The temperature rose as we travelled to the South Okanagan Valley, BC from Kelowna. While scouting for a golf travel client I love knowing Canada has a true desert. Signs at Fairview Golf Club warn of coyote pups and rattlesnakes. This fine course along with Nk’Mip and Osoyoos Golf Courses offer a different feel of…
Scotch Whisky Experience, Dromoland Castle and the Slieve Donard Hotel. These are all terrific venues to end your magnificent golf trip with friends and/or loved ones. The choice could even be a local pub. Our Verma Cup group chooses to celebrate a fine week of match play competition and laughs in a private room. I…
Skiers across the world dream of visiting Whistler. Even David Beckham loved his visit with family while there recently. Let’s move your thoughts from the white stuff to tee blocks and greens. Whistler also has four world class golf courses. Chateau Whistler (above), Nicklaus North, Whistler Golf Club and Big Sky in nearby Pemberton all…
Scotland still enthralls with its links courses, whisky and people’s obsession with the Old Course. Cabot, Highlands Links and Fox Harb’r in Nova Scotia impress. More people know about the Okanagan Valley, BC than I thought. Ireland makes people smile after seeing our Ballyliffin poster. Few people knew about wonderful golf in Bend and Portland…
It was a privilege to have dinner with David McLay Kidd in his hometown of Bend, Oregon last year. This well known course designer and son of a Scottish Greenkeeper has created fine tests at Bandon Dunes, Tetherow (above), Castle Course and the newer Gamble Sands among others. I found it interesting to hear his…
Tourism Ireland will be visting the Athlone Golf and Sports Booth #2323 from 4-7pm at the Toronto Golf and Travel Show on Friday, February 24th. Please drop by our booth to learn more about links golf in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ballybunion, Lahinch, Royal County Down and Royal Portrush may come first to mind but…
I had been told about the magnificent opening hole at Portstewart Golf Club. After exiting the clubhouse with mini-sandwich in hand I stepped on the square and tiered teeing grounds that were immaculately manicured in Northern Irish precision. This most memorable of holes unfolds below you and the long par 4 veers to the right….
I had a good chat with Darren, the GM of Kananaskis Country Golf Course in Alberta. These two terrific courses were destroyed by the huge flood of 2013 that was the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history http://kananaskisgolf.com. Many golfers were devastated and wondered if they would be resurrected because of the huge costs involved….
Irregular and terrific back to back Par 3’s. How about a short iron and then a monstrous driver into the wind on the back nine at Ballybunion in Ireland? Crail near St Andrews offers you a long and difficult blind shot over gunk before following with a pleasant downhiller and a glistening water back drop….
After indulging in two Guinness (or was it Murphy’s?) in the Royal County Down clubhouse following an epic Verma Cup match, we had somewhere else important to go-a black cab tour of Belfast. As an historian I found touring the Shankill and Falls Road to be eerie and important. The many political murals commemorating both…