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 the next day. Eventually they were located, and it didn’t cost us much time or trouble, but it reinforced one of my cardinal rules of golf-travel: Always keep your clubs close at hand. I’d rather drag them down to the lobby myself than worry where they might be at any moment.

Which got me to thinking about other lessons from the trip just completed. Here are just some of the things I learned over the last week.

Go With The Swing That Got You There. I already wrote that Scotland is not a good place to work on a swing change. (I repeated the line to numerous people, including Scots, and they all agreed.) The conditions are too fickle and we put too many expectations on our games when playing the great courses. So try not to be doing too much tinkering with technique while on the road. That said, do experiment with the low, running shots characteristic of links golf: They’re fun and can find a place in your game when you’re back home.

Stop Worrying About The Weather. The old saw is that if you don’t like the weather in Scotland, give it a minute; it’ll change. And it did for us, numerous times. Still, a good rain suit is almost always a must (we were all very happy with the suits given us by Sun Mountain), and some wind gear, as well. Pack a few cold-weather things, although there are few better places in the world for buying woolen sweaters, knit caps, and the like. I used rain gloves for the first time this trip and was very pleased. However, I never used my umbrella: I kept thinking, “Why bother?”

Don’t Overdo The Equipment. Your normal set of clubs from home should do fine, but if you usually go back and forth between a hybrid and a long iron, the lower-flying iron may prove handy. And don’t bring too many balls, even if they are expensive overseas. With or without a caddy you’ll probably find most of your errant shots, and probably uncover a few pellets lost by previous golfers. (Apologies, but I forgot to mention earlier that we were given some of the new Hex Black balls from Callaway to try. They’re designed to spin less coming off the clubface, a good thing in the constant Scottish winds. They performed well even when I didn’t.)

Speaking Of Caddies… Yes, they are great—funny, helpful, part of the experience. But you can also rent a “trolley” (hand cart—manual or electric-powered) or just throw the bag on your back and hoof it. I had minor knee surgery seven weeks ago and did fine walking, although I did follow every round with a hot shower and ibuprofen.

British Food Is Terrible. Yes, if you’re only doing a comparison of fish-and-chips shops. We ate some absolutely marvelous meals, lots of fresh produce and local meats and fish. Most memorable was our last night when the chef at Mar Hall created a special seven-course meal for us, each dish matched with an exquisite, and interesting, wine. I’m sure one of the other warriors will list the entire menu: All I can say is that it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had anywhere. Great chefs creating original and exciting meals can be found all over Scotland, as well as England, Ireland, and Wales, too. (But do try the fish-and-chips at least once. Maybe a deep-friend Mars bar, too.)

Brits Play Fast. More than 200 years after throwing off the yoke of British rule, it seems we Colonials have finally gotten back at the redcoats: We’ve infected them with slow play. Two or three times we found ourselves behind a group of locals who circumnavigated the greens, took practice swings, stood stock-still over shots, and did absolutely nothing to try to open the gap to the group behind them. And I don’t think they were getting us back for Catherine Zeta-Jones running off with an American. (Yes, I know, she’s Welsh; do you think the Scots are that upset about losing Craig Ferguson?)

The Private Clubs Are Stuffy. The members of Western Gailes could not have been nicer, welcoming us to their wonderful club, teeing it up with us, talking about their course and club, then spending tons of time in the bar afterward. I’ve found that to be true at nearly every other British club I’ve ever visited. But if you think they’re stuffy, at least they let us in: Try arranging a visitor’s round at Winged Foot or Los Angeles CC. But you can play Muirfield and all the other greats; it just takes a little arranging and following their rules. Maybe we’re the stuffy ones.

Links Courses Need To Be Old To Be Good. Machrihanish Dunes and Dundonald Links were terrific tests, fun and challenging, and very different from what we are used to (as well as each other). And both are less than 10 years old. Also on that point, those of us who like links golf can be pretty snobby about it, thinking that if you don’t like the change in scenery and shotmaking you’re not a “real” golfer. That’s unfair. But I strongly suggest that if you do like golf you at least give links-style a try.

Okay. Where’s the next Golf Road Warriors trip???

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 dunes, lighthouse, and brilliant setting along the Firth of Clyde.

So you would think that if a Golf Road Warrior, or any other golfer, were offered the chance to play the Ailsa, he would. But sometimes we have to take one for the team and sit it out. Let me explain.

