Academia, Old Tom Morris and a London Letdown

Noel Mugavin · 2026-06-17T22:31:32+1000

Got to the little hut on the left where a couple of gentlemen greeted me, took my bag and set it up on a pull cart. Gave me a run down of the course, where the driving range was and then invited me to go and explore the clubhouse.

Looking at the starter's hut and the general direction of the first hole

The upstairs male changerooms

View from the changeroom

Wall of the staircase

Into the pro shop to pick up a ball marker and some balls. Only arrived in Scotland with 11 balls, 5 of them were lost during my round the day prior, so though it was prudent to grab some more. Bit taken aback by the cost of 3 balls wasn't til later in the trip I realised I had picked up a sleeve of Kingsbarns logo balls.
Back outside and time to head to the range

Beautiful range, unlimited balls, as it should be for the price you pay to play here. Shoulder price was 400 pounds, which as a bargain as high season price is 486 pounds.
The course had only opened for the season a week prior, so everything was in pristine condition.
Kingsbarns is absolutely beautiful, I took a lot pf photos and doubt any of them do it justice.

Back to have a putt by the practice green by the clubhouse

Noel Mugavin · 2026-06-17T22:49:39+1000

My 2 playing partners, although I didn't know it yet. Chilean couple, both much better golfers than me. Nice people, for the life of me I can't remember their names, both stereotypical South American names though. They had both lived between the US and Chile since 2020 as the lady of the couple attended college on golf scholarship

Tee time, starter met us, gave a spiel about the course and suggested what tees to go off to optimise the enjoyment of the round. Also handed us a bag of goodies, included ball marker and pitch mark tool, heap of tees, scorecard, course guide and a personalised bag tag.
Also took photo of us teeing off - wont subject anyone to viewing that.
Looking down the first fairway.