Links Golf & Scotland Specialist
Callum
Reid
Former St Andrews caddie. Grew up a mile from Carnoustie. Has played every links course in the British Isles — some of them in conditions that would make you reconsider the whole sport.
312
Links courses played
12
Countries
16y
In golf travel
740+
Pilgrimages arranged
The Story
He grew up a mile from Carnoustie. He's never recovered.
Callum Reid spent six years as a caddie at St Andrews, then two more at Royal County Down. He has looped for Tour players, scratch amateurs, and a retired Prime Minister who shanked it on the 17th Road Hole and asked him not to mention it.
He left caddying to work in golf travel because he was tired of watching people book Gleneagles three years in advance and miss the courses that would actually change them. The ones without hospitality suites. The ones where the wind decides what score you shoot.
Callum's speciality is the bucket list links pilgrimage — St Andrews, Turnberry, Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Lahinch, Ballybunion — built around a proper narrative, not just a tick-list. He is also the only specialist at Dormie who will tell you honestly when a course is overrated.
"
People ask me: Old Course or Royal County Down? I tell them it's the wrong question. The right question is: what do you want to feel when you walk off the 18th green?
— Callum Reid
Speak with Callum directly
Callum is available Monday to Saturday. He prefers a call to an email — find him on +44 (0)1334 XXX XXX.
The morning I nearly quit caddying
November. The Old Course. The haar had come in so thick you couldn't see the Swilcan Bridge from the tee. My player — a surgeon from Stockholm who'd waited four years for this tee time — stood there looking at nothing.
He turned to me and said: "Is it always like this?" I said yes, sometimes. He said: "Good. I wouldn't want it any other way."
He played the entire round by feel and memory. Never once complained. Shot 84. Cried on the 18th. Bought me a dram in the R&A clubhouse afterwards and told me it was the best day of his life.
That is why I still do this. Not the good weather rounds. The ones where the golf is hard and the experience is everything.
Callum recommends
Six links courses that will change you
Scotland
Old Course, St Andrews
"Still makes me nervous and I've stood on the first tee three hundred times. The ballot is a lottery. I know how to get you on without one."
N. Ireland
Royal County Down
"The most beautiful golf course on earth. The Mournes behind you, Dundrum Bay in front, and a layout that punishes bad thinking more than bad striking."
Scotland
Turnberry Ailsa
"Stand on the 9th tee with the lighthouse behind you and tell me there's a better view in golf. I'll wait."
N. Ireland
Royal Portrush
"Dunluce Links hosted The Open in 2019. The town hasn't recovered from it — in the best possible way. Calamity Corner on the 14th will cost you a sleeve of balls."
Ireland
Lahinch
"The Dell is the most absurd hole in golf and I love it completely. The town is wonderful. The Cliffs of Moher are twenty minutes away. Come for a week."
Scotland
Kingsbarns
"The best modern links ever built. Opened in 2000. Looks like it's been there since 1890. Every single hole plays along or across the sea. Book it alongside St Andrews."
The links are waiting.
Callum builds the proper pilgrimage — Old Course ballot secured, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie booked around it, a base in St Andrews, and a post-round dram at a pub that doesn't exist on Google Maps. Tell him what's on your list.