The International Association of Golf Tour Operators are in Malaga, Spain for their tourism conference, and last night they voted Orlando as the Top North American Golf Destination for 2010. Get beyond Disney World, Wet ‘n Wild and those funky upside down Ripley’s buildings on I-Drive, and you’ll find there are 177 golf courses in greater Orlando, a staggering number for any metropolitan area. Variety is a big factor in Orlando’s success as a golf destination, since you can find anything from multi-course golf resorts to scores of 18-hole golf clubs of varying standard. It seems like everyone at some ...

Canadians love Myrtle Beach golf. I can’t tell you how many I’ve played with when I’m down there. During January and February I’d always get a kick out of the snowbirds, many of whom were Canadian, waiting out a frost delay on the putting green at 9 a.m. in shorts and a tee shirt, while I’m in the clubhouse clutching a hot chocolate and tap dancing to stay warm. Canadians also have no problem with driving to the beach, even if it’s 10, 12, 14 hours to get there. Well, Torontonians can still make the drive, but now you ...

This golf travel blog is always a friend to those who can help save money on green fees, and I’ve been made abreast of a new online, last-minute tee times program that could do just that for Myrtle Beach golfers. TeeUpTomorrow.com. Those who live around Myrtle Beach or will be visiting the area for golf should look into joining the new program that will help you save cash on tee times, that is if you’ll be forgoing the popular Myrtle Beach golf package in favor a last-minute approach. This website can save some serious coin as long as you can ...

A new golf blog catering to those of us wanderlusting travel golfers is up and running a couple months now, and it’s a good one, so bookmark it: Click here to check out PerryGolf’s new travel blog. PerryGolf is one of the world’s largest golf packagers with many years of experience checking out the best golf courses, especially over in Scotland and Ireland, two countries I try and make it to often for links golf. The blog isn’t just talking about their own golf package deals, anything but actually. They offer a wealth of unbiased advice that any traveling golfer ...

The scrutiny can stop, if just for this week at least. Michelle Wie is an LPGA winner, winning the Ochoa Invitational in Mexico Sunday by two shots over Paula Creamer. Wie closed in style, going up-and-down from a bunker for birdie on the 18th hole. Wie showed at the Solheim Cup that she’s easily the most talented European or American golfer and it was only a matter of time before she shed the mighty winner’s goose egg. That happened this weekend at Guadalajara Country Club. No, it’s not a major or an event that carries a lot of cache, but ...

I’ve played about 20-plus golf courses in Ireland over two trips since 2006, and it’s pretty evident the two best pockets of links golf courses are Northern Ireland and southwest Ireland’s counties Kerry and Clare. Yes, I’m slighting the northwest and Dublin-area links, which are both worthy of a tour of their own, but I think they’re better complimentary regions compared to these two heavyweights. But what I’ve noticed after my most recent trip to Ireland in early October is that the southwest and north are two very different travel experiences. Click here for my column on the pros and ...

HUA HIN, THAILAND – After a busy week of golf in Thailand, it’s time to make the journey back home to Texas. Our group visited three very different cities while here that all offer varying speeds of life and golf styles, one of which would probably suit your golf group the best. Bangkok, of course, is massive. It reminds me of Houston in a way, because the city just keeps going on and on and on with tall buildings scattered all over with no rhyme or reason, and the traffic is brutal. The golf is more of a compliment to ...

BANGKOK, THAILAND – Muang Kaew Golf Club is the closest golf course to sprawling Bangkok, a city that feels like there’s no center and no end. It’s a pretty urban-feeling environment in most spots, which includes a walk under a freeway and teeing off on a par 5 over a net and house - how Thailand golf does the Road hole in St. Andrews, perhaps. It’s an older club, but received a facelift from Schmidt-Curley in 1998 and today is a good test of golf. Golf packager GolfAsian.com says it’s often the first course of an itinerary in Thailand given ...

PATTAYA, Thailand - Two days into our Thailand golf trip, and I’m already nervous about returning back home to the United States and the land of western prices. I can see it now: “Six bucks for lunch? Are you kidding me?” “Caddies are $60 plus $30 tip? C’mon!” In a lot of areas, from transportation to accommodation to services, Thailand is almost laughably inexpensive. I’m of the belief that those who take a vacation are going to end up spending a finite amount of money. It’s just that here, that allocated vacation budget is going to leave you spoiled. Daily ...

To get myself in the Halloween spirit for the weekend I was just reading William K. Wolfrum’s feature on haunted golf courses, from Willbrook Plantation in Myrtle Beach for its old plantation ruins to Trilogy at Vistancia. I’d like to add a couple more golf courses across the pond to the list, one of which I just played a couple weeks ago: Ballybunion’s Old Course in Ireland. Those who have played Ballybunion know exactly why: the cemetery to the right of the first hole. It’s a little eerie and quite a fitting way to kick off a round on a ...

It may be golf’s off-season to some, but there’s a pretty strong field in tow this week on the European Tour. Pros like Anthony Kim, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen are competing at one of the most impressive new resorts I’ve seen in my golf travels this year: Finca Cortesin Golf Resort in Spain’s Costa Del Sol for the Volvo World Match Play Championship. The resort is set up into the hills a couple miles from the Mediterranean coast and just minutes from such prestigious older courses as Valderrama and Sotogrande Real Golf Club. Finca’s golf course is a Cabell ...

Lets all give a special thanks to Parker McLachlin, the “groundbreaking” professional golfer who is the first to have tweeted during an actual PGA Tour competition round Sunday at the Frys.com Open at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, thus setting the “Is golf a sport?” debate back to the time golfers were known for their beer bellies and being unable to climb out of a bunker without hyperventilating. McLachlin’s Twitter feed blessed us all with this wonderful insider knowledge of what goes through a professional athlete’s head in the heat of competition: “Just made birdie on 4. Waiting on 5th ...

Here’s a bit of news I came across this week that seems to represent a growing shift in the world of private golf and country clubs: The Detroit Athletic Club and Forest Lake Country Club have entered a merger agreement which would combine the downtown amenities of the Detroit Athletic Club and golf amenities of Forest Lake north of the city in Bloomfield HIlls. Private clubs all over, not just in Michigan are struggling to stay afloat. I think one of the main reasons is that the younger generation moves around a lot, so we’re not going to pay a ...

Machrihanish Dunes is one of Scotland’s most talked about new golf courses this year. Over on our sister site ScotlandGolf.com, we’ve got the most thorough review of the new course to date from Special Contributor Larry Olmsted. For those who have yet to make the trip down to out-of-the-way Campbeltown, this is a great primer on what to expect. Click here for the full review of Machrihanish Dunes. A few months ago, we posted a story here on WorldGolf.com on the reader feedback about Machrihanish Dunes. To summarize, the reviews weren’t all that great. In fact, it had strikingly ...

Reports from the European Tour this week reveal two tournaments are being added to their 2010 Race to Dubai schedule, while three existing events will be dropped. But one of the new events that caught my eye is by no means a new tournament: The King Hassan II Trophy in Morocco’s capital city of Rabat. Morocco’s largest sporting event, it was founded by the late King Hassan II along with the assistance American golf legend Billy Casper 35 years ago in order to help spread golf to new places. Since then, it’s been a tournament that’s slid somewhat under ...