Inside One Couple's Quest To Play Every Golf Course In Scotland

If, like me, you still use X or Twitter, you’ll see the same faces popping up on your timeline time and time again. For me, one such account is ‘Billy & Kenna, Golf’, where the bio paragraph reads: “Trying to play every golf course in Scotland. If you’d like a round with us at your club, we can reciprocate at Bearsden GC and Askernish GC.”

At first, I didn’t take too much notice of their two beaming faces near the 1st tee of some Scottish golf course somewhere, but eventually I was intrigued to see who they were and how far they’d got.

Then, despite me not being a member of a Scottish club and unable to reciprocate, I got in touch to see if I could meet them on my next Scottish trip to find out more about their quest.

Before long, plans were being hatched to find somewhere new to all three of us so they could play their 240th Scottish course and I, by coincidence, my 200th, following a quick tot-up of my ‘courses played’ spreadsheet.

They live in Glasgow and one of their suggestions was Glenbervie, north-east of the city and close to the M9, which was ideal for me as I was heading on up to the Moray Firth afterwards.

I don’t know a huge number of Scottish golf club managers, but by chance, it transpired that I did know Glenbervie’s Alan Reid from a previous club he’d been at, and he kindly agreed to host our meet-up.

One thing you can’t rely on in Scotland (nor anywhere really) is the weather, and as we chatted about their quest before heading out, the elements could at best be described as changeable. When a Scottish pro says “it’s looking a bit dreich”, it’s best not to get your hopes up too much.

Sadly, we were treated to fairly persistent and, at times, quite heavy rain, until it finally eased with a few holes to go. But that dampened neither spirits nor banter on a course with very good and surprisingly quick greens (given the moisture) that starts with a fairly accommodating opener.

The tough par-4 9th, with its attractive downhill approach, is a real front-nine highlight, while the nicely framed greens on 12 and 13 caught my eye coming home.

We each had a par-3 moment to savour. Mine came on the 4th, with its false front and narrow entrance, where my 8-iron nearly pitched in the hole en route to birdie; for Billy it came on the tough 7th, where he slotted home a 20-footer for a two; and for Kenna it was the 10th, where a sharply breaking six-footer saved an excellent par.

The couple are easy to talk to and incredibly enthusiastic about their quest... and everything really. Billy is from Glasgow, plays off 23.6 and works as a school janitor; Kenna is from South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, plays off 20.4 and works in the NHS.

“We first met on a walk,” Billy tells me. “We went to the same gym in Glasgow and it was during lockdown. They put on this walk and we met there. The next time we met was on the golf course.”

“The guy taking the class hadn’t long started golf,” Kenna adds. “There was another couple of people, too, and we had our first game at Knightswood, a municipal course in Glasgow.”

“We got paired together and just hit it off,” Billy grins. “We’ve been pretty much inseparable since then. It’s just golf, golf, golf.”

All on a whim

Golf, golf, golf, indeed, but why the quest? “We started in September 2020 at the Wee Demon course at Cameron House where I played,” Kenna explains. “Billy just randomly had the idea.”

“Yes, I’d only been playing golf roughly since we met,” Billy goes on. “Kenna was at the point where she was going to give it up and I was at the point where I was just starting, so it was ideal timing.”

“I was struggling because none of my pals played, so I joined the Wee Demon,” Kenna explains. “But I had an incident with a guy who point-blank refused to play with me in a medal because I was female! I wasn’t playing enough either, so I thought I either needed to play more or just give it up.”

She went for the ‘play more’ option, but with Glenbervie number 240, I ask how many more they have to go. “We use a map produced by David Jones, the UK Golf Guy,” Billy explains. “The figure on that is 569 courses, but I think a few have closed since then.”

The ones they’ve played that have now closed are both courses at Caird Park in Dundee, Lethamhill – a 100-plus-year-old 18-hole Glasgow municipal that’s now reopened as the nine-hole Golf it! facility with The R&A’s backing – and Torrance Park in Motherwell.

Ones that closed before they got to play them are Linn Park, Ruchill, Isle of Eriska, Hirsel and North Gailes.

