Planning for the 1998 River Cup Tour of Scotland
Chris Young, Chairman of the 1998 River Cup Tour of Scotland Planning Committee, prepared this tour information on December 16, 1996, for River Cup players planning to participate in the River Cup Scotland Tour.
Orientation Map | River Cup Tour PhotosThe 1998 River Cup Tour of Scotland promises to be the golfing opportunity of a lifetime and we are anticipating anywhere from 25 to 40 golfers and non-golfers will be traveling with us. After considerable negotiations between representatives of the Country Club of Virginia and Willow Oaks Country Club, we have decided upon a ten-day tour with matches to be contested on 10 different courses. Some details of the Tour follow.
Course Selections and Format of Competition
Courses were chosen after petitions from many of Scotland's finest courses were received and proposals studied. After this exhaustive review, the courses selected for play are: Royal Troon*; Turnberry, Ailsa Course*; Gullane #1; North Berwick West Links; Muirfield*; St. Andrews Old Course*; St. Andrews New Course; Carnoustie*; Royal Aberdeen; Cruden Bay; and Royal Dornoch*. (Asterisk denotes one of the "World's Top 100 Courses".) Turnberry's petition was accompanied by profuse apologies for not being able to host our tour in 1997 and an agreement to host a dinner party for the River Cup Tour during our stay at Turnberry's world-famous hotel and spa.
Format for the ten-day competition is under consideration of the Competition Committee, consisting of Paul A. Sinclair, James F. Nelson, and J. Langdon Moss. It is anticipated that 5 rounds will be selected as "competition rounds", with each "competition round" having a different format. Winners of the overall competition will be feted at a concluding dinner and reception at Inverness after the final day's rounds at Royal Dornoch. We are also negotiating for a day of international competition to be conducted at North Berwick's West Links against a team of Scottish golfers.
Cost and Finances
Cost of the tour is $2,942 per golfer, $1,971 per non-golfer. It is hoped that revenues from broadcast rights and book deals should be sufficient to cover the cost of the entire tour. However, for current planning purposes all players should anticipate that the tour will be funded from personal funding sources. In order to be assured of preferred tee times at all courses, we will need to make deposits of 25% of the tour price beginning January 15, 1997.
This quoted price does NOT include: airplane fare; lunch; dinner (with the exception of dinner at the Turnberry Hotel); caddies/bag carriers; souvenirs. Plane reservations will be made by SGH approximately one year in advance of the Tour. SGH will obtain the lowest possible fare, which is estimated to be in the $800-$900 range, but could be as low as $650 or as high as $1,100. SGH will use any participant's frequent flyer miles if the airline accepts them. Alternatively, players may arrange their own flights to use frequent flyer miles. However, players arriving on different airlines from the main Tour will need to make arrangements to catch up with "River Cup One", the luxury touring bus assigned to the Tour for the course of the stay.
Caddies at the courses cost roughly $30 per round and carry one bag only. Alternatively, bag carriers may be used for $10-15. Bag carriers are less experienced than full-fledged caddies and do not provide the same extent of local course knowledge (and color!) afforded by caddies. You may use a caddie, bag carrier, or carry your own clubs at each course, or pull carts are also available (Turnberry is the only course which does not allow pull carts.)
All finances for the Tour will be handled by River Cup Treasurer Eddie Eddins. We attempted to secure the services of a trustworthy and reputable accountant to handle the finances, but Mr. Eddins was the only person we could find to accept this responsibility. Details on making deposits, etc., will be forthcoming.
Highlights
Some highlights that everyone will see include Loch Lomond (where we may have a beer or two); Bannockburn (where Robert the Bruce won Scottish independence); and the William Wallace Memorial (Mel Gibson played William Wallace in "Braveheart"). To prepare for the visit to the Wallace Memorial, we will watch "Braveheart" on videotape aboard "River Cup One".
The Malt Whisky Committee, consisting of Chris Young, Wes Morck, and Tom McCandlish, has been charged with the responsibility over the coming year and a half of sampling all of Scotland's finest whisky. The Malt Whisky Committee takes its responsibilities very seriously and promises to labor long and hard in sampling the many varieties of Scotch malt whisky in preparation for the Tour. Based on our samplings, we will arrange a visit to one of the many Scottish distilleries in the famous Highlands area Malt Whisky Trail. After leaving the distillery tour, we plan on traveling directly to nearby Loch Ness. We feel that this will give us a good opportunity of spotting Nessie!
Non-golf Activities
Plans are being made for non-golfers as well as golfers. The Non-Golf Activities Committee is being co-chaired by GiGi deBlois and Gay Moss. Currently, the Non-Golf Activities Committee is gathering information on a possible excursion to London for the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday weekend. Theatre tickets and tickets for Wimbledon matches would be a part of this excursion, which would rejoin the main tour in Aberdeen on Sunday. We will have complete reports from the Committee as planning progresses.