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Over the last twenty-five years I have played in something like 20-25 golf tournaments a year. That adds up to something close to 500 golf tournaments. The list includes USGA National Championships such as the USGA Mid-Amateur, International Championships including the Irish Amateur Open, State Championships and dozens of local events. It has been a pleasure to play in them all. Still, at some point in time you play in an event that is just something special. Two weeks ago, it was my great honor to do just that. I played in the 100th playing of the Travis Invitational at Garden ...

April in Paris in the rain? Not a happy scenario for visiting golfers. But the elegant Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere, which debuted in 2006 and was the city’s first “palace hotel” to open in 80 years,” may have a solution. Of course, travelers sizing up golf destinations rarely zero in on the City of Light, though there are some lovely parkland spreads on the outskirts of town, notably Chantilly, Fountainbleu and Paris International. For those who want a facsimile experience of the game between jaunts to bistros, museums and nightclubs, Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere, one of the most environmentally conscious hotels in Paris, ...

It is disappointing to look up scramble in the wonderfully researched Historical Dictionary of Golfing Terms and find no mention of the four-player, one-ball competitive format now so prevalent in charity tournaments and corporate outings. At least according to popular memory, scramble golf (originally known by such colorful terms as Miami Scramble or even Hullabaloo) gained popularity in the 1950s and '60s. Golf was enjoying a spike in popularity and country clubs for the middle class were cropping up throughout America's new subdivisions. Behind the pillared facades of the old-line clubs, tradition-bound members disdained the scramble as a mindless romp--even ...

In mid-January of 2010, a group of experts on various components of golf development gathered in Rome to discuss the steps required to devise an effective Italian golf tourism strategy, with particular emphasis on how to attract more foreign visitors to the southernmost parts of the region known as the Mezzogiorno. Historically the poorest part of the country--and a place where even today many inhabitants speak either the language known as Grico, derived from successive waves of Greek-speaking immigrants, from settlers of the city-states of Magna Graecia dating back to the 8th century B.C. to refugees fleeing the Ottoman Turks ...

One nice thing about living in New England is that it is very safe. We have no poisonous snakes, man killing predators, or natural disasters of note. When I play golf in Arizona and read rattlesnake warnings or see anti-bear spray for sale at in the pro-shop in British Columbia it always give me paws (get it?). Heck, we hardly even have to worry about lighting, like they do in Colorado where I was nearly hit playing it at the Broadmoor. Maybe it is exactly because our ecosystem is so tame, full of cows and little mountains, that Yankees have been ...

All you dashing, devil-may-care, don’t-stamp-my-passport-if-you-please travelers out there, how about a trip to Cuba this season? I have just received notice that the Second Annual Montecristo Cup and Esencia Cup will be held April 22 – 24 at Varadero Golf Club, the island’s only 18-hole golf course. The international competition, open to golfers worldwide, is sponsored by Montecristo, one of the most famous Cuban cigar brands. Both professional golfers as well as amateur players with a handicap of 26 or less are welcome. Prizes will be awarded to the winners by Spanish pro golfer Alvaro Quiros. The registration fee is 100 ...

Whisky is not taken lightly in the British Isles: the very word itself is derived from Gaelic and means nothing less than “water of life.” Once you come in from a typical round of typical links golf in typical links golf weather, badly in need of both warming and forgetting, you will understand why. But even on the rare bluebird day, whisky is a good pairing to links golf, and in a pinch, it goes well with parkland or heathland styles as well. It is useful to calm nerves before the round, to keep strength up during, and to celebrate – ...

In a casino, the odds are stacked against you at every single game from blackjack to slots to craps, but believe it or not, there is one sure thing: golf. I love casino golf. In fact, I could very easily make the argument that casinos have been the very best thing to happen to the golf course business in 20 years. Tiger Woods’ popularity has not translated into more people playing golf, but casino popularity has directly translated into more great courses you can play – and often cheaply.  For years the golf course business has been mired in a slowdown, and ...