The weather on Day 4 of our Scotland sojourn was, in a word, horrendous. Howling wind, pelting rain, bitter cold—the trifecta of yuckiness. Especially when one is looking at four or so hours carrying one’s own bag. This was my fourth visit to Turnberry and it seems as if every time I’ve been here, the weather has been awful. (Okay, that’s not really true, but the last time I played Ailsa I was bundled in so many layers I looked like the Michelin man with a baseball cap.)

Plus we’d had a five-hour ride from the Kintyre Peninsula after that crazy late night celebrating the re-opening of The Royal Hotel in Campbeltown. Honestly, as a Golf Road Warrior, sometimes I felt like a reservist. Or maybe 4-F. Battling the elements as well as my faulty swing just wasn’t going to happen. So I passed.

GRWs James Mason and David DeSmith played in the deluge and they are now my heroes. Anita Draycott and I chose to tackle the game in a different way, with a quick lesson in how to play links golf at Turnberry’s Colin Montgomerie Links Golf Academy. Situated next to the lovely clubhouse—which serves both the Ailsa and Kintyre courses—the academy features covered hitting bays as well as classrooms, shop, and TaylorMade Performance Lab for club-fitting. And while the pros there are happy to help fix any part of your game, their specialty is teaching golfers the shots particular to links golf, such as the low punch, bump-and-run, and long putts.

Anita and I spent about an hour with Michael Sweenie, a young Scottish pro who looks a little like Tour player Paul Casey. He started by explaining some of the fundamentals of playing the seaside courses, most of which deal with wind. The basics are to keep the ball low and to take as much spin off it as possible so it doesn’t upshoot or sideshoot, which is when the wind takes over and throws shots every which way. As Michael put it, “links golf is primarily played along the ground,” which means learning to hit it low and long. Straight helps, too.

The basics are fairly simple: 1) ball back in stance (although each person has to find his/her own best position); 2) create a stable base by standing a little wider and leaning the upper body slightly forward; and 3) a shorter, more compact swing. It sounds easy, and when Michael demonstrated, it was. But trying it myself—and worse, seeing the swing on video—proved slightly traumatic.

As I began to get the hang of it, Michael also said that it was likely the same basic tenets would help my full swing. Notably making a shorter, slower, less stressful swing. He was absolutely right (we talked a little about the bigger swing change I’m working on), and occasionally the two lessons nicely overlapped.

I also asked about hitting a lower, more punched driver: Michael said the swing changes are the same but also warned that such a play is very difficult for most golfers, who tend to hit their tee shots with way too much spin. And then we talked about judging the distance on low punch shots: “Yardage goes out the window on 99% of these shots,” he said. “You have to play the course.” In other words, it’s a matter of feel and scoping out the terrain in front of you.

We didn’t talk much about other shots, but I’ve certainly been hitting lots of little bump-and-runs and other low running chips while in Scotland. Again, the tasks are to look closely at the ground that needs to be covered, to choose the right club (usually one with much less loft than what we’d used a home for an air ball), and to make a slow and easy swing. It’s hitting those shots well that I find to be the most fun on a links course.

One shot we didn’t talk about—mostly because the weather conditions were so foul that we didn’t want to leave the warmth of the indoor hitting bay—was the escape from a pot bunker. But I already knew the answer to this one: If you find yourself in one of those nasty little hazards, just get out!

I’ll have the opportunity to try all these shots, and more, over the next two days as the Golf Road Warriors play two terrific links courses. But that’s to come. Right now the only lie I want to hit into has four pillows and a big, fluffy duvet.

For more on Golf Road Warriors Scotland, take a look at the website.

I’d forgotten about the not-so-friendly effects of jet lag when crossing the Atlantic to play golf. Flying to Glasgow from New York isn’t quite long enough to take an Ambien, so the “natural sleep” is only a few hours. One of my fellow warriors suggests the first day in Scotland be spent playing golf, topped off by a little drinking and a big meal, which will be followed by a slumber not unlike death. Good idea if one can manage to play anything resembling real golf right off the plane(s), which as my story from yesterday showed—admittedly impaired by the weather—was not possible. But I appreciate the sympathy.

Let me make two more middle-of-the-night (I think) observations.

First, Scotland is no place to work on a swing change. I recently received a lesson that has me trying to swing both shorter and slower, two alterations that are akin to the efforts North Korea’s Kim Jong Un would have to undertake to win the Nobel Peace Prize. After one successful round in a warm clime last week, I learned that for the time being I need at least a few minutes of pre-round warm-up to “groove” the new and improved motion.

