A look ahead to 2005

2005 is shaping up to be an exceptional year for experiencing golf in the British Isles.  The Open Championship returns to the ‘Home of Golf,’ St. Andrews, The K Club is eagerly anticipating the 2006 Ryder Cup, new courses such as The Grove have been receiving rave reviews, and golf travellers are returning to the links in record numbers.

Because of the increased interest in the leading courses and accommodations in the British Isles, we want to encourage you to begin planning your dream itinerary now and give you some food for thought on additional courses and areas to explore.

Playing St. Andrews

With The Open Championship returning to St Andrews in 2005, guaranteed tee times on the Old Course are not available during late June, July and September.   We still have tee time availability in April, May, early June, August and October.  We encourage you to contact us as soon as possible if you would like to include the Old Course in your 2005 travels.

Attending the Open Championship

Attending the 2005 Open will be as special as playing the course, as Jack Nicklaus makes his final walk across the Swilken Bridge and Tiger looks to regain his form and repeat his 2000 win at St Andrews. If you have never attended an Open Championship it is one of the most exciting and unique tournaments in all of golf, especially when it is held over the hallowed ground of the Old Course.  We still have availability on our Open programmes so you can witness in person the next champion hoisting the beloved Claret Jug. (Click here for our Open package.)

Ballybunion, Ireland

The Old Course at St. Andrews is known to be difficult to secure an advance tee time, but the toughest ticket in Irish golf is Ballybunion Old.  Ireland continues to entice golfers to its Emerald shores as much for the quality of the courses as the ‘craic’ in the pubs after a round.  We encourage you to contact us as soon as possible if you would like to play Ballybunion on your 2005 schedule while we still have tee time availability.

Top 100 Courses in the British Isles

If you are like me, you love it when the new Top 100 lists come out so you can enjoy checking off courses you’ve played and planning future expeditions.  The latest lists are out in the UK by Golf World, UK and Golf Monthly.  We have included them for your perusal and hopefully to provide some food for thought in planning future expeditions to the British Isles.  The Golf World list comes out every other year, is voted upon by industry leaders and does not include courses until they have been in play for three years.  This is Golf Monthly’s first ‘Top’ list and includes input from reader raters as well as industry leaders and editorial staff.  We thought that seeing what the ‘locals’ consider the top courses would be of interest to our members.  (Click here for the Top 100 list.)
 

Ask Sam

While the British Isles continue to garner most of the attention from our Expeditionary Forces, there is excellent golf to be played all over the world and we endeavor to provide our members with the best information possible about it.  I’m currently writing a column for the New England Journal of Golf called ‘Ask Sam’ where I answer questions on all aspects of golf travel and far-flung destinations.  I invite you to e-mail me (sam@haversham.com) with any travel questions you may have on golf in destinations from Australia to Italy.  Our goal is to provide you with the most complete information about matters of interest to you so together we can plan the finest personalised golf travel experience. 

A bit of reading

And finally, until you can get back on to the links we have a couple of stocking stuffers to recommend for your favourite golfers.  The first is the beautiful new coffee table book – Scottish Golf Links, A Photographer’s Journey by Clock Tower Press.  Renowned golf photographer, Iain MacFarlane Lowe, combines his stunning images with historical commentary by David Joy and architectural observations by Kyle Phillips (Kingsbarns, Dundonald, The Grove).  You will find hours of entertainment within the pages.  Besides reading the prose to learn new facts about the courses, you’ll find yourself staring at the magnificent photography while reliving past rounds and planning future expeditions.  The second is The Old Man and the Tee – How I Took Ten Strokes off My Game and Learned to Love Golf All Over Again (St. Martin’s Press), by our good friend Turk Pipkin.  After the passing of his father, Turk took a year’s sabbatical to try to discover the joy his father had given him for the game and to take 10 stokes off his 16 handicap. He spent one week that year with me rediscovering Scotland the way it is revealed to H&B members.  Told in Pipkin’s irreverent style, the book is a journey we can all relate to, and while we may not be able to set you up with instruction by Ben Crenshaw, we can definitely arrange a similar itinerary to our Scotland pilgrimage Turk describes in one of his chapters.

So many great golf travel experiences, so little time.

Cheers,

Sam Baker

Founder & CEO

sam@haversham.com

800-883-3633 ext. 106