CALGARY, Alberta — The Bow River in Alberta flows 387 miles in a southeasterly direction from its headwaters at Bow Glacier, north of Lake Louise in Banff National Park. In its upper reaches, the Bow has all the trappings of a classic alpine trout stream: conifer-lined banks, gravelly riffles, sweeping backdrops of vertiginous mountains and a slightly off-color tint that suggests cover for lunkers lurking just below the surface. But appearances can be deceiving. While the upper Bow does hold trout, its icy, glacial-fed waters do not sustain fish in large numbers. As you drive east from Banff, the Canadian Rockies give ...

I can’t help thinking of “Heart of Darkness” as Carlos Castillo, a guide from Costa Maya Lodge, pushes my companion Geoff Roach and me through a tunnel in the mangrove swamps that envelop much of Costa Maya — the inland region of the southern Yucatán stretching from Bahía Espíritu Santo in the north and Belize in the south. The unrelenting sun is momentarily blotted out. Egrets, herons and other birds I can’t quite identify scream hysterically as we negotiate our way around a sunken panga boat blown here from the sea by Hurricane Dean in 2007. Mangrove crabs scuttle above my ...

Among Alaska’s fishing cognoscenti, the Kanektok River has long had a stellar reputation for its seclusion, scenery and angling. Insiders simply refer to the Kanektok as the Chosen. The river flows roughly 100 miles from its source at Pegati Lake, coursing westward between the Kilbuck and Akh lun Mountains and the tundra of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, before meeting the Bering Sea. Fish here include Dolly Varden, Arctic char, all five species of Pacific salmon and leopard rainbow trout, so nicknamed for their fine round spots. There is a reason the Kanektok has remained so spectacular: the only way to ...

It’s not every day that a fourteen handicap sets a course record, but on a trip to Portugal’s warm, sunny Algarve region, I shot the lowest round ever recorded at Jack Nicklaus’s Monte Rei Golf and Country Club.  After I holed a twelve-footer for birdie on the eighteenth green, my record held until my playing partner, a young assistant pro, two-putted a few moments later.  The record dropped from 89 to 73.  It wasn’t exactly Al Geiberger posting 59 in a PGA Tour event (one of golf’s most enduring records), but it was mine—at least until it wasn’t. As a golf journalist ...

When the opportunity for a guy’s weekend presents itself, three things come to my mind:  golf, fishing and my old friend Ken Matsumoto, whose situation allows for short-notice escapes.  When such an opportunity presents itself in the winter months, I set my sights on the southern coast of Oregon, where world-class golf courses, first-rate steelhead rivers, and more clement weather await...more clement, at least, than Portland. We arrived at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort on a Friday night in March in a light rain, but the enthusiasm of the crowd inside McKee’s Pub was hardly dampened.  Listening to fellow linksters recount their ...

There are way too many golf books in the world, and most of them are ridiculous. I don’t think you can learn the swing from a book, and I don’t care what Chi Chi said to Arnie. Half the golf course architecture books out there are self-congratulatory odes to themselves by top designers, and even in my favorite realm, golf travel, most are either useless or so specialized they have too narrow a focus. For the former I give you the perennial top selling Golf Digest Places to Play, which gives you everything you need to know about a course ...

Andros Island can make one rethink some of the attractions conjured up by the phrase “The Bahamas.”  There are no casinos, no high-rise hotels, no Club Meds, and precious little in the way of duty-free shopping. For its devotees, these are precisely the appeals of the Bahamas’ largest yet least developed island, a haven for birds, wild orchids, and most famously, bonefish. The three islands that comprise Andros—North Andros, Mangrove Cay, and South Andros—total 2,300 square miles, and are home to roughly 7,000 full-time residents.  Most dwell in the island’s three villages, Nicholl’s Town, Andros Town, and Congo Town, leaving much ...

Sure you can smoke a 460cc driver off the tee, but do you know the intricate fundamentals of smoking a good cigar? I've had all the golf lessons I could ever want (no, they didn’t help).  But for a primer on choosing the best cigar to enjoy between lousy shots I turned to Bill Shindler, manager of downtown Portland, Oregon’s Rich’s Cigar Store, who has been selling smoke for more than 30 years.  Shindler is the David Leadbetter of cigar smoking, though if you ask him about his golf handicap he’s likely to retort, “You mean other than my temper?” Nattily dressed ...

