The info below was added August 17, 2010. It is from an e-mail sent to members attending this event. It is posted here for future reference. ----------------------- From: "Susan Schreck" <susan@singlesgolf.com>
To: "Susan Schreck" <susan@singlesgolf.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 7:55:56 PM
Subject: VERY IMPORTANT (SOME TIME SENSITIVE) INFORMATION FOR SCOTLAND TRAVELERS--PLEASE READ IN ITS ENTIRETY AND PRINT OUT Dear ASGA Scotland Golfers, First of all, let me say a big thank you for all of your cooperation and patience while I work to finalize all of the logistics and important details of this trip. I’m certain this will be a memorable time for all of us and I’m looking forward to meeting all of you. Please take the time to read this in its entirety, it could be influential in determining your level of ease on this trip. You should and will want to print this information to have it with you as there are so many handy bits of information here. I’m sure you all are starting to pack your bags as it’s not long now! (And, if you watched the Open, you see that practically all seasons can be covered in a day.) Pack your umbrellas, sweaters, jackets and windbreakers for sure. Following here are some helpful bits of information. Flight information—This is critical for me to have should you expect to be transported on 7/31 or 8/8. There are still some of you who haven’t provided me with this information and many of you who have provided me either incomplete information or questionable information. I’ve emailed many of you to clarify, but please remember the important bits of information we need are those relating to picking you up at the airport on 7/31 and taking you to the airport 8/8. (Some of you provided me with your late departure information for, say 8/14, but I guess assumed that I’d know you wanted to go to the airport on 8/8 because you are flying to Paris, or London or Germany.) I cannot know this if you do not tell me. If you are arriving days early and planning to meet at the airport on 7/31 for the ASGA provided transportation, I need to know this. You still need to be on the list for the transportation team. Likewise, if you want to go to the airport on 8/8 for whatever reason, I need a time. We can only be as thorough and effective as the information you provide to us. The delay in getting this information correctly does affect my transportation team and the hotel in a negative way. This is our last week to get this all locked up tightly. Should we not receive flight data from you by this Friday, 7/23, we cannot guarantee your ground transportation. I resent an email to those of you whose flight info I do not have. THIS IS NOT AN ONGOING SHUTTLE WHERE YOU CAN HOP ON AT YOUR LEISURE, YOU MUST BE ON THE LIST. DON’T BE SITTING AT THE AIRPORT WANDERING WHERE YOUR RIDE IS. ACT NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR LUGGAGE AND CLUBS! Now, Should your flight get cancelled or you do not make a connection, please contact our transport manager, Jim Kilpatrick at 01144-7737 931 892 if calling from a U.S. phone, or 07737 931892 if calling from a public phone in the UK or 0044 7737 931 892 if calling from any public phone in any other European country. Please call him directly but ONLY with major flight issues. Please do not contact him for any other reason, he is as crazy busy now as we are. I will not be there until the same day as the rest of you so don’t call me or Tom if your flight gets delayed or cancelled, call JIM directly. Ground Transportation-Remember Ground Transportation is only provided if you arrive on 7/31 or depart on 8/8 (and have given me your information) or have specified that you will meet us at the airport 7/31 for pickup or that you need to go to the airport on 8/8. Otherwise, ground transportation is on your own. A good resource is www.standrewsshuttle.com or you can catch a taxi for the 1 hour ride to St. Andrews or always rent a car. Shirts-If you haven’t provided your shirt size to our office manager, Irene, you must do so by this Friday, July 23rd by 12 NOON EST or else you will not receive a shirt. Please email her directly with your name, sex and shirt size. (irene@singlesgolf.com) Again, please do not send this anyone except Irene. Golf courses-Pairings are being compiled as I write this and we will review and send out to all of you in within the next 24 hours. This is NOT the time to request a pairing, but just to confirm that you have been paired per your earlier request. On Friday, July 23rd at 5 PM, we will send this completed pairings list to the various golf venues (The Fairmont, Gleneagles and Carnoustie), so if you see an error or don’t see your name someplace or with the friend you requested, please contact TOM at golfasga@aol.com, PRIOR to this time. If you want to arrange a caddy, or rent clubs, pull carts, powakaddys, etc please refer to #14 where instructions have been at www.singlesgolf.com/scotlanddetails. We will not coordinate any of this on your behalf and cannot be responsible if you should not get a cart, caddy, etc. This information has been out to all of you for at least 6-8 weeks and you must do it on your own. Please refer to the Scotland Details web page! The dress code is standard golf attire, collared shirts and NO jeans. Metal or soft spikes permitted. Shorts are o.k. but haven’t been highly recommended due to the weather. Electronic devices—Due to the variance in voltage (110v vs 240v) and the differences in the plugs/outlets, you will most likely want to have an adapter if you want to charge things such as cell phones, computers, hair