Playing Golf in Scotland

I have been fortunate enough to play some golf in Scotland (the Old Course, Carnoustie, Kingsbarns & Elie) and wanted to share some of my thoughts when playing in what I consider to be the greatest golfing country on the planet. Mind you, these are my thoughts and opinions based on my experiences, but I think they would apply to most die hard golfers.

1. Be prepared - When I say be prepared, I mean be prepared for anything. If you make the trip to Scotland and play golf for any extended period, you will experience it all. It will be cold, it will rain, it will be sunny, you won't understand a word you playing partners say, your playing partners will talk non-stop (see Kingsbarns below), there will be no yardage markers, etc. The key is to love the experience and just remember, you are playing golf in Scotland. When I played Carnoustie it rained six times during the round. By the third time, I quit digging out my rain suit and just ignored it. Be prepared.
2. Love the Wind - If you are not a good wind player, or at least relish the challenge when the wind blows, you will not have a very good time in Scotland. Think about it for a second. You are on an Island, that is not very big and is pretty far north when you look at a globe. The wind blows all the time. Sure, there are sunny spells when the weather is in the 70's, but wait 5 minutes, it will change. Learn how to hit som knock down iron shorts before you go, you will be hitting a lot of them.
3. Playing the Old Course at St. Andrews - Once you get over the fact that you just tee'd off on the Old Course and the lump in your throat goes away, you actually have to play golf. The Old Course is not long, there is no water, and the greens are huge. The hard part of the course is the bunkers, the wind and the greens are huge. I had the good fortune to play with a local hotel and oub owner who arranged for me to get on the Old Course and plays the thing probably 25-30 times a year. The best piece of advice he gave me was to play the course down the middle. He didn't mean down the middle of the fairway, but the middle of the course. Most of the holes go out in a straight line and come back on that same line. There is a patch of light, wispy rough that divides the holes. He explained that for the average player, the rough is not that bad, and is much better than being in the bunkers, which happen to be in the middle of the fairways. You will get frustrated to hit good tee shots down the middle of the faiway that take a bad bounce and put you in the pot bunker; you have no shot at the green. If you are going to miss it, miss it towards the middle (left side of the fairway going out and coming in). You will at least be able to get a club on the ball and get it to the green.
4. Skip Kingsbarns - Standing on the tee's the views are magnificent and it looks absolutely beautiful. That being said, I hated the course. I walk when I play golf, and the course was very spread out with very long distances between the greens and the tee's. That is not how golf is supposed to be played in Scotland. Also, I had the misfortune of playing with three Americans. The problem with these guys is that they liked to talk golf as opposed to play it. Kingsbarns in pretty wide open and right out in front of you. But this one guy would walk up to the tee box on every hole and say "So, What have we got here" and would proceed to disect the hole like he was playing the Open Championship. Five minutes later he would proceed to hit a big slice into the rough. Dude, just hit the ball. Anyway, these guys made the round very unejoyable, but nevertheless, the course is way to spread out. Most people like it, but it is not for me.

Anyway, that's my travel tip for the day. Happy Thanksgiving.

Courses I Want to Play or Have Played

I was reading an article this week on the top 10 A.W. Tillinghast courses and number three on the list was Bethpage Black. Ever since I saw the 2002 US Open at Bethpage, I have wanted to play that course. That got me to thinking about my top 10, or maybe just a few more, courses that I want to play at some point in my life. I have been fortunate enough to play some of the courses on my list. The only rule I set in making this list was that the courses on the list had to be courses that I could get on, or at least have a reasonable chance of getting on (i.e., Augusta National is not on the list as there is no chance of me getting on). So here is my list (in no particular order). Obviously, this list is subject to change and what was running through my head on a Saturday morning.

1. The Old Course at St. Andrews - Played in May 2003
2. Pebble Beach Golf Links
3. Bethpage Black
4. Pinehurst #2
5. TPC at Sawgrass
6. Whistling Straits (Straits & Irish courses)
7. Bandon Dunes (Bandon & Pacific Dunes)
8. Carnoustie Golf Links - Played in May 2003
9. Ballybunion (Old Course) - Played in April 2004
10. Congressional Country Club
11. Bulle Rock
12. Couer d'Arlene
13. The K Club
14. Royal Country Down
15. Waterville Golf Links
16. Stockley Park (with my mate Ian) - Played multiple times in 2003

Course Review - Bear Trap Dunes

Course: Bear Trap Dunes (Grizzly & Kodiak)
Date Played: November 5, 2007
Score: 85
Website: www.beartrapdunes.com

First, just wanted to make the overall comment that I love to play golf in the fall. OK, lets get to the review. Bear Trap Dunes is a very nice course and the people are just great. I played with my nine year old son and they set it up so we could play as a twosome. I can't say enough about the staff and how accommodating they were to us. My son played the whole course from the forward tees and counted all his strokes and shot a 123.

On the other hand, Dad played from the blue tees (6,426 yards) and got it around in 85 (42 on the Grizzly and 43 on the Kodiak. The course was in fantastic shape from tee to green. The greens looked a little bit shaggy but they putted very true and were quite slick if you were not paying attention.

The defense on this course is not the length, but rather the wind. If the wind is blowing and you are not hitting it pure, you could be in for a long day. On the day I played, the wind only really came into play on a couple of holes. Most of the holes have lots of natural grasses on the edges of the holes which really frame them nicely. However, most of the tee boxes are placed at an angle to the holes and with the bunkering it makes it a little difficult to always determine the best line for your tee shot. For the first time player, the best way to attack the course is to take the total distance of the hole and subtract 150 yards and then hit whatever club will carry that distance and aim for the barber poll sitting in the middle of the fairway. For example, if the hole measures 367, you need to hit the tee ball 217 yards right at the barber pole. They put these nice little black and white poles in the middle of the fairway and that is what I aimed at most of the time. Sometimes I got a little greedy and hit driver and did I pay for it. It was always better to hit a shorter club off the tee and be right next to the barber pole and have a nice full 8 iron into the green.

I would highly recommend this course to any one visiting the Delware shore for both the condition of the course, layout and the very nice staff. Also, they put a business card with your scorecard that guarantees that you will shoot par. They then go on to offer you a 72 cent draft after your round. Any one willing to sell me a pint for 72 cents is high up on my list.

Very First Post

This is my very first post on my new blog about golf. Getting ready to go away for a long weekend with the family and I am planning on playing Bear Trap Dunes Golf Course (just outside Bethany Beach) (www.beartrapdunes.com). The course has three nines and the head pro told me it was in excellent shape. Really looking forward to the round and will give you my review next week.

Not much else going on in the game of golf at the moment with the season winding down and people putting the clubs away for the winter. Over the next several months I plan on providing reviews of courses and travel tips based on my experiences of playing golfthroughout the world.