On its best days, Scotland is a tough place to find a driving range. In the wind and cold and swaddled in rain gear and extra sweaters, even practice ranges don’t produce an authentic, normal motion. And on two hours of airplane sleep? Those are my combined excuses for the bad swings yesterday (Day 1). Which isn’t to say I didn’t make a few good ones, which I did and which prove to me that I’m on the right track. But I was reminded, yet again, that the track is a long one.

Second observation regards the Sun Mountain ClubGlider travel cover I brought along. Another fellow warrior, David DeSmith, has sung rhapsodic about the cover—which features a second set of wheels that drop down from the middle of the bag making it incredibly easy to roll around.

I used the bag for the first time to and from California last week and again to Scotland this week. The thing is amazing! Like David, I was able to stuff it with shoes, rain gear, and extra balls (although not, I fear, enough!). But it’s the pair of wheels that extend from the belly of the beast—and I’ve long compared traveling with a golf bag to transporting a dead body—that makes all the difference. Maybe this innovation isn’t quite as earth-shattering as water desalination or the iPhone, but it’s a big deal to golfers. Why did it take so long to discover?

Makes me think there are many other great ideas out there waiting to improve the golfer’s lot. (I’ll restrict my current thinking to that narrow niche; there will be more time for world-peace proposals later in the trip, I’m sure.) The ClubGlider gives me hope for the future of the game.

I just hope it can do something for the future of MY game, too.

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 what we play today. From shepherds using crooks to hit stones into rabbit holes on rolling, wind-swept, sea-shorn turf, golf is as Scottish as the finest single-malt whisky. And just as special.

Just as baseball fans visit Cooperstown and Fenway Park, foodies circum-appetite the globe’s top restaurants, and climbers tackle Everest, golfers make pilgrimages to the great courses of Scotland. Which, I’m happy to say, I’m about to do in a few days.

A handful of writers from The A Position—known collectively as the Golf Road Warriors—will land on the shores of western Scotland in a few days. In little more than a week we’ll play at least seven courses; stay in three hotels; be chauffeured around in a Perry Golf bus; test different golf products; sample way too much whisky; and otherwise partake of Scotland’s greatest gifts.

I’m excited about this trip because it’s to the western side of the country, centering on Campbeltown, a lovely little town near the tip of the Kintyre Peninsula, a slender finger of land tickling Scotland’s left side. Besides joining in the reopening celebration for the Royal Hotel, we’ll be experiencing the wonderful courses and amenities at the Village at Machrihanish Dunes, where the new David McLay Kidd golf course (that’s it above) sits close to the infamous old Tom Morris design. We’ll be all over the Machrihanish metroplex, its clubs and hotels, pubs, distilleries, and grilles, and especially its links.

From the peninsula we’ll take the Kintyre Express ferry across the Firth of Clyde to some other well-known golf venues, including Turnberry, Dundonald Links, Dunaverty, Western Gailes, and Mar Hall Resort. We’ll document it all at the Golf Road Warriors website.

This is not my first visit to that side of Scotland, but that’s another feature of the golf pilgrimage, returning to sites already seen and reacquainting oneself with the game’s traditions and landmarks. In our traditional garb (notably Sun Moutanin rainwear, which, according to the forecast, will get a workout) and shouldering our weapons, we will be like historical re-enactors, marching into battle as golfers have done for centuries on the same soil. Of course we hope to make new history, hitting better shots and recording better scores. But in reality we are there to enjoy these hands-on museums, to enjoy the fact that golf allows us—like no other game—to play where so many have before us.

I hope you’ll tag along.

I wish I’d seen this before The Masters.

Click on this link to Fast Company magazine’s website, to see (and perhaps buy) a very interesting poster that shows how all 18 holes at Augusta National have been changed over the years. As the artist/writer, Bil Younker, shows, there have been numerous alterations to stop the spread of technology from making the course too easy. Of course there are references to equipment and Tiger-proofing, etc. But it’s the side-by-side diagrams, with capsule descriptions, that make the poster worth viewing. And for you nuts out there, purchasing.

The analysis is a little simple, as it’s not for a hard-core golf audience. But as I’ve learned in nearly 30 years in the golf business, anything about Augusta National and The Masters is going to have an audience. Let me know what you think.

Here is a link to an article that appeared on the Yahoo sports site by a friend, Dave Seanor, who used to be the Editor of GolfWeek magazine. He writes in various places and is worth searching out because he says interesting things like this: Even if Tiger Woods does return to past form, the game of golf will not be saved.

I could not agree more. Dave has numerous facts and figures to back up his contention. Let me offer a few more, most of which are somewhat anecdotal.