dryers or electrical hair styling irons. Keep in mind that anything with a heating element will usually not heat up to the same intensity as it would here in the States, due to the voltage differential. With that said, the Fairmont Hotel does have ONE U.S. style plug in each of their rooms and hair dryers in each. However, if you are with a roommate, one of you will most likely want to bring a hair dryer for your last two nights stay in Edinburgh, as I cannot guarantee those for these days. Should you wish to purchase an adapter in advance here is one link --http://www.boxwave.com/products/plugadapters/universal-to-uk-outlet-plug-adapter.htm and it’s quite easy to purchase them once you are in Scotland. The Fairmont Hotel sells them for £6 each and the Caledonian for £5 each. Cell Phones—Please realize that you should contact your cell phone provider regarding the ability to 1). Use your phone while in Scotland, 2). What the charges are to use your phone in Scotland (both calls and data) and 3.) How to disable the “data roaming” setting on your phone (this is very important to know for those with email and internet on their phones, as you could run up a $1,000 phone bill in no time just for turning your phone on over there, if this feature is not disabled!) Once you have this information, you’ll be able to make an educated decision as to whether you should use your cell phone there or not. Tom and I have pre-purchased phones in Scotland and those phone numbers will be included in the program along with instructions on how to phone us. (It depends if you are using a U.S. based phone or calling from a U.K. phone) Should you wish to do the same, there are 2 cell phone shops in St. Andrews, Phones for You and The Carphone Warehouse (both on Market Street). For about $75-$100 you can get a good amount of call time and buy the phone and it only costs 4 pence (like 6 cents) per minute to call the U.S. (compared to the $1.30 per min my cell phone provider will charge if I use my own phone) You will have to wait until you are over there though to arrange this, as they cannot use a credit card over the phone, they have to have the card in hand or cash in hand. **note, if you do nothing else, do not even think about turning on your cell phone over there without first calling your provider prior to leaving so you fully understand the charges you could be facing. Money- otherwise known as British Pounds Sterling(GBP), commonly referred to as “pounds” and written with that cute £ sign. Regarding money, you will want to have some British Pound currency on your person upon arrival to the Fairmont Hotel for porters and I would suggest having £100-£150 to keep on hand for tipping and small purchases. You can check with your bank in advance to get this before leaving the U.S. or else visit one of the ATM machines or money exchange locations at the EDI airport, there are at least 3 ATMS. Currently £1 equals roughly $1.50, so it’s 1.5 times as much for us. You can track the daily exchange rate at www.xe.com. Lanyards & Nametags—You should be receiving your nametags and lanyards this week. Please make sure to wear them at your departing airport so DO NOT PACK your lanyard as you’ll need to be wearing it so other members and the transportation team in Edinburgh Airport can easily identify you. Although the ground transport team will have ASGA signs for you to look for upon your arrival, wearing these lanyards will be a huge asset for our ground transportation team. ( I will have a few extras available at registration for those of you who left early and didn’t have time to receive them) This lanyard will also serve as admission to the British Golf Museum in St. Andrews should you wish to go during any free time. (http://www.britishgolfmuseum.co.uk/) Arrival Day, Saturday, July 31st—The official check-in time at the Fairmont is 3 p.m. I realize that many of you are on early flights and will no doubt get to the Fairmont before then. The Fairmont will be provided with the flight data and will do their very best to try to accommodate early check in. Please realize that this could be several of you and that you may have to wait a little while for your room if you are very early. They will hold your bags for you while you wait. Become familiar with the layout of the hotel, you will be here for 6 nights! Registration will begin at 3 p.m. and run until 6 p.m. You will be instructed once there as to where this will be held. As I will not arrive until later this day, Tom will be on his own so if any of you who have helped at registration before are going to be there early and are ready to lend a hand, please email Tom at golfasga@aol.com . I know he’ll appreciate it. I should get there by 5 p.m. to help as well. Cocktail hour will begin at 7 p.m. with a buffet dinner following at 8 p.m. (for those of you who missed registration, we’ll move the registration table to the cocktail party) Should you have special dietary requirements, please let me now, not right at the event. susan@singlesgolf.com There will be announcements during our welcoming party/dinner. Daily Announcements—I will have the Fairmont provide me with a place where I can post daily announcements and important information that pertain to your next days’ events. (i.e. which bus you are to be on at which time for Carnoustie, Gleneagles, Variety Day, etc) It is imperative for you all to stop and review this each day. I will also post when I will be physically present at this location. Should you have any issues while there, Tom and I will also have a published cell phone number in the program.