The economy seems to be improving. Time to break out the bubbly, propose a toast, wish for better days ahead. As you gently pry the cork from the bottle, did you ever wonder how fine French champagne, a magical elixir if ever there was one, acquires its distinctive zest? Put another log on the fire. There’s a story that goes with it. In 1670, a Benedictine monk by the name of Pierre Perignon was appointed cellar-master to the Abbey of Hautvillers near Epernay in the northeast of France. The celebratory destiny of all festive occasions was forever altered by the Dom’s appointments. Perignon, ...

Tiger Woods’ slide from grace was lubricated by hypocrisy.   Right after he turned professional, Woods spent some time with a canny reporter in New York, and the resulting portrait of a wise-cracking, flirty and slightly scatological young man terrified Tiger’s handlers, who then lowered an iron curtain secure enough to have made the Kremlin proud.  No outsider would ever again be allowed into Tiger’s private lair.  When he got married in Barbados, the wedding planners hired every helicopter in the Caribbean to keep the paparazzi away.  A shipyard in Washington state had the audacity to tell potential clients that it ...

Surely it’s more than mere happenstance that the game of golf and the drinkable artwork that is Scotch whisky were both created in the gorgeously green, wind-swept, salty-aired duneslands of Scotland. Although the origins of golf are slightly shrouded in mist, many believe the game was invented as early as the 14th century by fishermen returning from beach to village across rolling links.  If one fisherman hit a stone with a flat stick, surely his friend would have tried to hit another stone even farther.  In the ensuing 700 years, the Royal and Ancient game has collected a few more rules ...

I spoke today to a Roman friend, someone very well connected in Italian political, media and business circles.  Here's what he said regarding the fallout from the Tiger scandal.  In Italy they now love much more Tiger.  He's more famous now than he ever was before.   Every day it was front page for like two weeks.  People, they don't care about golf, now they're talking about Tiger.  And Italians, they don't care about the women--so what?  But nobody in Italy realized how much money Tiger makes!  The top footballer in Italy, he makes five million or ten million--not so impressive.  But Tiger, he's making ...

A few years back, a fishing guide acquaintance of mine led linksters Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara out on Oregon’s Deschutes River for a day of fly fishing.  As my friend recounted this special day on the river, it struck me that many golfers I know fly fish…and vice versa.  Perhaps it’s the outdoor setting, pitting man against natural obstacles (be they finicky trout or gaping bunkers).  Perhaps it’s the similitude of the swinging/casting motion – the fact that the ball/fly goes further when you move smooooooooooothly. No other corner of the world offers the abundance of fly fishing opportunities ...

My eighth book – Fifty More Places To Play Golf Before You Die – came out a month or so back, and as the Christmas season approaches, it’s time to head out on the promotion trail. I find this less distasteful then some writers, perhaps because I come from a marketing/public relations background – and because I’ve come to understand that if I’m not willing to beat the drum, the ring of the cash registers will be very subdued. That, because publishers simply don’t have the resources to promote mid-level books very aggressively. In the five years since my first ...

On June 3rd, 2008, the USGA—and golf in America—finally got the museum they deserve. That’s the day the 15,000-square-foot Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History opened in Far Hills, New Jersey, 45 miles west of midtown Manhattan. Besides nearly doubling the size of the USGA’s exhibition space and the number of items on display, this new gallery changes the way the story of American golf has been told and the ability of golf fans to get up close and personal with the game they love. This new home has been a long time coming. Since the first USGA Museum opened in ...

You must remember this: There’s more to golf in France than chasing a little white ball around. The game as it’s played in Gaul is not a card-and-pencil affair. In fact, it would be criminal to plan a buddy trip to this venerable nation where the five senses, not just the desire to crack a drive or hole a putt, are fully engaged and satisfied. Centuries of refinement have made France what it is today: every life lover’s ideal destination. Ye brethren who embrace golf as a stag affair, hear me: France begs to be discovered and celebrated in the company ...

A scant 15 miles as the crow flies from Harbour Town Golf Links, the low-profile layout on Hilton Head Island where Jack Nicklaus got his feet wet as a designer in 1969, is the sleepy little town of Bluffton, S.C. On its outskirts is a 20,000-acre coastal preserve that extends from the headwaters of the May River to Bull and Daufuskie islands via the Cooper River, the land eventually giving way to the freshwater rice fields of the New River. It is on this land mass, touched by three rivers and thus a sea island in the truest sense, that a ...

