Barbados garners reputation as golf destination
Eyeing our golf bags, Leonard, who had picked us up at the airport, asked, “So you’re golfers?”
“Yep. That’s what we’re here for. You?”
“No way. But did you know Tiger was married here? Sandy Lane. Took over the whole place.”
And we all know how that turned out, I thought.
“Get a lot of golfers?” I asked.
“Sure.”
No surprise. Barbados, the eastern-most island in the Caribbean chain, is perhaps better known for its rum. George Washington, who visited Barbados before becoming president, liked it so much that he served a barrel of it at his inauguration.
But Barbados also has garnered a well-earned reputation as a destination for serious golfers. Most of the courses stretch along the gentler western shores, or “Gold Coast.”
Setting the bar high is Sandy Lane Resort – think Four Seasons and rev it up several notches. It’s a fusion of creamy perfection, columns, marble, coral-tinged arches, gardens and a stunning spa, with rooms priced from $1,400 to $9,000 per night during the high season.
Sandy Lane has three golf courses. The Old Nine is like comfort food, easy on the eyes, with the turquoise sea combining with wild ...
Indomitable Ireland
DUNSANY, COUNTY MEATH, Ireland – In the lead-up to the 2011 Solheim Cup, there undoubtedly will be some chirping about how wonderful it would be if one of the great Irish links – Royal County Down, say, or Portmarnock – were to host the event. Instead, the U.S. and European teams will meet at Killeen Castle, a fine, if unabashedly American-style, property.
Killeen Castle, however, might just be the ideal Irish showcase, and for reasons that Yeats, who was born not far from here, probably would appreciate. For just as Yeats neatly captured the Irish experience in those 17 words – the ironic wit, the sense of foreboding – so too does Killeen Castle concisely embody the story of its country.
The castle around which Jack Nicklaus built the Solheim Cup course dates to the Norman Era, and in the 19th century it was refashioned in the image of a miniature Windsor Castle. In 1981, the castle was torched and left in disrepair by a band of drunken IRA dunces who apparently mistook it for their intended target, nearby Dunsany Castle. With the Celtic Tiger in full roar several years ago, plans were hatched to turn the 600-acre estate into a golf resort by ...
Check in
When you spend half the year on the road as I do, you pay attention to where you stay. Small touches can make a huge difference in how you feel, how (and whether) you sleep and how much you look forward to playing golf.
Just as a fine golf course conveys a distinct sense of style and place, an interesting hotel makes you feel as if where you are spending a day – or night – is special. It doesn’t have to be expensive. The issue here isn’t luxury; it’s sensibility, aesthetics and a certain whimsical form.
I crave older inns and hotels, even if it means putting up with some quirkiness. So here’s an idiosyncratic, not systematic, survey of my favorite boutique-y hotels – overnight accommodations that make a day or two in the field worth anticipating.
Heathman Hotel
- Portland, Ore.
- Courses: Pumpkin Ridge (Ghost Creek); Langdon Farms
- Fifteen years ago, I fell in love with this 150-room hotel the second I walked into its Art Deco lobby. Actually, I was impressed before I walked in the front door. When I pulled up in a rental car and broke the key trying to open the trunk, the bellman ...
The Golden Boys
SEATTLE – Sometimes you compromise your commitments.
The four of us were Cal grads, the class of 1963, notable that we were not the anarchists you might have imagined, but instead the laughable legacy of the longest-suffering class in the school’s history.
Cal went to the Rose Bowl when we were seniors in high school and Eisenhower was president. It hasn’t been back since. We’ve committed to getting together when and if the Bears make it, but in the meantime won’t let incompetence stand in the way of good golf. And haven’t.
We’ve played golf together for 45 years, twice in Ireland, and all over the West, the Okanagan in Canada, the Oregon coast, the valley and foothills of California.
To my buddies, who still live in the Bay Area, it seemed natural to gather in Seattle last December for Cal’s season-ending game at Washington. Cal, as usual, had high hopes.
