More courses than you can shake a stick at in Ayrshire

The Glasgow to Ayr railway line passes 20 of them, notably the stretch where it separates Western Gailes from Kilmarnock Barassie and the latest, up-market creation, Dundonald.

Opened in July, 2003 and originally named North Gailes, Dundonald has been taken over by the American owners of the exclusive Loch Lomond club and no expense is being spared in ensuring it becomes an absolutely top-class links with palatial facilities.

With Tiger Woods and other luminaries shunning Loch Lomond because they prefer to play links golf in the week before the Open, there is every chance that the Scottish Open will be moved to Dundonald once everything is bedded in.

At the very least, it will rival its old-established neighbours for the honour of staging Open qualifying rounds, even if it means wresting that privilege away from places like Glasgow Gailes, which is no more than a seven-iron away.

A mile to the north is the town of Irvine, which boasts nine courses within its parish, with a tenth in the pipeline.

This is part of another ambitious project involving a hotel with conference and leisure facilities, with the course to be built in high, wild dunes running north from the mouth of the River Irvine.

The Irvine Golf Club, established in 1887, is unflatteringly known as Irvine Bogside but is also an Open qualifying venue of high renown.

There are five courses at Troon, six miles down the road, and three at Prestwick, birthplace of the Open in 1860 and now home to an airport from which Ryanair fly to 18 destinations.

The flights have opened up an amazingly large golfing market among the Swedes, who are seduced by the value-for-money packages put together by a company called Harbourside Golf.

By playing on the lesser-known courses, it is possible to enjoy five days' golf, plus accommodation and transport to the courses, for only £10 more than it costs to play Royal Troon.

In a glossy brochure produced by Scottish Golf Southwest, the fee for a day at Troon is quoted as £200, to include lunch and a round on the Old and Portland courses.

Western Gailes, which usually comes in at around 35th in lists of the top courses in the British Isles, charges £95 to include lunch, although it's cheaper in the winter months, and it's the same at Dundonald and Prestwick. Glasgow Gailes and Kilmarnock Barassie are around £58 and Irvine Bogside provides perhaps the best value of the better-known courses at £50.

But the best value of all the courses in the area is likely to be found next to Robbie Burns' birthplace on the south side of Ayr at the beautifully-kept municipal course of Ayr Belleisle, where the fee is £20.

Set about a mile inland in an old wooded estate, this is widely considered one of the finest public courses in Britain.

This is not to be confused with Bellisle further north, which is one of eight South Ayrshire courses featured in Harbourside Golf's packages. For £75 a seven-day ticket will allow you to play six of them, or you can also cram in six courses on a three-day midweek ticket for £60.

These include Troon's three municipal courses, Darley, Lochgreen and Fullarton, which share the same clubhouse.

Excellent value, at £20, is also to be had at Irvine Ravenspark, a municipal course which is a mixture of links and parkland, and further north at Routenburn, offering the best views of all across the Firth of Clyde to the Isle of Bute.

Between Ayr and Irvine the views are of Arran, which boasts seven courses of its own, but the backdrop was not the reason why so many courses were developed on the Ayrshire coast.

It is such natural linksland that Glasgow Golf Club, the ninth oldest in the world dating back to 1787, created Glasgow Gailes as a winter bolthole for its members, even though it is 25 miles from the city centre. Similarly, Kilmarnock Barassie is five miles from Kilmarnock.

Western Gailes owes much of its splendid character to the fact that it is sandwiched in a narrow strip of land between the railway and the sea. The first four and last five holes head north, which means the middle nine can be a bit of a slog if the wind is coming from the south rather than off the sea.

Although the dunes are not especially high, it shares with its immediate neighbours a stretch of natural golfing terrain, crossed by several of the burns without which no self-respecting Scottish links is complete.

A burn passes in front of the green on some of the more memorable holes, but the highlight is the par-five sixth, where the second shot needs to be directed slightly uphill into or through a saddle between two of the highest dunes.

On the other side the ground bumps joyfully down into the sort of attractive hollow which houses several greens, usually well-protected by bunkers.

In the best traditions of the older Scottish clubs, there is a solid, civilised feel to the clubhouse and it's the same at Irvine Bogside, where I was politely told by a locker room steward that my zipped jacket was not permissible in the bar.

Not that I proposed to keep it on in such a cosy lounge, where the pleasure of playing a delightful and interesting course was heightened by being served soup and sandwiches for £2.75.

The course is two miles inland, but there is a links element to it and it must be vibrantly colourful in late summer because of the masses of heather and gorse.

The second is the only par five, and there only two par threes, but there is sufficient variety among the rest to ensure constant surprises.

The fourth and fifth are both just under 300 yards but full of intimidation. At the fourth a raised tee shot must carry a sea of gorse to a small landing area ahead of a plateau green tucked in a corner flanked by the railway and Irvine estuary. At the fifth there's a very steep bank up to the green and again there's gorse on either side.

The superb sixth is stroke one at 411 yards into the wind. After a slightly uphill drive over a marker post a wonderful view opens up across the estuary to the town to the left, or out to sea straight ahead. Then comes a steep drop but only the big hitters will get home in two.

The last two are also excellent holes with the railway on the left, but the 18th is easy enough as long as you avoid the two huge, railway-sleepered bunkers set in a bank 100 yards ahead of the tee.

The golfing tradition here is underlined by the fact that there used to be a row of eight miners' houses next to the Bogside course, which produced three Scottish champions, including Jimmy Walker, who played Jack Nicklaus in the Walker Cup.

After the tremendous value in the Bogside bar, it was something of a shock to be charged £3.25 for a coffee at Dundonald, even if it did come with a plate of succulent shortbread.

But this is a special place where the fairway sprinkler heads give distances to the front, middle and back of the greens and the card is printed each day to tell you how far the pin is on to each green.

The new owners bulldozed the original clubhouse, even though it was less than two years old, and have installed the most luxurious Portakabins imaginable until their new clubhouse is built.

The first of several winding burns, which have been cleared of sludge and totally returfed, comes into play at the magnificent par five third, where it runs diagonally across the fairway waiting to catch a mishit second shot. A gorse plantation also intrudes into the fairway here and there are several holes where grassy hillocks have been left in the fairway as interesting design features.

Designed by the American Kyle Phillips, it also has a couple of cracking par threes, notably the 110-yard 11th across a marshy area to a raised green with bunkers in the front bank.

The greens, many of them undulating, were in pristine condition when I visited in early November and as this course develops it will be interesting to see how much visiting play is allowed as the owners will want to keep it spot on for the millionaire members of Loch Lomond.

If it's out of your price bracket, never fear. The beauty of this area for a golfing break is that it has something for everyone, whatever your taste or your budget