In Italy it’s the art of living, rather than making a living, that matters. On one of my first visits to Italy many years ago, before I could understand any Italian, I was served lunch with a group mainly of Romans at a splendid villa on the outskirts of the city. Like educated people around the world, all of these Italians spoke excellent English, and I felt embarrassed by my doltish American monoglottism. Italians also have great manners, so they politely spoke English to include me, and kept the topics simple. Then lunch was served, and an intense debate in rapid ...

Whistler Blackcomb, the alpine skiing venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics, offers the greatest downhill thrills in North America, especially since its “PEAK 2 PEAK” gondola was built to connect the two mountains. With its sprawling alpine bowls, top-of-the-world glaciers and lively pedestrian village at its base, B.C.’s ski goliath, located 90 minutes north of Vancouver, is unmatched for trail variety and international glamour. Here in the East, I have to content myself with “loud powder,” the Yankee euphemism for the icy boilerplate that fastens itself to the slopes in Vermont and New Hampshire at this time of year. Of course, ...

Who would have thought it would be the USGA encouraging us to bring cellphones to the golf course? But they are, and they're offering a pretty good reason: An app for the iPhone and iPod touch that brings the Rules, the Decisions, and the Rules of Amateur Status just a few clicks away. Available from the iPhone store for $3.99, the app gives golfers instant access to the Rules and Decisions, and also allows users to send emails directly to the USGA with questions. (No promises as to how quickly they'll respond.) Plans are to have versions for the BlackBerry and Google ...

While American real estate developers hunker down and try to figure out when if ever their forlorn  industry will revive, the Chinese real estate market is booming, fueled in part by high-end golf communities that celebrate a luxurious life style.  China’s transformation from a predominately rural society with a command economy dominated by state-run heavy industries that produced no consumer goods to a manufacturing economy located in rapidly-growing cities that dominates world commerce is the most astounding and accelerated social transformation the world has ever seen.  China is now the biggest car market in the world, overtaking the US much more ...

Like everyone, I was very moved by the ‘Hope by Haiti Now: A Benefit for Earthquake Relief ’ telethon on Jan. 22, the epic international charity outreach organized by actor George Clooney. Hard to underestimate the power of a determined celebrity. Taking calls for charitable donations was a three-tiered bank of A-list Hollywood celebrities. The performances on sound stages in London, New York and Los Angeles were astonishing, both for the artists’ choices—mostly ballads and gospel—and for their emotional depth. Stevie Wonder’s version of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ absolutely blew me away. So did Haiti itself when I visited 30 ...

What is the sound of a paradigm shifting? To Matt Nadeau of Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville, Vermont, it sounds like a rising collective voice that gives Power to the People in the struggle against Corporate America. And if that sounds a little like an editorial cartoon, it’s only because the situation Nadeau found himself in last September was cartoonish, in a noir sort of way. That was the day he received a cease-and-desist letter from the Hansen Natural Corporation, makers of Monster energy drinks, telling him to stop brewing one of his beers, a whopper of a barleywine named Vermonster. Nadeau’s first ...

Orlando, Fla.  – The Tavistock Group just announced marquee golfers Mark O'Meara and Ernie Els will return to captain next week'sTavistock Cup, a unique interclub competition pitting the golf professional members of Isleworth Golf & Country Club against their counterparts at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club.   The seventh edition of the annual two-day team event will be contested at Isleworth Golf & Country Club on March 22-23. Isleworth and Lake Nona have been doing battle since 2004, the year the officially sanctioned PGA Tour event debuted at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club. Since the tournament began, O’Meara and Els have ...

I can't say that I find the task of beginning a weekly beer journal a particular daunting task; unless sick, asleep, or flying through confusing time zones, I drink at least a beer everyday, and if it's one I haven't had before so much the better, because I love trying unfamiliar beers. And that's the simple premise of this ongoing beer tasting and journal--notes on some of the brews that weave through my weekly routine, as I write about beer for this website and other outlets, as I simply get through life from my home in southern Vermont, or while I'm ...