Despite being restricted by Monday-to-Friday jobs, they’ve managed to average around 50 a year, so how do they decide where to go? “We don’t really have a rhyme or reason – it’s just what comes up,” Kenna says, “We’ve got a few mixed opens we do in the summer and that’s a good way to get a few courses ticked off.”

I speculate that at the current rate they’ll be done in about six years. “Yes, but there’s no specific rush,” Billy replies. “We’ll take it as it comes, enjoy it and go where the opportunities take us.”

Kenna tells me that they just love playing with anyone. “We played a couple of courses in Dunoon with my old priest from South Uist,” she recalls. “We’ve played with people from a range of occupations. We played Gullane last time with an 81-year-old and he was from the Isle of Lewis.”

“And deadly on the greens,” Billy chips in.

I ask what their biggest accomplishment has been so far in playing somewhere a little harder to get on. “Probably Western Gailes,” Kenna answers. “Or Royal Troon,” Billy says. “It’s often through messages on Twitter. People have been in touch and said, ‘I really like what you’re doing – have you played Royal Troon?’ ‘No.’ ‘Would you like to play it?’”

“That was just before they had The Open,” Kenna adds. “They just treated us and looked after us the full day. Fantastic!”

Taking it as it comes

What about exclusive courses like Loch Lomond, Ardfin or Skibo Castle? “We don’t worry about that,” Billy replies pragmatically. “We just tend to see what happens. We don’t want to rush it and we’ve been so lucky.

Things have just happened naturally. We don’t force anything and good things seem to come our way. We nearly played Ardfin with the UK Golf Guy as part of some charity event.

“He put it out on email and I was just about to book me and Kenna on and phoned Kenna to double-check. She said, ‘That’s your friend’s wedding that weekend.’ We went to the wedding instead!”

As for the lack of rush, it seems 36-hole days are now a no-no. “We’ve only played two 18s in a day once on the Isle of Arran,” Billy says. “We nearly fell out! It was two quite hilly courses and really hot and it was just no fun. We thought, ‘We’re doing this for fun!’ We’ll never do that again.

We’ll maybe play 18, stop for lunch and do another nine, but never again two 18s in a day.” Despite this near falling out, there is no hesitation when I ask if they have to play together for it to count. “Yes!” says Kenna instantly.

“Absolutely,” agrees Billy. “If someone invited me on to Loch Lomond and not Kenna, I would have to say, ‘I’m sorry.’”

As for the weather, there’s also little hesitation over the worst they’ve played in, and sadly, it came at one of Scotland’s most revered links – Royal Dornoch. “It was awful,” Kenna flinches at the memory. “You could hardly see in front of you – it was just wild.”

One of the questions I’m asked most is, ‘What is your favourite course?’ – an impossibly difficult question. So I turn the tables for once and ask the same question to them. “It changes all the time,” Billy admits, before going on to pick out Royal Troon. “I just love it.”

“I love Western Gailes, which we played recently, but before that it was The Machrie on Islay,” Kenna adds.

As for how much they’ve spent on the quest, Billy’s reply is precise. “To date we’ve spent £5,502.46 on green fees, but due to lots of very kind people, we’ve been lucky to play many courses for free.”

The Old Course at St Andrews has been their most expensive, with a member using some points to get it down to £196 each. Have they tried totting up petrol and hotels too? “No, never,” Billy smiles. “If you were to count golf clothes, balls, tees, I wouldn’t know the price... golf balls especially!”

We chat about courses we’ve both played, including Durness, Barra, Benbecula, Stornoway, Harris, Glencruitten, Dalmally, Strathtay, Lochcarron and many more, all in their own way typifying that ‘something different’ about the game in this greatest of golfing nations.

As I finish uploading this article, I check X to see how many they’re now up to since Glenbervie in late June 2025. The answer is 249, following rounds at Langlands, Beith, Gleneagles King’s, Gleneagles PGA Centenary (on Billy’s 50th birthday), Gullane No.1, Pollok, Gourock, Fort William and Leslie.

So just 320 to go based on that map...