discover more about the The Links Connection Swings and to begin planning your golfing trip of a lifetime to Scotland, Ireland (or maybe both).