Drinking a pilsner in the dead of a Vermont winter isn’t the most seasonally targeted drinking I could be doing; strong dark ales are better suited to the long dark nights of the colder months. But I was actually returning from the PGA Show in Orlando, where it was shorts weather for a few days; driving back from the airport, I stopped for gas in Northampton, Massachusetts, not far from the Table & Vine selections at the Big Y supermarket there, and the sirens called: As Lagunitas isn’t distributed in Vermont, I picked up a few bottles from the Petaluma brewery.  (The ...

I don’t usually read Golf Digest but today I went to their website to try to look at their rankings of the best courses in the world. Woops, they don’t have one. Golf Magazine’s Top 100 lists are the industry’s standard, and while I often disagree with individual ratings, and anyone who looks at the lists will think “this course does not belong or that one should be higher,” Golf nonetheless has become the de facto authority for making the claim that a particular course is ranked 12th in the world, or 27th best public, or the best in Kentucky, or whatever. ...

Well, maybe a pilsner is a good wintry choice, after all.  I know the Pinkus Ur Pils was my favorite at a tasting Saturday night at the Forty Putney Road bed and breakfast in Brattleboro. Tim and Amy Brady hold the tastings every Saturday evening in the cozy pub of their 12-guest B&B, where they usually have two beers on tap and others in bottles.  Since most guests are from out of town, the couple rightly emphasizes Vermont beers, but they’re more concerned with serving up seven different styles for a one-hour crash course in beer diversity. The thirty-something young couple left ...

Ranked right after Anchor in my personal Beer Hall of Fame is the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company of Chico, California.  Founder Ken Grossman has been doing it right for three decades now, and the company is marking its 30th anniversary this year with an exciting project--four special brews with four men who helped make the craft beer movement what it is today. The first will be with Fritz Maytag of Anchor, a Pioneers Stout to be released in mid-March.  The second will be in cahoots with Fred Eckhardt (in the running as the longest-practicing beer writer) and Charlie Papazian (whose writing ...

My brother and sister-in-law came up from Long Island for our annual belated Christmas, which also segued into a premature celebration of my birthday. Good gift news for me, since Kip had selected a bunch of bomber bottles to savor, most of which I’ve not had before and will probably be writing about here soon. I have had the Delirium Tremens (the beer), surely one of the bravest beer names out there. (Although still falling short of my all-time favorite, a barleywine called I’ll Have What the Gentleman on the Floor Is Having.) The Belgian brewery took the name a step further ...

Back to Sierra Nevada already? Well, as I pointed out in my TAP Beer of the Week 2 entry, this pioneering microbrewery hasn’t really made a false step in three decades of brewing.  About the worst the company can be accused of (and that with questionable accuracy) is playing it safe, gradually expanding its reach without greatly extending its basic product line. Even that feeble barb is now out the window, as one new beer after another is pouring out of Chico.  (Cascading is probably a better word, since SN did much to popularize the use of the Cascade hop in ...

If you’ve been to St. Andrews, Scotland, there’s a good chance you’ve been to The Jigger Inn, the famous pub next to the Old Course Hotel. If not, you’ve missed a true taste of the “Auld Grey Toon.” Now the toon—er, town—and the Inn, which still inhabits its original 1850 building, are offering a new taste, the eponymous Jigger Ale, which will only be sold on premises. The beverage was created by Belhaven Brewery, the oldest independent brewery in Scotland, founded in 1719. Already makers of something called St. Andrews Ale, Belhaven actually is located in Dunbar, across the Firth of ...

Think Thai beer, and my one and only thought once turned to Singha, a sturdy pale lager produced by the Boon Rawd Brewery in Bangkok since 1933, and usually battling it out with Kirin or Tsingtao in American Thai restaurants. Singha’s rival, Chang, had flown completely under my radar since being introduced in the U.S. in late 2007. I didn’t know it existed, much less that it was available. Then I went to Thailand. Back in the home country the two beers battle it out with each other. Singha usually scores on style and tradition points, but Chang outpaces it for value ...