My classmates, however, don’t understand a Northwest winter of endless dripping days. I live there.
Abandon the Bears, I thought. They’ve abandoned us. Instead, I implored them to come on up the week of Washington’s season opener against LSU, when ...
Above the border
LA MALBAIE, CHARLEVOIX, Quebec – The golf clubhouse at the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu sits nearly a mile above the hotel, on a bluff overlooking the St. Lawrence River. At first blush, this might seem like a logistical headache: Golfers exit the hotel, which sits on the western bank of the river, hop in a cart and spend the next several minutes heading skyward toward the first tee of the St. Laurent nine.
“That has by far the most challenging transportation element, but it gets the best feedback,” says Justin Wood, executive director of golf and retail operations for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.
It’s easy to see why. The winding ascent serves as an appetizer for what’s to come, as guests enjoy the stunning long views of the river before reaching the clubhouse. The vistas drew an audible gasp from my playing partner on our initial ascent.
The mighty St. Lawrence River defines not just the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu, but the entire region, as it flows through the heart of Quebec. Thanks to some rather clever routing, it is omnipresent on Le Manoir Richelieu’s 27 holes, making the experience all the more pleasant.
The golf course, located about ...
Kohler prepares for 10th annual food festival
KOHLER, Wis. – A number of celebrity chefs will be on hand Oct. 21-24 for the 10th annual Kohler Food & Wine Experience.
The list of food and wine experts who will be presenting at the festival include:
• Anne Burrell, host of Food Network’s “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef” and “Worst Cooks in America”;
• Sara Moulton, host of Food Network’s “Cooking Live” and “Sara’s Secrets,” and food editor for ABC’s “Good Morning America”;
• Graham Elliot, owner of Graham Elliot Restaurant in Chicago and a judge on Fox’s “MasterChef”;
• Aida Mollenkamp, host of Food Network’s “Ask Aida”; and
• Marc Mondavi, co-owner of Charles Krug Winery and third-generation member of the famous Napa Valley winemaking family.
The festival’s signature events include Taste of the Vine on Oct. 22 at the Kohler Design Center and Feast of the Talent Oct. 23 at The American Club. For the latter event, the celebrity chefs wlll choose the menu courses and dine with guests.
Tickets start at $20 and tastings are complimentary. There are additional fees for some of the weekend’s special events, such as the Kohler Chefs’ Challenge ($20), the Grand Wine Tastings ($25), the Majors Dinner at Whistling ...
Finding religion
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Patrick Michael Mulligan – retired cop, career civil servant, defender of the public – stood in the middle of the bar that bears his name, an unopened, 16-ounce can of Miller Lite protruding, magically, from his forehead at a 90-degree angle, like a unicorn’s horn.
Mulligan, a cannonball of a man, smiled, apparently delighting in the awe this trick inspired in first-time visitors.
Then Mulligan removed the beer from his forehead and raised his arms, like a priest welcoming the flock to Mass.
“Boys and girls, girls and boys,” Mulligan announced. “Welcome home!”
Mulligan’s feels like home, even if the owners, Pat and Sue Mulligan, are themselves relatively new to South Bend. Pat used to come to South Bend for every home football game. Finally, last year, he and Sue cashed out early, moved here from St. Petersburg, Fla., and opened Mulligan’s Bar and Grill, a block from the Notre Dame campus, a month before the 2009 football season.
Their reason: “This place is heaven on earth,” Pat said.
That’s not a hackneyed line; Pat Mulligan’s love for Notre Dame is almost spiritual. Every night he visits Knute Rockne’s grave, he prays, pockets ...
A vision for Vietnam
They have a vision.
Two resorts, two courses and a tourism operator have launched a private tourism consortium – called Vietnam Golf Coast – to compete with southeast Asia’s top golf-and-beach destinations.
For years, Vietnam’s central coast was forgotten as the country gave rise to more than 20 golf courses, mostly concentrated to the north in Hanoi and the south near Ho Chi Minh City. That changed last year when semi-private Montgomerie Links – reminiscent of Colin Montgomerie’s native Scotland – opened in Quang Nam.
