http://jimgolfrank.com Thu, 17 May 2012 21:52:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ending a trip like the Golf Road Warriors makes me both sad and happy. Sad to be going (with so many courses left to play!) but happy to be heading home. There was a near international incident at the hotel at 630 this morning, Scotland time, when the front desk couldn’t find Anita Draycott’s clubs, which she had left at the pro shop the night before with clear directions to have them ready to go early ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/equipment/3755/parting-words None of us Golf Road Warriors expects any sympathy for the schedule we’ve kept the last few days. Lots of golf and great meals, staying in luxury, and crisscrossing western Scotland in search of more. Poor poor us, indeed. Not to complain, but it was a busy few days. Up early, out late, walking courses in sometimes tough conditions, and then applying liberal doses of food and drink (especially whisky) purely for medicinal purposes. We are ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/3745/a-fitting-ending The list of great courses in Scotland is long: St. Andrews (of course), Muirfield, Carnoustie, Turnberry, Dornoch, North Berwick, Prestwick, etc. etc. Allow me to add two more to any list registering in your head, places you really should play when you are next lucky enough to make it to the home of golf. Dundonald Links and Western Gailes. Much like the Machrihanish/Machrihanish Dunes tandem the Golf Road Warriors played a few days ago (although not ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/3732/day-5-a-winning-daily-double Traveling golfers in Scotland have few worries. Usually someone else is doing the driving, and in our case it’s Angus, the wonderful bus driver from tour operator Perry Golf, who has been our chauffeur the last few days. Very often someone else has arranged all the eating and sleeping arrangements. And as to the golf, experts like Perry Golf—and in our case, the Golf Road Warrior brain trust—pick the courses. So usually all the individuals have ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/3724/slaves-to-the-weather I think that if you asked most Americans who’ve played golf in Scotland to name their favorite course, about 7 out of 10 would say Turnberry. The Ailsa course—where Tom Watson beat Jack Nicklaus in the 1977 British Open, nicknamed the “duel in the sun”; where Greg Norman won his first major championship, in 1986; and where Watson nearly turned back time to win the Open Championship in 2009—is an absolutely magnificent layout, famous for its ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/equipment/3708/day-4-learning-links-golf By opening Machrinhanish Dunes, Southworth Development, an American company, did more than just give the world a terrific new links course; it also gave Scotland’s Kintrye Peninsula—and the town of Campbeltown especially—reason to celebrate. Along with the David McLay Kidd-designed course (that's the 15th green, above), the Village of Machrihanish Dunes includes the restoration of two hotels: the Ugadale (shown below), which is about six miles from town and directly across the street from the 140-year-old ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/3687/day-3-golf-does-good-in-kintyre Beatles fans might remember that the real “long and winding road” is a motorway—the A83—that runs the length of the Kintyre Peninsula. Paul McCartney still has a house in these parts, and it was here that he holed up for a while after John Lennon was murdered. The remoteness makes the area perfectly suited for seclusion. Today, Paul and John’s “winding” was replaced by “windy,” with a brisk and steady 35mph (our conservative estimate) wind making ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/3652/dday-2-the-long-and-windy-road On the Golf Road Warriors site stories are categorized by days: Day 1 of the trip, Day 2, and so on. I propose we make a change for this Scotland adventure, the first of the GRW treks to go international. This posting should be labeled “Day 1-1/2” because it’s way too early in the morning—here in Scotland anyway—to be today and I’m pretty sure I’m done with yesterday. I think. I’d forgotten about the not-so-friendly effects ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/equipment/3628/call-this-grw-day-1-12-2 Among the saddest things a traveling golfer can hear is, “You should have been here last week.” Or in the case of the Golf Road Warriors, yesterday. Too many people told us how nice it was on the Kintyre Peninsula yesterday, a sharp contrast to the cold, wet day we flew into. There was no aerial view of Glasgow until we were touching down at the airport, and the co-pilot/steward of the puddle-jumper that flew us ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/3606/day-1-in-scotland-guess-what-its-raining My first boss in the magazine business hated the word “mecca.” Not the city, necessarily, but using the word to describe a travel destination. Because it was—and is—overused. That said, I don’t know of another term that quite captures why golfers go to Scotland. Even if it isn’t where the game began—the Scots will get heated arguments, with good evidence, from the Dutch, the French, even the Chinese—it is where it became the direct precursor to ... ]]> http://jimgolfrank.com/golf/golf/equipment/3593/a-date-with-history-getting-ready-for-a-scotland-pilgrimage