I should have cracked this one open last week for Valentine’s Day to go along with the rest of the chocolate suddenly floating around the house, since stout and chocolate are usually an inspired pairing. No matter, with a passel of snow predicted for the week ahead this may be just the fortification needed. It’s the penultimate bottle of the birthday beers my brother picked out for me, from an eight-year-old brewery in rural western New York that is growing in size and influence. Southern Tier produces five year-round beers and a raft of seasonals and special bottlings--I counted thirty in ...

I’m going to fill up a figurative 12-pack in the three months to come, spotlighting a few of the beers--or at least a few of the breweries--that will be represented on May 22 at the Brattleboro Brewers Festival. Brattleboro is a vibrant southern Vermont town, well-known for lively weekends like the Strolling of the Heifers in early June and the Brattleboro Literary Festival in early October. So while this is the first beer festival in town, it will surely not be the last. (Actually, an all-organic beer festival may be in the works for later this year.) Brattleboro is a great beer ...

There’s still snow on the ground here in Vermont, and Wednesday is St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s still time to be drinking dark, stout-like beers, even if they may not be on the top of the pour list at the Brattleboro Brewers Festival. This, our third beer in a 12-pack aimed at previewing the brewers at the May 22 festival, comes from the North Coast Brewing Company in Fort Bragg, California, which began brewing in 1988 and has just been solidifying its reputation year after year, beer after beer--from its Red Seal Ale, Old No. 38 Stout, Brother Thelonius Abbey-style Ale, ...

The history of Barbados and the production of fine rum are indelibly tied together. Some history books suggest that rum is the oldest distilled spirit in the world, and that Barbados is the birthplace. Explorers to the new world are said to have returned with bottles of rum as proof that they actually discovered something ‘new’.               As a rum enthusiast, what we found was several brands of incomparable taste and quality.  And we found an interesting mix of old world techniques and new age technology. Our favorites currently reside in our liquor cabinet…. front row! We took home two specific ...

Sir Charles Williams was disgusted. He was attending the final of the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup and was dismayed to see that not a single player in the final hailed from England. To Sir Charles, an accomplished polo player in his own right, this was simply unacceptable. And thus in 2006 the brainchild of the Apes Hill Club Barbados polo team was born.               By 2008, the Apes Hill Club Barbados team, with all-English players, prevailed in overtime at the prestigious Vivari Queen’s Cup and the team was honored to receive the trophy from Her Majesty The Queen.                The success ...

One of the economic realties of the now passing recession is that the last cycle could be aptly described as the Tiffany/Coach era; the era of consumer discretionary spending on luxury goods. Golf’s symbol of the Tiffany/Coach era is membership in a country club. It is hard to argue the point that as a purely economic construction, private membership versus public golf is a pretty poor deal. The number of private clubs today is approximately the same as it was in The Great Depression. The difference is clear that at that time in history, those wishing to enjoy a premium ...

As mentioned last week, we’re filling up a fantasy 12-pack of beers from brewers who will be represented at the May 22 Brattleboro Brewers Festival. This, our second beer, will be poured at the festival, although I’ve been pouring it quite a bit lately anyway, ever since Victory began distributing here in Vermont in late December. The brewery has been operating since 1996, although the genesis goes way back to when co-founders and owners Ron Barchet and Bill Covaleski met on a school bus in fifth grade. They’ve had a good ride ever since. That Golden Monkey did not crack the top ...

I did a tasting awhile back I called “Dr. Strangebrew, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bombers,” the latter reference to the large bottles, often corked with wire closures, being used for the special creations flowing forth from the nation’s craft breweries these days. There are more and more of them, because the world of brewing has become one of wild experimentation, and my tasting was one attempt to satisfy thirsty curiosity.  The Strangebrew part was to cover the angle of beers with stuff in ‘em, be the extra ingredients fruit, herbs, flavors from wood barrel aging, ...

Will Ray McNeill play the cello at the May 22 Brattleboro Brewers Festival? With Ray, you never quite know. He’s a classically-trained cellist, but given to wearing t-shirts emblazoned with his motto, “Beer is the reason I get up each afternoon.” Ray, his pub, his beers, are all indispensable institutions in Brattleboro, Vermont, all trailing colorful histories. The pub is a no nonsense, funky and unpretentious hall usually replete with students and a noisy mixed crowd reveling at long tables or kibitzing by the dart boards. Ray has owned the bar for over 20 years now, from its first incarnation as ...

