Golf Digest’s newest course rankings have been released from the vaults. I’ve been eating these things up since I was probably 12 years old. These days, I look at them with a grain of salt of course. But nonetheless, it valiantly succeeds in sparking debate. Northern Michigan is my favorite golf destination due to its mix of beauty, abundance and value. The panelists at Golf Digest seem to back me up in their Top 100 Public courses (We don’t spend much time on the private clubs here at my equal opportunity blog). Seven courses in the Wolverine State check into ...

Did anyone else catch NBC color guy Johnny Miller idiotically mentioning Phil Mickelson’s Winged Foot collapse while Tiger pitched down the 18th fairway en route to his win at Doral Sunday? Talk about a Busch League comparison. The two events really couldn’t have been more different. Shame on Johnny. Aside from the well-known FACT Tiger doesn’t blow Sunday leads, especially three shots on the last hole, this wasn’t a major championship and won’t even be discussed a month from now. Also, Tiger’s safe play led to a bogey. If Phil would have hit iron, laid up and bogeyed the 18th, ...

My doctor tells me if I have more than 14 full traditional Irish breakfasts in a row, my arteries will begin to drip sausage fat. So I guess it’s finally time to leave Ireland, but not without offering up some “Best Ofs"… Best hole: Almost every course had at least one fantastic hole. I think I have to go with the 9th at Royal County Down as my favorite. It’s a blind tee shot over a hill and once you scale it, nothing prepares you for what is below. Simply awesome. Be sure to crack your best drive of the trip ...

One of the top three holes I’ve played all trip comes courtesy of Lahinch Golf Club on the west coast of Ireland . It’s the par-4 6th - and it’s spectacular. (*Note: this used to be the 7th, but recent rerouting has it playing 6th now and the old 6th, “Dell” is now the 5th.) It’s long, uphill, and played into the wind today. The drive is semi-blind though one of the tamer blind shots at Lahinch. It doglegs left from there and that’s where it captivates you: playing downhill to a green perched just overlooking the sea. Adding to the ...

Royal County Down, a lot like Royal Dornoch in Scotland has an overwhelming amount of gorse - a thick, weedy flower that grows all over the British Isles. In warmer months, it grows a yellow flower that can be very popular to North Americans discovering links golf for the first time. I was informed while playing RCD last week that the course didn’t have gorse until about the 1920s. Before then, the dunes were sandy and bare. So what happened? Well, history books of the course reveal the answer. During one of the many course renovations in the 1920s, one ...

So here I am, drinking a pint of Smithwick’s, munching on fresh seafood in what I think is an authentic Irish Pub in the little town of Tralee on the coast of southwest Ireland. Rugby highlights are on TV (there is upheaval about the Six Nations Cup match this weekend when Ireland player Ronan O’Gara was allegedly choked by a Scottish player). I’m having a grand time until my overly-analytical ears pick up Shania Twain on the sound system. The song is from her most popular record, Come On Over, and it seems like they’re playing the entire album tonight. ...

I was a bit confused yesterday trying to find Enniscrone on my Ireland road map. I could only find a town in County Sligo named “Inishcrone". I’m told that is the town’s Irish spelling, but the more used Anglo-Saxon version is “Enniscrone", only maps and sign postings still refer to the traditional form. After I was finally assured it was the same place, I pointed my car in that direction from Ballyliffin. I was warned roads in the northwest aren’t as good as other parts of Ireland. That’s about right. Most of the drive was on narrow, two-lane highway. The ...

Ballyliffin on the northern tip of Ireland was probably my most out-of-the-way stop during my two-week golf tour on the Emerald Isle. In fact, it was a bit frustrating to get to. I was supposed to take the Foyle ferry from Limavady, which was to cut of considerable time on my voyage. The only problem is it was closed due to choppy waters, so a one hour estimated trip time soon turned into over two hours driving around the coast and I barely made my tee time. Not like it mattered, I was one of maybe a dozen players on ...

After four days in Northern Ireland, I can’t have a conversation without a mention of teen sensation Rory McIlroy from Holywood, N. Ireland. Over in the States, we’re all Wie-wild and Fujikawa-fevered. But if you ask anyone around these parts, McIlroy is going to blow the lid off pro golf in a few years. He set the course record up the road at Royal Portrush (61) at the age of 16 in 2005. He won the European Amateur Championship in Milan the following year and briefly held the number one amateur ranking. He made the cut at the Euro ...

I used to play a fade that could turn into a little slice on a bad day in high school. After four years of not playing much during college, it has since turned into a draw/hook somehow. I can’t explain it. But when I encountered the 14th hole at Royal Portrush this afternoon, named “Calamity", I was thankful I don’t slice anymore. This par 3 is a slicer’s nightmare. It’s 210 yards and has a feature far more intimidating than a simple water hazard on the right hand side. The green plays to a surface at the top of a ...

Royal Portrush on the northernmost coast of Northern Ireland is only about an hour or so from Belfast if you take the direct route. If you’re a tourist and have the time to make an hour or two detour, the Scenic Causeway Route (A2) along the northeast coastline is well worth the added time in your car. Between tiny little coastal towns, the scenery is stunning. When you envision a “green Ireland", this is where it’s at. Ballycastle, a town about 10 miles from Portrush, has a golf club that looks very appealing and I’ve heard little about it. It’s ...

Anytime you go on a golf trip, fair or not, you look forward to one or two courses more than others. For my two-week trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, I was probably looking forward to Royal County Down the most. So when I showed up on Monday for my afternoon tee time, I tried to shake off the fact winds were picking up, and ominous clouds loomed over the mountains of Mourn. This, after all, was my big day, weather isn’t going to stop me from playing arguably the British Isles’ finest links. Simply driving in from Dublin on ...

On my first hole today at Portmarnock Golf Club, there was blustery wind and rainfall, a far cry from Myrtle Beach. By the second fairway, it had cleared up and was warm again. Go figure. I don’t think I’ve ever captured a rainbow on a golf course until today during my first round in Ireland. See below: Wild weather reveals pretty rainbow in Ireland.

I’m thumbing through all the photos I took in Scotland, and don’t remember ever seeing what I saw today at Portmarnock Golf Club, just outside Dublin, Ireland. All of the fairways are lined with little white posts that look like O.B. stakes or 150-yard markers. Only they simply outline where the fairway is. There are pros and cons to this. The pros of course are that for all the tourists, who are going to play the course just once and don’t want to drop eight Euro on a stroke saver or more for a caddie, have a helping hand. The ...

I was out playing golf in Las Vegas this week, and while at Bali Hai, a Pacific-themed course with waterfalls, exotic fish and nearly 2,500 palm trees, it snowed. Yes, it snowed in Vegas - and it was real snow, I think. You can never be too sure on the Strip… It was only intermittently over the course of about an hour, but needless to say, I need a golf trip where the air is warm and the sunshine reigns. That’s right, I’m going to golf in Ireland. I’ll be off on a two-week golf tour starting tomorrow, doing a ...