GolfDash
We hope you can take off work for a few days and spend the time with friends and family.
Relax, turn off the computer, and enjoy the season and all its meaning.
Best wishes for a joyful holiday!
Doug Farrick
John Diekmann
As I've mentioned in other blogs, you can go to Scotland and do a big hotel with spa services and all the rest that goes with it at places like Gleneagles and Turnberry. However, if you're adventurous and want to play more of the fabulous links courses available, then B&B's are the way to go. They are beautiful, accommodating, have terrific hosts and the breakfasts will give you enough energy for 36 holes!
You never have to worry about quality because the Scottish Tourist Board rates the best ones with 4 and 5 stars. Cleanliness is impeccable, as it is everywhere in Scotland, including public bathrooms.
The B&B's exude tons of European charm. Most are in beautiful homes built hundreds of years ago with high ceilings, ...
Who doesn't want more power, or more precisely more distance! So what's the secret? Bulk up so you can swing like a wild man? Of course not.
Golf is a game where all the strength in the world isn't going to do you any good if you don't control timing. We've all seen the guys who swing out of their shoes only to have their shots go everywhere but straight and long.
First and foremost, you've got to be flexible. Said another way, you can't swing beyond your 'flexibility' range. Why, because you'll pull everything out of sync and out of plain and all the strength in the world isn't going to right the ship.
You'll find thousands of articles in golf magazines about what to do if you're hitting the ball every which way - right, left, fat and thin. The one fix that addresses 90 percent of the problems is to swing within your flexibility range.
If you want scientific proof of this, take a look at the book
'The Golf Biomechanics Manual' by Paul Chek. It's written more for physical therapists than golfers, but the logic is irrefutable.
I love listening to peoples who are masters of a particular skill.
Now (to me anyway) Ben Crenshaw is the quintessential putter. I can watch him putt time and time again and not tire of it. His putting stroke is as smooth as silk.
Check out the video below to hear Ben share his thoughts on how to improve your putting.
He shares some great tips, particularly about grip pressure. Listen and improve your putting!
PS: Just listening will not improve your putting. You actually have to go out and practice and integrate some of the tips Ben shares. If you make a commitment to do this your putting definitely WILL improve!...
I want to wrap up the Scottish golfing trip with a piece on the golfing highlights of every course we played. I'll follow this with coverage of our B&B accommodations which, with one exception, were superb.
If you happened to catch The 3 Irish Open last week, that's exactly what the courses we played looked like. It was great seeing the pros trying to make some of the same shots we had and, under the same conditions.
We started with Royal Dornoch. The highlight was playing in the wind and rain. Yes, you heard me right. If you go to Scotland and don't play in the wind and rain ONCE, then you'll feel gypped.
You won't be able to say you really experienced the game as it's often played there. And you don't really appreciate how difficult the courses can be unless you have wind.
As much as pot bunkers are part of most holes, the hole I remember the most from Dornoch was number 14 with no bunkers but one of the most interesting layouts in golf. The long narrow green is set to the right of the fairway and behind a row of 5 berms that stretch for 50 yards. This green is incredibly hard to hit and hold.
[caption id="attachment_1918" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="It Does Rain From Time To Time In Scotland"]
[/caption]
I'm not going to try and give absolute ratings of all the courses we played. That would be presumptuous having played them only once. First impressions are also influenced by the weather, how well you played and course condition. It would be wrong to brand a course's image on one day's experience. However, I do think I can provide you with enough input to plan your own trip wisely.
One last point, except for Royal Dornoch, all course staff and members couldn't have made us feel more welcome. It was a rainy, windy, nasty morning when we teed off at Dornoch, so maybe everyone was affected by the weather. Unfortunately the pervasive attitude there was 'why don't you go play somewhere else'. I hate to say that as I love the Scottish people, but I feel I have to be honest. Royal Dornoch is out of the way, even from Nairn, so it would be understandable to leave it off your dance card. And, it doesn't have anything that you won't find at the other top level clubs.
This is the 1st installment of my GolfDash blog partners John's Scottish golf adventure.
Today he is playing Moray Old and New.
“The old course is considered to be one of the finest links courses in Scotland.
A classic links designed by Old Tom Morris with deep revetted bunkers, undulating gorse lined fairways and smooth fast greens. It is a superb test of golf with seven par ...
I guess this should be addressed to Billy Payne, the current chairman of Augusta National.
Billy, I know how much you and the rest of the Augusta National members care about your course and the Masters tournament.
I haven't agreed with everything you've done over the years, but I do know that you've always wanted the best for this competition and the game of golf. That's why it's a shame that live TV coverage for this great tournament starts at 4 pm on Thursday and Friday. That means we get to see about 1/4 of the play. Think about that, 1/4 of the play for one of the four most important golf tournaments ...
[caption id="attachment_1571" align="aligncenter" width="545" caption="Masters iPhone Application"]
[/caption]Attention all you iPhoners! You can now download (for free) this very cool Masters app for your iPhone.
Heck, why not one more reason to have
the Masters close at hand (literally). I just downloaded it and am pretty impressed with the User Interface. I will be using it for sure.
Here is the application description and some of the key features:
Application Description
For the first time in history, The Master Tournament is offering this live video and live scoring application for the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, from April 9-April 12, 2009.
Key Features
Live video from the Masters Tournament. This exclusive coverage includes Amen Corner ...
In my mind anyway, I typically think of a golf adventure as a journey to somewhere famous like Pebble Beach in California, Royal Troon in Scotland or Ballybunion in Ireland.
However, there is another type of golf that is becoming quite popular among the club-carrying crowd and might best be labeled under the category called "extreme."
I happened to become aware of this through an article I read by Ross Marshall who is the Managing Director of
Golf Holiday company.
It is really a fascinating article that features 6 "extreme" golf adventures. I will just list one below so you get the idea:
$1million par three, Legend Golf And Safari Resort, South Africa
The 18-hole ...