At the prestigious Main Line Philadelphia club Aronomink, a $12.5 million project was undertaken and completed some five years ago. It was paid for using a 15-year mortgage that will continue to be funded with add-ons to each member’s monthly bill during that period. That’s a departure from the more traditional lump-sum assessment imposed by clubs. “Our feeling was that the “future people” should pay for it,” said Aromomink club manager Michael Higgins, “since they are the ones who will get the long-term benefit.” Even once the project was a definite go, some members in Aronomink’s senior-male demographic questioned the need ...

After acquiring the luxurious Kiawah Island, S.C., resort community in 1988, Kiawah Partners chairman/CEO Buddy Darby has seen his fair share of economic downturns. If first quarter real estate sales are any indication, however, it appears that Darby’s 10,000-acre barrier island has bounced back from perhaps the biggest recession of them all.  Indeed, through the end of March, Kiawah Island Real Estate recorded $61.5 million dollars in residential sales, a 59 percent increase over the first quarter of 2009. The strong first-quarter earnings were fueled by $39.5 million in vacation home sales in March, which exceeded the total sales volume for ...

It’s the end of December and everyone else is doing it, so why not me? And given that there are only a few days left in the year and I’m at home in Manhattan and unlikely to be taking the clubs out for a few months at best, it’s unlikely I’ll be adding to my course list for 2009. So here are my most memorable courses of the year, plus a few great moments, as well. Top Not-Quite-Finished Course: Old Macdonald. Runner-up: Lough Erne We will hear much more about Old Macdonald (above), the fourth course at Bandon Dunes in Oregon, ...

Remember the old New York joke? “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice, practice, practice.” Same with golf. For consistently low scores. it’s all about honing the short game. One of the sad facts of life is that you can’t always get to a driving range or a short game practice facility at the drop of a hat. For example, you’re walled up in a hotel room. Or it’s pouring rain outside. And yet you have a burning, all-consuming desire to take a take a nice smooth swing and feel the kiss of impact. The normal outlets are not available. Your only option ...

Regardless of your political views or affiliation, if you are a golfer or love the game, it is painful to see the attacks on President Obama simply for the fact that he plays golf.  Everyone needs recreation, especially someone in the super pressure-cooked environment that is the Presidency.  When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele lambasted the President for playing golf, it hurt me as a golfer.  Democrats have done the same previously.  To me it’s partisan sniping as usual. While the damage and anger of the BP oil spill is spreading, President Obama was seen playing golf at Andrews Air ...

On previous trips to Northern Ireland – and indeed all over the world – I have had a tendency to skip anything resembling sightseeing for golf, golf, and more golf. I forget how many times I have played 36 every day of my trip, and my personal best is ten straight days of double loops. Stop the madness! So on this, my fourth trip to Northern Ireland, I finally decided to forgo some golf (sorry Ardglass, my favorite hidden gem on earth!) and see the country’s most famed sight, the Giant’s Causeway. And since it is also very popular and quite nearby, ...

Spain’s economy is in a death-spiral, with unemployment approaching 50% for people under 30 and holding at nearly 20% overall.   As Spain’s frothy real estate market subsided, its golf industry crumpled with the grace of a train derailment.   So I was a little surprised when I received a letter from a Spanish colleague telling me that a small town in Catalonia was looking into developing a golf course as a part of its new mayor’s strategy to diversify the local economy.  The town of Ascó lies along the Ebro River about sixty miles west of Tarragona, where the Ebro delta spills ...

Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione will not likely be at the Brattleboro Brewers Festival on May 22, although you never know; he’s originally from Greenfield, Massachusetts, just down the road a piece, and returned to these parts to pick up some maple syrup for the collaborative brew with Sierra Nevada, Life and Limb, which was our TAP Beer of the Week 2. I then referred to Dogfish Head as the east coast star of innovative brewing, and it wouldn’t be far wrong to call Calagione the rock star of craft brewing, such has been his impact and influence on the industry. ...

