My "Ideal" Golf Trip

My “ultimate golf trip” parameters:
Two weeks, start to finish
Off the beaten path, interacting with true locals
Good, local food and drink
Castles, historical sites
Finding experiences which cannot be replicated elsewhere: not much time in the large cities because large cities, for the most part, are all the same. Sure, there are distinguishing factors that make Paris Paris, and London London, and Chicago Chicago . . . but ultimately, with the shops, restaurants, bustle, traffic, pollution, crime and multi-ethnic populace, Paris is nearer in feel to New York than it is to a small village in the Loire Valley. It is to me, anyway.

One iteration of the plan is to lease a cottage (or, ideally, a restored lighthouse—how cool would THAT be?) and use that as a home base for the entire fortnight (yes, I said ‘fortnight’), making day-trips out. The whole of Scotland is smaller than Oregon, so that seems a reasonable plan. (I think it’s about 45 minutes from Edinburgh on the east coast to Glasgow on the west.) It would make for a couple of long driving days (4-6 hours in the car, play 18 holes, 4-6 hours back . . .) But it has the benefit of not unpacking and repacking every night, which can get old. Especially with a family in tow. If it were just me, I would rent a car, drive where the feeling took me, and crash out for the night wherever I stopped. Somehow, I’m thinking that plan is not going to fly with the little woman.

That’s one of the biggest decisions: get a nice cottage, use it as a home base, and get a sense of being a local, or stopping every night at a different B&B.

My inclination is to split the difference; spend a week in each of two general locales, with a home cottage in each.

Ahhh, but where?

Itinerary

The purpose of this journal is to chronicle my planning for, preparing for, and ultimately taking the “once in a lifetime” trip to play golf abroad. (And to fish. And see castles. And important art and stuff. And eat. And drink.)

This trip was going to be my 30th birthday present to myself. But a few years before that, my first son was born, and we got too busy. So then it was going to be my 35th. Guess what? Second son, second postponement of the trip.

So, now it’s on target to be my 40th birthday. Which is about two and a half years away. There will be no more children (thank you, Dr. Challenger), so right now all systems are a go.

In 2011, Charlie will be 13, Henry not quite eight. Both old enough to “get” the trip, and remember it. But young enough to not, you know, be teenagers. And I’ll still be young enough to be able to walk the hills and dunes of the Scottish and/or Irish coast, day after day. After day.

Of course, this trip was originally going to be the “ultimate golf in Scotland” trip. I was going to hit the big ones: St Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal Troon, et al. Every golfer’s fantasy trip.

But one of the primary motivations behind this trip is to get AWAY from American golf and to try to get back to the roots of golf. Authentic golf. True golf. And the more I read about those courses, and the more I planned my trip, the more I realized that, rather than escaping from overpriced, over-watered, over-crowded American courses, I’d be heading for more of the same. The more I read about the great courses, the more it began to dawn on me that that is not where I am going to find the true golf experience I’m looking for.

So, a couple of years ago, I decided that rather than hitting the ‘big boys’, I’d play the more obscure, lesser-known courses. Courses where I could truly find that authentic Scottish links experience.

Lately, I’ve been torn. A year or more ago, I came across several magazines and books that really pushed the Irish golf experience. The general gist I got from these sources was “if you’ve been looking for that authentic Scottish golf experience, you really should just go to Ireland instead.”

Now, my latest reading indicates that enough people have followed that advice to make Ireland not the hidden golf destination it was even a decade ago. Prices are skyrocketing, business is booming, and the courses that were described in the first editions of “Golf in Ireland” books as “stunning golf, dirt cheap and virtually deserted” are described in later editions as “overrun with American and Japanese tour buses” and “four or five times the price from the last time we played there.”

(Its gone so far as my having recently received this tip: “You want the REAL hidden links treasures . . . go to Wales!”)

So I’m in a quandary. On the horns of a dilemma, if you will.
Which is one of the motivating factors behind this journal. I’m hopeful that it will become interactive, and that you will help me plan and execute my perfect trip.
No pressure on you or anything.