I remember very well when Tiger turned pro, the “Hello, World” commercial, and the following uproar. To his credit, Woods immediately quieted any negativity with an amazing run of golf in the second half of the 1990s and a good part of the 2000s.

However, as I never tire to pointing out to people who want to talk about the “Tiger Effect,” at almost exactly the same moment that Tiger turned pro in 1996, the game started to slip. And by that I mean participation. There were, as Seanor points out, a few blips of golf activity, particularly among African-Americans. But rounds started to go down, the number of players went down, and the golf industry started a long, painful swirl into a toilet bowl of economic trouble that it is still not out of.

Where Tiger had a huge effect was, of course, on television. Viewership numbers soared, sponsors came a-runnin’, purses went up, and the PGA Tour started minting millionaires who barely recorded any top-10 finishes during a season. Good for them and their pensions, but not good for golf. And certainly not good for the rest of us, the real golfers who keep the game going and—unlike the pros—actually pay for clubs, balls, tee times, cart rentals, shoes, shirts, etc. (As I was just reminded again last week by someone at one of the major equipment manufacturers, tournament success does almost nothing to drive equipment sales. Figure that out!)

But participation? Down, down, and down some more. This year’s PGA Merchandise Show back in January showcased its usual “cautious optimism,” a phrase I’ve been using for so long I should have it tattooed on, as should all the other gearheads breaking their jaws trying to put on a brave face.

I hear that equipment sales are up this year, as are rounds played. I certainly hope so, not only for my benefit as someone who tries to make a living covering the golf world, but for those people who will discover a truly great game.

I hope they are driven to give it a try because of people like Bubba Watson (Masters champion) and Tom Watson (doing TV ads for The Greenbrier Resort). And because condos and second homes are a steal at some phenomenal golf communities and resorts, equipment has never been cheaper and more technologically advanced, courses are (mixed emotions here) making deals to fill up the empty tee sheets, and the game, while not easy, really can be—as Bubba showed—an act of joy and creativity.

And not, as Tiger Woods seems to demonstrate week after sullen week, that it is the outdoor version of going for root canal.

Personally, I’d love it if Tiger won more. He gets me excited to watch because he is an amazing athlete. But will his success translate into a golf resurgence? Ain’t gonna happen.

P.S. For more on Tiger, take a look at my review of Hank Haney’s book, “The Big Miss,” which takes us as close to Tiger as we’re every likely to get. It is eye-opening, but certainly not heart-warming.

I didn’t realize until today that Poulter has his own clothing company, called IJP Design, which sells its extensive collection directly to consumers through the website and lists shops and stores around the world where the wares are stocked.

If you want something a little less flashy, Poulter has created a limited edition putter cover and valuables bag for the Masters. It’s the first of four covers, one for each major championship, and available for $70.

Only 750 of “The First Major” covers (right) are being produced, each with its own signed and numbered silver tag. The graphics are bright and colorful—no surprise given his taste in attire—and include both Ian’s signature and a postal motif, which, I’m told, refers to his nickname of “The Postman.” I’m not quite sure where that nickname comes from, but unless he starts to “deliver” on Tour his detractors are going to accuse him of just “mailing it in.” (After a slow start to the year, his 3^rd-place finish in last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitation should be an indication of better things to come.)

Poulter is also one of the more candid and outspoken of the Tour players on twitter. He is worth following at @ianjamespoulter.

Just about this time last year, I wrote a story coming out of the 2011 PGA Show introducing the new Honors Collection of golf shoes from Allen Edmonds, the largest shoe cobbler in the world with all its shoes made in the USA and requiring 212 steps to produce.

This year, Allen Edmonds unveiled four new golf styles for spring—Medalist (a wingtip), Legend (crocodile-print saddle), First Cut (plain-toe saddle), and Haskell (a cleated blucher with croc-embossed leather)—at $345 a pair. Also announced was a new association with Jack Nicklaus. (An aside: How many pairs of golf shoes do you think Jack has had in his life? It’s not a quiz and I don’t know the answer. But just try to imagine….)

Now while I stand second to none in my appreciation of fine golf shoes, I found myself drawn more to a new line of non-golf footwear called the Clubhouse Collection. The dozen styles are designed to complement the on-course choices, taking over at a wide range of occasions from work to social events. In the Clubhouse are slip-ons, boat shoes, even driving moccasins.

My personal favorite is the McTavish (shown at top), constructed from distressed leather so they have a rough finish that makes them perfect with khakis or jeans ($295). Also somewhat less traditional is the Tampa (left), an unconstructed slip-on ($195). The other Clubhouse shoes similarly maintain that casual, yet composed, nonchalance.

