The Scotland links circuit: five courses that will change how you think about golf

I have played links golf in Ireland, Wales, Denmark, and New Zealand. None of it prepares you for the concentration of quality on the Scottish east coast.

This is the five-course Scotland circuit I recommend for any golfer doing this seriously. Not the five easiest to book, not the five cheapest — the five that, taken together, give you the complete picture of what links golf actually is.

1. Kingsbarns: Start here. Kingsbarns opened in 2000 and is technically a modern course — but it plays as if it has been here for a century. It is the most accessible of the five: available through the resort, always in excellent condition, with sea views on virtually every hole. Use it to settle in and calibrate.

2. Crail Golfing Society (Balcomie Links): One of the oldest clubs in the world. The course is short by modern standards but demands every shot in the bag. The views over the Firth of Forth are extraordinary. Green fees are sensible. Nobody talks about Crail enough.

3. The Old Course, St Andrews: I've written separately about how to get on. The experience itself is unlike anything in golf. Play it mid-week if you can. Walk off the 18th and give yourself 20 minutes to sit by the burn and not talk to anyone.

4. Carnoustie: The hardest links course in Scotland. The Barry Burn crosses the 18th twice. The rough is genuinely penal. Jean Van de Velde stood in it in 1999 and made what became one of golf's defining moments. Carnoustie does not forgive. That is the point.

5. Turnberry (Ailsa): The most visually dramatic course in the UK. The lighthouse. The Ailsa Craig offshore. Bruce's Castle ruins behind the ninth green. Thomson played it. Watson played it at 59 and nearly won the Open again. Play it in October when the light is extraordinary and you'll have it virtually to yourself.

The logistics: this is best done as a 7-night trip, based in St Andrews for the first three nights, Ayrshire for the last three. I build this circuit regularly. The Old Course and Kingsbarns are the booking-critical elements — get those confirmed first and build everything else around them.

One thing nobody warns you about: after five days of links golf in Scotland, parkland golf is permanently changed. You will find yourself on a tree-lined course in Surrey thinking about the Barry Burn.