General Dress—As I’ve said, please prepare for at least 3 of the 4 seasons—fall, spring and if we’re lucky, summer. The highs lately have been in the upper 60’s with lows in the mid to high 40’s. I just spoke with someone in St. Andrews and it was about 47 degrees, chilly and very windy lately. Check the weather online before your departure. As far as dress for our functions, you will NOT need anything super fancy or very dressy. Casual attire will be fine for all days and you may want to wear something such as business casual attire for the final farewell dinner. Variety Day—If you haven’t done so and want to, please sign up for the Variety Day activities via the link from the email I sent last week. You must sign up by this Friday, 7/23 as I will be gone after this date. If you have any difficulties signing up, please email me at susan@singlesgolf.com. Should you sign up after this date, I will have no way of knowing so you will not be counted. Due to there being a limited number of seats on each bus, we cannot exceed our numbers to each venue. Should you not sign up by this Friday, 7/23, and decide in Scotland that you want to go on a variety day trip, you must get with me by Tuesday Morning, August 3rd.. You will be added to the trip provided there is space. Remember, if you have been informed that you are playing Carnoustie on this day, you will be joining the trip to Glamis Castle after your round of golf. This is also a great day for those of you who want to try to pick up extra golf rounds to do so. You may want to stay in St. Andrews to check out the Castle and Cathedral or the British Golf Museum or you may want to relax and enjoy the 20% discount at the Spa at the Fairmont. This is a free day and a great one to relax and soak in all things Scotland! Register with the U.S. Embassy via this link- https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/ Travel Insurance—It’s not too late to get this and I would highly suggest that you all secure this as a safety precaution. I have been the victim of an accident while on an overseas vacation, so I promise you will be glad that you got this ahead of time should anything happen or you get sick and not be able to go. www.insuremytrip.com Other Useful Links and information— We have a great casual party planned at the East Neuk Fishing Village at Anstruther on Sunday. Details to come in your program. Check out this link-http://www.eastneukwide.co.uk/pic_tour/anstruther/index.html Edinburgh links- http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk/ (The largest Arts Festival in Europe is happening while we are there, called the Fringe Festival---take it all in!) http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/ (***remember the Tattoo is NOT included in your package and is on your own should you choose to attend) Our farewell dinner is slated for Saturday 8/7 at 7 p.m. should you wish to arrange your tickets around this. St. Andrews Links- http://www.standrews.co.uk/ http://www.saint-andrews.co.uk/staindex.html MOST IMPORTANT FOR YOU ALL TO NOTE---TOM WILL BE GONE BY THIS SUNDAY 7/25 AND I WILL BE OUT OF THE OFFICE AFTER MONDAY 7/26 BUT NOT ARRIVING IN SCOTLAND UNTIL THE SAME DAY AS YOU, 7/31—WE WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS TO EMAIL OR BE ABLE TO HANDLE ANY MORE OF YOUR QUESTIONS OR REQUESTS. VARIETY DAY STATS WILL BE COMPILED THIS FRIDAY, SO IF YOU TRY TO SIGN UP AFTER THIS, I WILL NOT GET IT. YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL WE ARE IN SCOTLAND AND THEN WE’LL HAVE TO SEE IF WE CAN FIT YOU IN. IRENE DOESN’T HAVE DETAILS PERTAINING TO SCOTLAND SO PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT HER. I BELIEVE WE HAVE COVERED 99% OF THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO OR KNOW IN ADVANCE HERE AND ON THE WEBSITE, SO SHOULD YOU CHOOSE NOT TO READ THIS IN ITS ENTIRETY AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE TRIP COULD SUFFER. Remember there are 200 of you and all I can do is convey the information the best I know how. It’s up to you what you do with it and ultimately up to you to enjoy yourself. Remember we are in another country and they do things a bit differently than we do, and their English is even tough to understand sometimes. So, be flexible and try to adapt and take it all in, nothing is worth getting worked up about, we can always try to find a solution and you are here to enjoy this wonderful golf trip with 200 single friends you didn’t even know you had!
Thank you all for your attentiveness to all of these matters. It will ensure a much smoother and enjoyable trip for all! Kind regards, Susan www.singlesgolf.com/scotlanddetails www.singlesgolf.com/scotlanditinerary www.singlesgolf.com/scotland Susan Schreck American Singles Golf Association susan@singlesgolf.com 704-889-4600
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