A last word about Allen Edmonds, which actually can apply to any really good pair of shoes. If most of your closet floor is covered in sneakers, flip-flops, and sale items from Payless you owe it to yourself to buy some top-quality footwear. Get yourself properly fit, buy some sole support, and you won’t believe how good your feet will feel. And when your feet feel good…well, you can figure out the rest.

That middle ground is also home for instructional training aids, some with more straps and buckles that a dominatrix’s guestroom. But no matter what one thinks of the products (and over the years I’ve seen many that were just silly), you have to feel compassion toward the creators who sincerely want to help the golf public play better.

Which isn’t to say it’s all hooey. As technology has improved—especially video cameras and computer software—the aids have improved as well. Every golf geek is now overloaded with data and research on the swing and desperately trying to make sense of it all, looking for the holy grail of lasting improvement.

A few days before the show began I attended an outing run by TourEdge Golf, a clubmaker that deserves closer scrutiny for its high-end Exotics line (particularly lightweight woods and hybrids, like the new XCG5, right) and more bargain-priced club lines like Bazooka. For someone new to the game, it’s hard to find a better deal in quality equipment.

Joining TourEdge was a potpourri of golf companies including Sun Mountain (terrific outerwear, carts, and bags—that’s the new superlightweight KG2 bag, bottom), Innovex and Polara balls, SkyGolf (state of the art GPS devices and clubfitting technology called Swing Labs), and Medicus. This last company made a name for itself with training clubs that featured a hinged shaft (below) that “broke” when the swing went off-plane or otherwise fouled up.

From those humble beginnings Medicus has become a big player in golf training and has made a commitment to identifying what makes a good swing. Two of their teachers—and I apologize for not getting their names—presented what they called the five commonalities of great players, five best practices that Medicus will endeavor to promote with training aids.

I’m just reporting what I heard, but it should get all golfers thinking—and practicing.

1) Steady Head. Make that “basically steady,” as the head shouldn’t move more than an inch during the swing.

2) Weight Forward Coming Down. That is, the body’s weight should move to and stay on the front leg in the downswing. How much? 80-95% of the body weight should be over the front leg at impact. There’s also, they say, a direct correlation between weight forward and handicap.

3) Flat Left (Forward) Wrist at Impact. Higher-handicap players tend to break or “flip” their forward wrist toward the target at impact rather than keeping it flat. Think of it this way: The hands should lead the clubhead to and through the ball.

4) The Path of the Sweetspot Is A Diagonal. A little confusing, I know, but this is about swinging on plane and actually thinking of the clubhead moving on a diagonal path, not straight back and through. The only way to bring the sweetspot flush into the ball is from the inside coming down.

5) The Clubface Controls the Ball. This one amazed me as I’d always heard that the first part of a ball’s flight was the result of swing path and then how the ball moved (left, right, straight) was caused by the angle of the clubface at impact. According to the Medicus research, 85% of the ball’s entire flight is due to the clubface angle at impact.

Medicus is selling a simple training aid—it looks like an overly long yardstick—called Vision Track (that’s it in use at the top of the page). It helps fix numbers 4 and 5, which strike me as the most difficult elements to improve because they are the hardest to see. Hence Vision Track. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m certainly intrigued. You may be, too.

Even if you don’t usually get excited about golf towels you will love these because they feature two terrific caricatures based on “Caddyshack”—inarguably the best golf movie and one of the funniest movies ever made.

Created by artist David O’Keefe and made by Devant Sport Towels, the towels actually have names (hey, this is fine art after all): “A Cinderella Story” and “Bushwood—A Tribute to Caddyshack.”

If I have to explain who any of the characters are then you probably shouldn’t buy them. But I’ll bet your golf-loving friends don’t need any explanations.

O’Keefe’s caricatures are as good as any I’ve seen, certainly the best Carl Spackler ever. O’Keefe has done paintings of other movies, as well—including “The Godfather,” “Dirty Harry,” and my favorite, “Animal House”—plus sports figures, TV shows, rock ‘n’ roll, and more. They’re all similarly authentic and hilarious.

Prints, sculptures, t-shirts, even puzzles of O’Keefe’s work are available from his website. That’s also where you’ll find the Caddyshack towels, or at those golf shops lucky enough to carry them. They are 16×25 inches and made with a patented high-definition digital-technology process that creates a sharp, quality image while keeping the towel functional and fluffy. Each one is $24.95.

Sometimes, even for me, a picture is worth 1,000 words. So what are two pictures worth? Priceless. As you can see.