“Value For Money” is a subjective matter.  Wealth determines individual spending and individual circumstances also influence value judgements.  Playing in Scotland on a “once in a lifetime” holiday is going to have a much bigger green fee budget, compared to a regular weekend peripatetic golfer.  My assessment is an opinion based on playing each course, and as such the reader can judge for themselves if they agree, but at least it provides a non marketing view.

Overall Value – This is a measure, out of 5, of the combination of history, quality and price, to give an overall single assessment and is the primary score produced.

There are a number of other categories tagged for each course:

Course Quality – A subjective assessment of the course, out of 5, based on a range of factors, including Design and Greenkeeping standard (tees, fairways, bunkers and greens)

Region – This is based on the 13 regions defined and used by the Scottish Government Tourist board

Course Type – The predominant type of course, namely links, parkland, heathland, etc.  Where there are 2 types on the same course, the predominant one is used.

Price – The midweek price for an adult single summer round, grouped in a number of price bands

Architect – This is the predominant architect influencing the current design, or a historically renowned architect that readers may wish to know

Holes – the number of holes, normally 9 or 18

Course Owned By – Who owns the course, public, private members, commercial, etc.  This can be used to gauge the accessibility of the course, but not always as some of the public courses, such as St Andrews Old Course and Carnoustie, are in high demand.  Note, in Scotland, several of the public owned courses, can be in as good condition, if not better, than private “member owned” clubs.

When Course Established – This is when the course was first established, and can be used to quickly assess the likely historical importance of the course.  Note this can be different from the age of the club.