BY Anita Draycott

Looking for the ultimate golf vacation. Scotland won’t disappoint. Consider this bit of trivia:

• Golf was first played in Scotland more than 600 years ago and today it is home to more than 550 courses across the length and breadth of the country
• Scotland was the host nation of The 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles
• Scotland regularly hosts prestigious international golf events such as The Open, Ricoh Women’s British Open, The Senior Open Championship and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open
• Scotland will host two of the next three Open Championships: Royal Troon (2016) and Carnoustie (2018)
• Scotland is home to five of the nine courses currently on the Open Championship rota: St Andrews, Muirfield, Carnoustie, Royal Troon and Turnberry, as well as previous Open venues Prestwick and Royal Musselburgh.
• Scotland hosted the first 33 Open Championships and has hosted 94 of the 144 Open Championships played to date.
• No other country in the world can offer such a diverse range of courses from championship links venues to island “honesty box” courses.
• Scotland has the most golf courses per head of population than any other established golf destination in the world with one course for every 9,000 people
• The average green fee in Scotland is £40 ($63)
• There are more than 400 golf courses within an hour of an airport in Scotland