Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 15 on 18/7/2004.

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Making golf a family affair

Scotland’s leading golf hotels are now going to considerable lengths to be more family-friendly. Dominic Roskrow visited four of the best-known.

Their reputation precedes them; the sort of Scottish destination hotels so famous for their golf that the mere mention of their names evokes images of sun-stroked championships or stimulates a frisson of excitement among those that dream of not just playing them but taming them, too.

But for that handful of hotels with names synonymous with the very pinnacle of the sport, world fame can be a double-edged sword. For while great names such as Gleneagles, the Old Course and Turnberry are magnets to golfers from across the world, they inspire awe in others; the sort of awe that borders on fear and drives many to conclude that such places just aren’t for them.

Perception is all here, and for every sportsman confident enough to pit his wits against the world’s finest courses there are probably another nine too modest of fearful to go anywhere near. And more pertinently for the hotels themselves, thousands of potential customers rule out such hotels because they make the assumption that a golf hotel can’t possibly welcome families.

But if there is one single factor that defines Scottish hospitality over the last two decades, it’s the change in attitudes towards families. Scotland has undergone a revolution in the way it caters for children in recent years and rather than dragging their heels and reluctantly being forced to accept families, the big name golf hotels have led from the front.

Nobody would deny that economic realities have played their part in the change in attitude,.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Scottish Trends

Page number : 68