Golf Adventure Guides Blog
December 17th, 2006
Recently, a few friends and I set out for a great golf adventure in Ireland. For two weeks we played golf daily at one of the many fine links courses, enjoyed the wonderful Irish hospitality every step of the way, and drank plenty of “the black stuff” to keep up our strength.
One of the lads, a talented songwriter who runs his own music publishing company, was inspired to capture the spirit of the trip in song. To celebrate this Ireland Golf Adventure Scott Johnson wrote “Golf — It’s What Guinness Is Fore!” (see lyrics below). You can listen to an MP3 version of the song below and purchase the MP3 file at Googol Press.
[audio:http://googolpress.com/media/l12.mp3]
Golf — It’s What Guinness Is Fore!
With clubs in our bags and balls in our hands
We began our adventure in old Ireland
We were three buddies footloose and free
With dreams of great golf on the links by the sea
The courses were gorgeous like a young Irish lass
But looks can deceive like tall, rough, green grass
With our first round it was made all too clear
Why all the locals drank so much beer
Chorus
Golf — it’s what Guinness is fore
Please won’t you pour us one more
We’ve lost all our balls
Now we’re stuck with our scores
Golf — it’s what Guinness is fore!
We’d start off each mornin’ sayin’ this is the day
That the old Irish course would submit to our play
But by the round’s end we’d leave in defeat
And off to the pub we would retreat
Chorus
From Dublin to Baltray, Lahinch and Tralee
To Sligo and Doonbeg and places between
We hooked and we sliced and we shanked quite a few
For this game is illusive but one thing is true
Chorus
Lyrics and music by Scott Johnson
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Drinking, Ireland |
December 13th, 2006
This article is excerpted from the Ireland Golf Adventure Guide.
An itinerary is not just a list of courses to be played. You must assemble them in chronological order and in a sequence that works geographically. Course visitor policies and holidays influence which days of the week you can play a particular course. The sequence is influenced by the driving times and distances between the courses and towns in which you
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Guides, Ireland, Scotland, Travel |
November 15th, 2006
If you love links golf and are looking for a destination that rivals the best that Ireland and Scotland have to offer, why not consider Australia, specifically Tasmania? I just returned from Barnbougle Dunes and all I can say is WOW! Tom Doak and Michael Clayton have outdone themselves. Here’s a view of the first green looking across to the eighth hole (8th green in the upper right):
When people ask me what I think of Barnbougle Dunes I tell them “take the best of Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, and your favorite links course in Ireland and/or Scotland and Barnbougle Dunes is even better than that.
And not just the golf is great. The food is world class and the lodging is sweet (just a notch below Bandon Dunes in terms of sophistication, but the location — views of the course and ocean — can’t be beat). It’s a long journey for those of you on the east coast of the States (who can hop over to Europe quite easily), but for those of us on the west coast it’s about equivalent to travelling to Ireland or Scotland. Perhaps easier since you most likely you’ll just have one flight between SF/LAX and Australia.
I can’t wait to return.
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Travel |
October 18th, 2006
I recently ran across a fantastic satellite image of Ireland, which I subsequently annotated with the location of a number of Ireland golf courses. A slightly unusual golf map of Ireland, but a fascinating one! To view, click the following link:
www.golfadventureguides.com/IrelandGolfSat/
As you’ll see from the annotated image, I haven’t tried to show all of the courses, just some of the top ones.
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Ireland |
October 15th, 2006
Playing Cruden Bay GC in a driving rainstorm — and I mean a torrential downpour accompanied by gale-force winds — has got to be one of my most memorable Scotland golf experiences. I’ll never forget pulling into the empty gravel parking lot, making my way into the deserted pro shop, and asking the pro if there’s any way he could work in a single. To my surprise he paused, looked at the timesheet very, very carefully and with all seriousness replied, “Yes, I think we can work you in this morning.” Dry Scottish humour indeed. That’s about the only thing that stayed dry that day.
This is a photo of the par 3 4th, which plays 183 yards from the gents tees. Now, it looks quite lovely and harmless here in the photo taken by Aidan Bradley, but into the teeth of a gale it’s a monster. With a driver, I think I managed to get it about halfway to the green. I was quite happy to make contact, truth be told.
Cruden Bay is located 40-minutes (23 miles) north of Aberdeen. Its uniquely challenging terrain and magnificent views make it one of the best links courses in Scotland. It’s ranked as one of the top 100 courses in the world (Golf Magazine) and one of the top 40 courses in Great Britain (Golf World). For more on the course, check out this article in Links Magazine about Cruden Bay. I highly recommend getting a subscription to Links Magazine; they have a great ongoing series of the Great Courses of Britain & Ireland featuring a different course each issue.
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Scotland |
October 9th, 2006
This is the story of the original Ireland Golf Adventure (IGA), written by my good friend Tim O
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Ireland, Travel |
October 8th, 2006
I usually like to have everything planned: tee times made ahead of time, hotels booked for each night, etc. It reduces the stress level of just “winging it”
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Ireland, Travel |
February 3rd, 2006
The Ireland Golf Adventure Guide has been updated for 2006/07. All new purchases (immediate download and printed) will receive updated version effective immediately. Customers who have purchased a previous version of the guide can download a free update to this latest version. This is just one of the many advantages of purchasing one of my guides.
Updated information includes, but is not limited to:
- Green fees
- Golf course contact info (email, web sites, etc.)
- Accommodation contact info (email, web sites, etc.)
- Flight schedules
If you buy a travel guide book that was printed sometime last year, or you already own one, I can guarantee that a good portion of the information in it is out of date and/or incorrect. By publishing my guides electronically, I can easily deliver you the latest — and most correct — information. And, even after you’ve made a purchase, because you get free updates for life you’ll always have access to accurate information when you plan your next trip.
Why would anyone publish and purchase any other way?
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Guides, Ireland |
January 10th, 2006
It’s time to get inspired to plan your next golf trip to Ireland. I’ve put together a short Ireland Golf Adventure Movie with photographs of some of the best courses in Ireland. Click on the image below to go to the movie page.
After every golf trip, I put together a DVD with a movie — more like a photo slideshow on steroids — set to music. It makes a fantastic gift and a great way to relive the trip and/or share it with friends and family. This movie is a mini version of that, without a lot of personal shots, and just a lot of great golf course photos.
Golf course photographs by Aidan Bradley and music by Scott Johnson. Thanks guys!
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Ireland |
September 22nd, 2005
Muirfield, the Home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, has a new web site. I’ve just updated the Scotland Golf Adventure Guide to include the URL of the web site as well as their improved procedure for requesting tee times.
From the Visitor Tee Times section of the web site, the club states:
We have introduced this facility to enable visitors to check if we have available tee times when they want thereby saving the time and cost on unnecessary phone calls. Please note that times in the peak season from May to September are taken up very quickly and you are advised to plan well in advance. Generally we can take bookings a year ahead but this will depend on when green fees are fixed for the following year. The calendar will show those dates up to which we can take a booking.
For those who are not successful in getting a peak season time, we would point out that Muirfield has ideal playing conditions all year round and we do not convert to temporary tees and greens in winter.
While it’s not really an online booking system, you are able to easily see which days they might have tee times available, then send a web-based email message (with all the pertinent details) to make contact with the club and start the booking process. Check out the Notes for the Guidance of Visitors page for booking details.
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Rob Babcock
Author/Golfer/The Golf Guide Guy
www.GolfAdventureGuides.com
Posted in Scotland |
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Golf – It’s What Guinness Is Fore!
