When we are not playing, we talk about the sport - whether Tiger Woods is the best, whether Ernie Els will recover from his injury, who has the best swing, and so on. We also have our wish list of courses we would like to play. Among these are Royal Melbourne in Australia, Pebble Beach in California, Royal Lytham & St. Annes in England, El Saler in Valencia, Spain, and the Nirvana in Bali, but the one that is on all our lists is the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland, the home of golf and the most famous course in the world.

To celebrate my parent's 30th wedding anniversary, my brother and I decided to pay for a family holiday in Scotland, which would combine our two loves - golf and whisky. We had managed to book a round on the Old Course, the most popular of the five 18-hole courses at St Andrews. We were lucky as most people have to book many months in advance, with 50% of slots gong into a daily lottery. We flew to Edinburgh on a Monday morning, hired a car and an hour's drive later, we were at St Andrews. We had booked into the Macdonald Rusacks Hotel, a charming four-star hotel with views over the St Andrews Bay and, more importantly, the 1st and 18th holes of the Old Course.

We would be playing the next day, so we spent the afternoon exploring the village. We walked up Market Street, checking out the quaint little shops and churches. Before the Reformation, the town was the centre of religious life in medieval Scotland, with the bishops wielding great influence over both church and state. We visited St Andrews Castle, once the former Bishops' Palace, which was destroyed during the Reformation. At the ruined castle's visitor centre, we learnt that the castle had witnessed many infamous deeds, including the martyrdom of George Wishart and the murder of Cardinal Beaton.

The next morning, we were up early and ready to tackle the course. As we strode out to the first tee, I had a case of stagefright, thinking of those who had gone before me. Tiger Woods played the entire 2000 Open on this course without landing in a single bunker. I managed to avoid the Swilcan Burn off the first hole, but from then on I pretty much stumbled from bunker to bunker.

One of these was "Hell's Bunker", which faces the fifth teeing ground. This par 5 took me an embarrassing 9 shots. My next big mishap was on the short 11th, which is only 172 yards and one of the most celebrated par 3s in golf. Of course, I hit the bunker there.

Before I realised it, I was at the 17th - the Road Hole, the most famous par 4 in the world. You stand on the tee of this 461-yard dogleg and aim at the ''O'' in course on the Old Course Hotel sign. I made a bogey. Then on to the 18th. There is no greater feeling in golf than standing on the tee and aiming your drive for the clock above the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse.

Then you stride across the Swilcan Bridge, one of the most photographed sites in the world. The little stone bridge, of Roman design, was originally not for the convenience of golfers, but was part of the usual route from town to the harbour. When we had finished, the family reminisced over drinks in the clubhouse. With shameful scorecards all round, we chose to bask in the glory of having “played” the course, whatever our scores.

Later that afternoon, we headed back to Edinburgh, where we checked into a hotel my architect brother had chosen, The Glasshouse. It is the city's most chic hotel, with glass walls extending from the facade of a 19th century church. Inside it is very stylish, with bedside controls to operate curtains covering floor-to-ceiling windows. As an added twist, the hotel is a gallery for 200 female nude photographs by Scottish photographers.

The next day we headed out to the village of Crieff to visit the former Glenturret distillery, now renamed the Famous Grouse Experience. Established in 1775, it is the oldest distillery in Scotland. After a tour of the plant, we sampled the produce. We learnt that you should never drink Scotch with ice or a mixer – only a small bit of water to bring out the taste.

We sat next to an American couple, who told us they had spent the past month visiting many of the country's 100 working distilleries, each producing a unique “single malt''. Over the next two days, we followed their recommendation and headed off to the Inverness area, home to the legendary ‘Loch Ness Monster'. There we visited four distilleries the Americans had recommended.

Our first stop was at Glenfiddich, which produces the most famous single malt whisky in the world. Glenfiddich is the only Highland malt to be distilled, aged and bottled on-premises. After a short film on the history of Scotch whisky, we saw the various phases of production. Our next stop was Glenfarchlas, one of the independently owned distilleries left in the highlands and owned by five generations of the Grant family. It's a bit off the beaten track, but worth a visit.

A tour of the Glenlivet distillery gave us a wonderful insight into the role whisky played in the lives of the people of the area. As long as two hundred years ago, the glen of Livet was home to smugglers who produced such marvellous whisky from the waters of the glen, that aristocrats and Royalty clamoured for their illicit product.

Our final visit was to the home of the single malt favoured by my father, Glenmorangie, the best selling single malt in Scotland. We learnt that the key to the whisky's success was water from a nearby spring, the Tarlogie. The distillery felt so strongly about protecting their access to this water that they have bought all the land around it.

With our holiday over, we did some last-minute shopping before heading for the airport. Laden with boxes of shortbread, tartan scarfs and more than a few bottles of the finest single malts, we headed home. Our visit to Scotland was remarkable, not only for the golf and the whisky, but for the great sense of tradition that pervades everything. The Scots have a remarkable spirit and sense of pride in their country. It is easy to share this enthusiasm.