“In our first year of operation, we have seen a large, diverse demographic ranging from European Scandinavian tourists, down to Australia and across to North America with a great desire from the local Vietnamese market to learn and participate in the game,” said Jon Tomlinson, general director of the 7,090-yard Montgomerie Links.
While the common consensus among industry professionals say Vietnam’s north and south golf markets are robust, the geography is a hindrance. At best, Hanoi’s top courses are about an hour outside the city and the better hotels.
The planners behind Vietnam Golf Coast say they offer the advantage of convenience: All golf is five minutes away from hotels and 15 minutes ...
Golf beckons on Vietnam’s central coast
They have a vision.
Two resorts, two courses and a tourism operator have launched a private tourism consortium – called Vietnam Golf Coast – to compete with southeast Asia’s top golf-and-beach destinations.
For years, Vietnam’s central coast was forgotten as the country gave rise to more than 20 golf courses, mostly concentrated to the north in Hanoi and the south near Ho Chi Minh City. That changed last year when semi-private Montgomerie Links – reminiscent of Colin Montgomerie’s native Scotland – opened in Quang Nam.
“In our first year of operation, we have seen a large, diverse demographic ranging from European Scandinavian tourists, down to Australia and across to North America with a great desire from the local Vietnamese market to learn and participate in the game,” said Jon Tomlinson, general director of the 7,090-yard Montgomerie Links.
While the common consensus among industry professionals say Vietnam’s north and south golf markets are robust, the geography is a hindrance. At best, Hanoi’s top courses are about an hour outside the city and the better hotels.
The planners behind Vietnam Golf Coast say they offer the advantage of convenience: All golf is five minutes away from hotels and 15 minutes ...
Chambers Bay: Not for the faint of heart
• Complete Coverage | Amateur Blog | Twitter: @GolfweekSMartin, @Golfweek_Lavner
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – Ten feet. That’s often the difference between a great shot and a bad one at Chambers Bay.
NCAA champ Scott Langley hit 4-iron to Chambers Bay’s par-3 15th hole during Tuesday’s second round of stroke play at the U.S. Amateur. The left-hander pulled it 10 feet right of his target, then watched his ball bound through the green and into a bunker. Had Langley hit his mark, his ball would’ve funneled down a slope and likely ended up close to the hole.
“It’s like playing golf in my driveway,” Langley joked about the firm conditions at Chambers Bay.
Langley used that same slope to save par. His chest was facing the hole when he addressed his bunker shot, which he had to play away from the hole. The ball traveled a U-shaped path on the green, rolling up and down a large slope, before coming to rest 3 feet from the hole.
“You get a lot of funny bounces out here, but that’s the way the course is meant to be played,” said Langley, who shot 74 Tuesday at Chambers Bay. “There’s ...
The wow factor
JACKSON, Wyo. – When the real-estate market caught fire a decade ago, a lot of outsiders belatedly discovered scenic Teton County. John Resor already was here.
His family has ranched the valley just south of Grand Teton National Park since 1929. Four years ago, he secured approval to build Shooting Star, a private golf community, on 500 acres of family land.
Seeking “the wow factor,” Resor recruited Tom Fazio to design his golf course, which opened last year. Fazio shaped 250 pancake-flat acres by moving 1.6 million cubic yards of dirt. It’s largely a core golf experience, with most of the homes clustered on the north end of the property, near Teton Village and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
“Around the course, you’ll see cattle rather than condos,” Resor says.
While Resor’s timing might seem inopportune – coming as the real-estate market slumps and golf courses are closing – buyers have taken notice. Shooting Star has sold 12 golf cabins, which start at $4.75 million, 30 lots and 170 memberships, each of which require a $100,000 initiation fee.
“In a very difficult market, to sell that many memberships is pretty strong,” says Clayton Andrews, executive vice president of ...
