The Open and the Scottish Open: How to Do a Two-Week British Golf Trip in 2026
Most people plan a golf trip around one event. In July 2026, the calendar hands you two, back to back, a short drive apart on the same island — and following both is the best version of a British golf trip you can build.
Here’s the setup. The Genesis Scottish Open runs 9–12 July at The Renaissance Club, on the East Lothian coast just outside Edinburgh. The 154th Open follows 16–19 July at Royal Birkdale, near Southport in the northwest of England. The same players move from one to the other; the Scottish Open has become the unofficial Open warm-up, so the field that tees it up in Scotland is largely the field you’ll watch a week later in England. Two weeks, two countries, two stretches of championship links, and the world’s best golfers twice over.
This guide lays out how to do it as one trip — where to watch, where to play your own rounds, where to sleep, and how to move between the two.
Why two weeks beats one
The instinct is to pick the major and call it a trip. But the two events solve each other’s weaknesses.
The Open is the bucket-list week — and it’s hard to get into. General admission sold out long ago through the R&A ballot, and the official routes that remain cost a premium. The Scottish Open is the opposite: tickets are sold directly by the tour, general admission starts at around £35 a day, practice rounds are often free, and you can walk all 18 holes following whichever group you like. Same stars, none of the ticket anxiety, a fraction of the price.
So the fortnight gives you the marquee finish and an accessible, relaxed first week to ease into. It also spreads the cost and the crowds, and it drops you into two of the great golf regions in the world rather than one. If you’re flying across an ocean anyway, the second week is close to free in effort and enormous in payoff.
Week one: the Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club
Fly into Edinburgh. The Renaissance Club sits near Dirleton, just west of the seaside town of North Berwick, about a 30-minute drive from the city centre. It’s a modern Tom Doak links laid out along the Firth of Forth, with the Bass Rock and Fidra island offshore — the kind of coastline that makes you understand why Scotland is the home of the game.
The week itself is unusually fan-friendly. The Renaissance Club is more open and walkable than a major venue, the galleries are smaller, and during practice rounds you can stand a few feet from players working through their preparation. The tournament also leans into the festival side: there’s live music in the fan zone across the weekend, tied to North Berwick’s own summer festival, so the atmosphere is closer to a day out than a corporate rope line.
A few practical notes. North Berwick has its own train station with regular services from Edinburgh, and shuttle buses run to the course on event days — the train genuinely works here, which isn’t true of every Scottish golf venue. There’s spectator parking in fields near the course if you’d rather drive. Book your tickets through the tour’s official site; there’s no need and no benefit to going anywhere else.
Play your own round: Scotland’s Golf Coast
This is the part that turns a spectating trip into a proper golf trip. East Lothian is one of the densest stretches of playable links anywhere — locals call it Scotland’s Golf Coast, and you can build several rounds within fifteen minutes of your Scottish Open base.
One thing to know: The Renaissance Club itself is a private members’ club and not generally open for casual play, so the host venue is for watching, not teeing it up. Its neighbours, though, are the draw. North Berwick’s West Links is one of the oldest and most charming courses in the world, full of quirks and visitor-accessible. Gullane offers three courses, with Gullane No. 1 climbing to wide views over the Forth. Dunbar and Kilspindie round out an easy, affordable rotation, and Muirfield — one of the most storied championship courses on the planet — is right there too, though it’s far harder to get on and worth planning well ahead if it’s a bucket-list target.
Tee times for the popular courses go early in summer, so if playing is part of the plan, book before you fly.
Where to stay in Scotland
You have two sensible bases. Staying in or near North Berwick keeps you walking distance from the coast and minutes from both the Scottish Open and your own rounds; it’s the atmospheric choice, but the town is small and rooms for event week are limited, so book early. Edinburgh, about thirty minutes away, is the deeper market — far more hotels, more to do in the evenings, and an easy daily run out to the coast. Many visitors split the difference: a couple of nights on the coast, the rest in the city.
The journey south
When the Scottish Open wraps, you head for Birkdale. Edinburgh to the Southport area is roughly a half-day by road or rail — comfortably drivable, and a scenic leg rather than a slog. The natural move is to break it up: the Lake District sits more or less on the route, which makes for an excellent day or overnight between the two golf weeks if you want to decompress. By train, you’ll route through the major northwest hubs and into Merseyside; by car, it’s a straightforward run down the western side of the country.
This middle stretch is the quiet luxury of the two-week plan. Instead of one intense event and a flight home, you get a breath — a different landscape, a slower day — before the big finish.
Week two: The Open at Royal Birkdale
Royal Birkdale hosts The Open for the 11th time in 2026, more than any course except St Andrews. It’s links golf at its most demanding: fairways threaded between tall dunes, wind that rewrites the course hole to hole, small fast greens. Scottie Scheffler arrives as the defending Champion Golfer of the Year, which gives the week an obvious headline before a ball is struck.
The ticket reality here is the reverse of week one, so plan accordingly. General admission is sold out across all four championship days. The legitimate ways in are the R&A’s official options — The Open Experiences and hospitality, ticket-inclusive accommodation packages, the practice-day tickets, and on-site camping for existing ticket holders. One firm warning: the R&A does not permit third-party resale, and tickets bought through unauthorised resale sites are subject to cancellation without refund. For a trip you’ve built two weeks around, a resale seat is a gamble you can’t afford — stick to official routes.
If you want the full breakdown of getting into Birkdale, the days that are worth it, and the lodging surge, see our dedicated guide to The Open 2026.
Where to stay near Birkdale
Southport is the natural base — roughly two miles from the course, with shuttle buses during the Championship. As with any major-event market, Open-week rates climb well above an ordinary July night, and the closest rooms go first and highest, so this is another book-early situation. Travelling as a group, a self-catered cottage in Southport or nearby Formby usually beats hotel rooms per head and gives you a kitchen during a week when every restaurant in town is full. Liverpool, about half an hour out, is a deeper hotel market and a fine fallback, trading a longer commute for more rooms and more to do.
For getting to the course: don’t plan to drive and park beside it. Merseyrail connects Southport and Liverpool, and Open-week travel is built around park-and-ride and public transport. Flying in, Liverpool John Lennon is closest at around 30 miles; Manchester is farther but has far more long-haul options, which often makes it the better arrival airport for international visitors.
The shape of the trip — and who it’s for
Put together, the fortnight looks like this: arrive Edinburgh, watch the Scottish Open and play a few rounds on the East Lothian coast, drive or train south with a Lake District break in the middle, then settle near Birkdale for Open week and the season’s final major. Two weeks, two countries, two coastlines, and the best players in the world on both.
It isn’t the cheapest way to see golf — Open-week lodging and an official ticket see to that — but it’s arguably the best-value premium golf trip on the calendar, because the expensive week is bookended by an accessible one and a genuinely great place to play yourself. If you’re the kind of traveller who’d cross an ocean for The Open, this is the trip to build instead. The major is the finish. Scotland is the reason you’ll want to go back.