Which car should I buy? What movie should I check out? Where should I go for vacation? These are all questions impossible for anyone other than you to really answer. There are so many possible choices, so many potential outcomes, so many variables. What’s your budget? What mood are you in? What have you seen, what do you like, where have you been? Helping someone select a bottle of wine is the same. When I worked as a sommelier and then later in retail, and customers asked for assistance, I hated that I needed to ask a string of follow up questions ...

The Isles of Shoals is a collection of small islands a few miles off the coast of New Hampshire. Smuttynose is one (actually in Maine), Star Island another, that one belonging to the Granite State. Well, actually, it belongs to the non-profit Star Island Corporation, which maintains it as a retreat for religious and educational conferences. Smuttynose has a bit livelier aura, reportedly where Blackbeard honeymooned, and certainly where two women were killed in 1873 in a notorious case that has spawned a number of books. One, a novel by Anita Shreve titled The Weight of Water, was made into a ...

We're getting ready to check out of the Inn at the Park in Spokane and heading to Coeur d'Alene in an hour or so. My 6-year-olds have already been a handful, getting restless in the car and going at each other several times. Michael has a scratch on his nose from where Steven got him with one of his fingernails. It's pretty calm right now, but they'll be fighting again soon, probably over who gets to play the Shrek game on my cell phone. I paid $6.99 for that app last night, thinking it would be worth it to keep them ...

Wide awake in St. Andrews, the home of golf, jet-lagged and probably a bit too much Jigger Ale. Also, the sun comes out very early at this time of year. All of which means my mind is racing rather than resting. And what am I thinking about? The language of golf. Like all sports, golf has its own vocabulary, words and terms that we practitioners use to describe the game and identify ourselves to fellow travelers. But I'm not thinking about that. What is keeping me up are golf phrases that have worked their way into English and are commonly used ...

Often you’ve gasped at a Tiger Woods golf shot, but a visit to his residential enclave, Isleworth, would be no less jaw-dropping. The complex is so posh that when Sotheby’s installed an exhibit of sculpture masterpieces (by Auguste Rodin, Salvador Dali and others) along Isleworth’s thoroughfares, a visitor’s eyes still swerved to scope out the next mansion. Woods, Mark O’Meara and Isleworth’s other resident stars were a happy group once their golf course reopened in 2003. A complete Steve Smyers renovation of the original Palmer-Seay layout set in surprisingly brawny terrain along Lake Butler has given the local sticks all they ...

Though hard ciders are processed more like wine than beer (apples being pressed to juice, then fermented and cold-filtered), they’re often side by side the beer tap handles in bars. There’s rarely a pub in the United Kingdom that doesn’t have at least one on tap, and probably more. There’s no question that after a long night in the pub a cider can really slice through that wooly mouth sensation, not that that would necessarily be a big marketing point for cider makers. They’re largely content to stand on the cider’s virtue’s alone, and ciders will definitely have a presence at ...

The 8th Green at Jacks Point, Queenstown, New Zealand Don’t you just hate some of those network-marketing pitches that promise you the moon, but just provide over-priced products and disappoint your time and bank account, not to mention putting off your friends?  Or have you sat through a meeting at a friend's house only to feel pressured and uncomfortable? I have.   I’ve tried about a half dozen and turned down at least a dozen more.  I did OK with a few and started to fly with another, only for the Company to implode in bankruptcy due to hyper growth and mismanagement.  ...

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of playing the Long Island Amateur Championship at the famous Inwood Country Club. I say famous, because as most people who have some sense of golf history are aware, Inwood was the site of the 1923 U.S. Open Championship which was won by Bobby Jones. The tournament was highlighted by Jones famous 2 iron shot over the water to the 18th green during an 18-hole playoff against Scottish pro Bobby Cruickshank. The shot is memorialized by an obelisk-like plaque that sits in the right rough on the 18th-hole, teasing players that are playing ...

Did you know that a relatively new Northern California Winery has had their wine poured for the contestants at the Augusta National Golf Club during The Masters?  Did you know that several PGA Tour players, also wine aficionados, have traveled to this remote Napa, California winery to sample and buy its five wines?  Did you know that one of the partners of this Winery absolutely loves golf and is now conducting wine tastings for the members of some of America’s most exclusive golf clubs?  With an inspiring, heartwarming background, the Jocelyn Lonen Winery may be one of Napa’s best-kept secrets.  ...