Touching down
CHICAGO – As a boy growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Josh Lesnik often whiled away the hours watching planes alight at Glenview Naval Air Station, a military base on the city’s outskirts.
It was wholesome entertainment.
But as the years passed, the air station shut down and Lesnik turned to golf as a diversion. On a recent summer morning near his childhood stomping grounds, Lesnik stood on what had been a busy tarmac, gazing at a landing strip of a different kind.
The fairway of a par 4 extended before him, bending around a water hazard toward a bowl-shaped green. On the same terrain where F-4 fighters had touched down, the land now bucked and rolled with gentle elevation changes, its former runways rumpled, its asphalt replaced by river birch and native grasses.
“For anyone who grew up in this area and remembers what it was, this setting is especially staggering,” said Lesnik, 41, president of KemperSports, a leading sports management and marketing firm. “It’s hard to believe how much it’s changed.”
The transformation began nearly 20 years ago, when Kemper assigned Tom Fazio to alchemize the abandoned air base into The Glen Club, a high-end daily-fee ...
Rolling through the Sandhills
We’ve all been there before, but usually at 37,000 feet. And from there, in the jet stream on a cross-country flight, the vast open space designated “Nebraska” on maps doesn’t look very compelling. But as we discovered during a five-day, 800-mile bus tour of the state, the land here has an alluring quality, with massive rolls and natural blowouts. From the vantage point of a bus window, the keen eye of a golfer spots resplendent holes everywhere.
“We” are 28 Golfweek’s Best course evaluators, on a tour of the Cornhusker State, or at least that part of it that’s of interest to students of course design. The irony of such a sojourn is that if you want to experience a modern variant of classic, seaside linksland, the place to go isn’t either coast, but rather as far away from them as you can get –
dead center in the U.S.
First stop is to Wild Horse Golf Club in Gothenburg, a 250-mile drive along Interstate 80 from downtown Omaha.
On the way, we pass under the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, the state’s attempt at a tourist destination in the form of ...
Around the Bend
BEND, Ore. – The 15th hole at the Pronghorn Club’s Jack Nicklaus Course is a 543-yard minefield of knobs, notches and outcroppings that impede players’ paths to the green. Nicklaus, who somewhat auspiciously dubbed this course “Pine Valley West,” is said to be particularly fond of this par 5, and with good reason. It benefits not just from Nicklaus’ acumen as an architect, but also from the setting. The Three Sisters – the distinctive 10,000-foot-plus peaks of the Cascade Range to the west – are framed picture perfectly beyond the green.
It neatly serves as a microcosm of the golf scene in and around this high-desert town, combining dazzling design with an even better setting. Situated at the heart of the 30-course Central Oregon Golf Trail – which stretches from Sunriver to the south up to Redmond and out to the west beyond Sisters – Bend is a former logging town with a surprisingly cosmopolitan flair.
When it was incorporated 105 years ago, the town was known as Farewell Bend. These days it might be more accurately called “Greetings Bend,” owing to the fact that the city’s population has mushroomed from 50,000 a decade ago to 81,000 today. In fact ...
Welcome home
ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND – “Don’t look back,” my playing partner told me. “Hit your tee shot. Then you can look back.”
I suspect that David Horne has given that piece of advice to many golfers as they nervously awaited their opening tee shots on The Old Course. As if the world’s most famous, and famously quirky, links needed a home-court advantage, looming behind the first tee is the imposing R&A Clubhouse.
Gulp!
But I was in good hands with Horne, who spent 10 years caddying on The Old Course. In that capacity, he saw more hapless tourists bounce tee shots off the Old Course Hotel and shovel sand out of Hell Bunker than any caddie should ever be forced to witness. Last year he launched No Traps Golfing Tours, which affords him the privilege of watching tourists shank their way across the United Kingdom. In the golf business, this qualifies as career advancement.
A seasoned Old Course veteran, Horne successfully had navigated the mystifying ballot system to secure a prime 8:10 tee time for us on a particularly busy morning. For first-timers, the experience feels less like a game of golf than a sightseeing expedition, with the ...
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