During my last trip to Scotland, we played a number of the British Open courses during our 2 weeks there. However when we were on the west couse of Scotland near Turnberry we played 3 courses that had been British Open qualifying courses for the Open which was played a few weeks earlier. These courses were great and in many cases better than the more famous versions.
The cost was about 20% of the St. Andrews, Troon, etc. and caddy fees were a bit lower as well. When you showed up to play, we had prior reservations, the club secretary met you and showed you the club, telling you a little about it's history and any famous golfers that came from it. You were assigned a guest locker and given run of the club. The courses were well maintained and the caddies much better than the crew at St. Andrews, we were able to play 36 holes if we desired and the caddies were glad to loop another round for us. I learned that there are many hidden gems in Scotland on this trip and next time I won't miss many of them.