June 22, 2012

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky men’s golf team leaves Friday afternoon for a 12-day tour of Scotland where it will play on nine different courses, including five that have hosted The Open Championship.

“We are taking the team to Scotland for a trip of a lifetime,” UK head coach Brian Craig. “These young men have no idea what they are about to experience playing the best links courses in the world. They have all watched the British Open on TV and are now about to have the privilege of playing those same great courses.”

The team will arrive in Edinburgh on Saturday, before playing at North Berwick on Sunday and The Renaissance Club on Monday. Kentucky will play its first course on the tour that has hosted an Open Championship when it tees it up at Royal Troon on Tuesday. Royal Troon has hosted the 1923, 1950, 1962, 1973, 1982, 1989 and 2004 Open Championships.

Kentucky will play Western Gailes on Wednesday, Prestwick on Thursday and Turnberry on Friday, June 28. Prestwick hosted The Open Championship on nine occasions, including 1884, 1887, 1890, 1893, 1898, 1903, 1908, 1914 and 1925. Turnberry hosted The Open Championship in 1977, 1986, 1994 and 2009.

The Wildcats will play at Kingsbarns on June 29, and will then head to The Old Course at St. Andrews on June 30. The Old Course has hosted The Open Championship eight times, including in 1964, 1970, 1978, 1984, 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010. The Kentucky golf tour finishes July 1 at Carnoustie, which hosted The Open Championship in 1931, 1937, 1953, 1968, 1975, 1999 and 2007.

Kentucky will leave from Edinburgh to return home July 2.

“This trip will truly be a memory for a lifetime for our guys, and we could not be more excited to have this opportunity,” Craig said.