Informing family and friends we were to spend an autumn weekend in Troon we were met with two typical responses.

Beyond the non-worldly-wise replies of: “Where’s That?”, there were a few comments along the lines of: “But you’re not a golfer!”

Troon, the small town on the South Ayrshire coast, is synonymous with the noble game, which is generally considered to have originated on the East coast of Scotland, but spread west, with courses littering the largely non-arable links land bordering the beaches.

As the organised game developed, links courses sprang up along the Ayrshire coastline in the late Victorian and Edwardian era.

Famously, one of them was just south of Troon, the purchase and development of which was funded by 52 founding members in 1878.

The course, with its infamous Postage Stamp and Railway holes, was further developed at the turn of the 20th Century and was granted the honour of staging The Open Tournament in 1923, the first of nine for the Claret Jug staged at Troon.

It was granted royal patronage to mark its centenary in 1978 and has gone on to host golf’s original major tournament roughly once a decade since.

Royal Troon last hosted The Open in 2016, but the Royal and Ancient has confirmed the course will next stage the tournament, the 152nd and the course’s tenth, from July 14 to 21, in 2024.

On first glance, the modest seaside town appears an unlikely location to stage a major global sporting event, but the fact that the course, and several others on the surrounding Firth of Clyde coastal strip is a haven for golfers virtually all year round is manna from heaven for the Ayrshire hospitality industry.

Among the local hotels benefitting from the golfing bug are three in the family-owned SimpsInns group, including The Waterside, at West Kilbride, The Gailes Hotel, at Gailes, near Irvine, and the Old Loans Inn, at Loans, on the outskirts of Troon.

We opted for the latter, a popular country pub and restaurant and now an award-winning 20-bed boutique hotel, which boasts a four-star rating from the Scottish Tourist Board.

The hotel is very canine friendly so our two pooches for the weekend felt well-catered for, with doggy treats and water bowl awaiting them on arrival.

Both were also indulged at breakfast with an extra sausage provided with a smile.

On arrival, from the wet North East of England, it felt like ‘Tropical Troon’ with some glorious autumnal sunshine allowing us to enjoy a few drinks in the Old Loans’ well-appointed beer garden, chatting to a few of the locals, where the topic of conversation soon got around to golf and the array of courses locally.

Following an early evening stroll, on the conveniently close dog walking field, we were to enjoy excellent evening meals, from the extensive menu, as some of the golfing guests arrived back from a day on the course, dressed, appropriately in plus fours for the occasion.

Our second day took us just up the coast to the Old Loans’ sister hotel, The Gailes, alongside another links golf course of the same name, which was very busy, with “affordable golf for all” the watchwords locally, apparently.

While Mrs U luxuriated in the stunning SI! Spa, alongside The Gailes Hotel, enjoying the sauna plus neck and back massages, me and our four-legged friends partook in a walk into nearby Irvine, on the way passing through a little wildlife haven, Shewalton Sandpits, disused sand and gravel pits converted by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in the 1980s.

A fulsome lunch was enjoyed in the SI! Spa’s Coast restaurant, before we returned to Loans and made the relatively short walk into Troon, a couple of long drives, of the golfing variety, down the Dundonald Road.

Like many once thriving seaside towns, Troon is, perhaps, looking a little faded, but I was assured it will receive a pre-Open spruce-up ahead of the next staging of the tournament in 20 months.

The dogs enjoyed a run along the wide windswept beach, before we walked back via a different route to the hotel, passing another of the town’s golf courses on the way.

Sunday evening’s meal was a very tasty traditional roast, ahead of a pleasant evening in the bar chatting to some of the other weekend visitors, who had made the shorter, 40-minute journey from Glasgow.

Another hearty breakfast was walked off with a meander round Loans and neighbouring small villages on Monday morning before our return home, on the two-and-a-half-hour drive, interspersed with lunch at one of Gretna’s several pubs just before the English border near Carlisle.

Among the other non-golfing attractions of Ayrshire that time prevented us from taking in over the weekend are the Scottish Maritime Museum, at Irvine, Dundonald Castle, a 14th Century hill-top fortification and once home to Scottish royalty, half-way between Troon and Kilmarnock, and, of course, being Burns’ Country, the birthplace museum for the Scottish bard, at Alloway, south of Ayr, run by the National Trust Scotland.

Perhaps we'll head back on our next foray north of the Border, albeit we’ve been warned to avoid July 2024, with the return of the big golfing jamboree to Royal Troon, when available bed-space is already said to be either sparse, or non-existent.