Garrison Keillor has a great travel column in the New York Times today. Click here to read it. It’s a great read start-to-finish, but maybe that’s because he talks about Scotland and San Francisco, destinations of which I just returned and are headed to next week, respectively. He offers his dry insight on golfers, and why it’s necessary for us to ensure the game’s well-being: The socially redeeming aspect of golf lies in the vast number of lawyers and bankers and managers who play it, and when you think of the damage they would do if they were at the ...

We published our weekly TravelGolf.com newsletter this morning, and today’s topic is a sore one for me, and apparently lots of you out there too who have left comments: Slow play. It’s golf’s inconvenient truth, because the longer rounds get, the more of a dinosaur the game becomes to newer generations who simply can’t justify five hours away from Facebook. After reading some of your (angry) comments and knocking some putts around in my living room this morning, while also putting around solutions in my head, I thought of one that might be effective… Remember how at the local swimming pool, ...

TORONTO, CANADA – A few months back, I was feeling ambitious enough to try and make pad thai myself. Aside from forgetting to put in the sprouts, I thought my effort was acceptable. Having eaten at one of Toronto’s great thai joints on my last night, Mengrai, I now realize what I’d cooked was little more than a pathetic excuse of sloppily-concocted calories. Mengrai’s chef Sasi offers a full thai menu, including numerous pad thai options. I opted for the “Street Pad Thai” which was a perfect texture and amount of spice. On many of these dishes, you can ...

On the heels of the announcement that Pinehurst No. 2 will host both the 2014 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open on back-to-back weeks, the Pinehurst Resort is offering their first ever golf package that provides two rounds on No. 2. I haven’t played No. 2 personally, I’ve only seen the viciously crowned Donald Ross greens on TV. But I would assume this is a golf course that few people are going to have career rounds on the first time out. The package is valid from Sept 9th-November 7th and includes two nights accommodations (with some meals), two rounds on No. ...

I played with hickory shafted golf clubs at Musselburgh’s Old Links in Scotland a few months ago, and I loved it. There’s nothing quite like playing an old golf course with hickories. Your entire body tingles when you hit the sweet spot. And in a couple weeks, the historic Fairmont Banff Springs in the Canadian Rockies course will offer the opportunity to play their Stanley Thompson design from the 1920s in its original routing - and with hickories if you so wish. When we arrived at Banff Springs a few weeks ago to play, the Director of Golf Steve Young ...

TORONTO, CANADA – The restaurant we ate at tonight for our welcome dinner in Toronto is so chic, there is no sign in the front window. You’ve gotta find it the old fashioned way: by address. Even our cab driver wasn’t really sure where this place was. “Everyone else has a sign, so we don’t,” they said at Kultura when someone asked if the sign just hadn’t been put up yet. Vaild point I suppose. It is more subtle than the orange “Hooters” marquee down the street. Kultura was somewhat busy this Wednesday night, so their speakeasy approach seems to have merit. ...

KANANASKIS, ALBERTA - Our last round of the trip in Alberta’s Canadian Rockies and we’d all seen plenty of elk, deer, coyote cubs, mountain sheep, ambitious squirrels running off with our Twix… But alas, no bear sighting. Lo and behold, on the 4th hole of our final round at Kananaskis Country’s Mt. Kidd Course, we stumbled upon the mother load: a grizzly and cub creeping its way onto the golf course. Kananaskis is known for its full tee sheets, thanks to its value price point of $90 and just an hour from Calgary. That said, no one really seemed to be ...

Reflecting back on such an eventful Open Championship at Turnberry, I’m most thankful for Tom Watson reintroducing himself to a younger generation golf and sports fans. This was important, because a lot of us are too young to remember Watson in his prime aside from the odd, non-HD highlight here and there. I was born in 1982, so before I really started following golf, Watson had passed on the torch. I was lucky to see Jack Nicklaus in all his glory at the 1998 Masters, when he made a remarkable Sunday charge that eventually fell just short. But that day ...

I don’t think there is a soul alive aware of the Open Championship not pulling for Tom Watson tomorrow at Turnberry. And looking at the leaderboard, the good news for Watson is that it’s hard to believe anyone is capable of really blowing the field away by a few shots and stealing the title from him. With the Sunday weather shaping up to be rainy and windy, it sets up well for Watson, who is all too capable of shooting a 71 or 72 and walking off with the Claret Jug. I’d be more worried for Watson if we were ...

BANFF, ALBERTA - Quite a special/competition is happening way up here in the Canadian Rockies at two of the finest classic mountain valley golf courses you’re bound to see in your golf travels. This summer, the two Fairmont Hotels here in the Canadian Rockies, at Jasper Park Lodge and Banff Springs, both home to their own Stanley Thompson design built in the 1920s. Canadians will tell you Thompson, who built 144 courses here, was as good as any other Golden Era architect like Donald Ross or A.W. Tillinghast. Here’s how the Stanley Thompson Cup works (they’re naming it that because ...

I was at the Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews for two nights back in April, where I enjoyed a Road Hole view from my guest room and soaked in the views from the Road Hole Bar and Grill with their recently-added floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the course and town. But I also got a sneak peak of a new deck they were planning on opening this summer. When I saw it, it was little more than a little deck to maybe store some patio furniture or for employees to take a smoke/cell phone break. But any hotel manager is going ...

Now that 14-year-old Alexis Thompson has not only made the cut in a U.S. Women’s Open, but finds herself in the Top 10, and Michelle Wie is noticeably absent this week, it’s time to start the media discussion about when Thompson starts competing on the PGA Tour. From Reuters today: “The 5-foot-9 Floridian with a fluid, power swing, was having no trouble dealing with the 6,740-yard layout.” Clearly, even the most difficult golf courses on the women’s circuit are no match for Thompson, who at last check was voted the 23rd greatest golfer in women’s history. I’m not at the event ...

The U.S. Women’s Open is usually the LPGA’s biggest week of the season. Not only is it our nation’s tournament, it’s slotted against the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, who aside from Zach Johnson, no one really cares about as we all start looking towards Turnberry. But this year, the gals are going to be a bit short-changed, and in this year of all years, that is not good. For starters, the most mainstream female player, Michelle Wie, is not here, and for once, I can safely say she got a raw deal. Wie is 12th on the 2009 money ...

I hadn’t heard about paspalum turf, a newer, bermuda substitute that is heat tolerant and easily watered until less than two years ago. Now, it seems like I can’t go on one dang golf trip in a warmer climate without playing on it - or hearing that a golf course will soon be switching to it. Many warm-weather golf courses, especially those near salt water, are eating paspalum up at a rapid pace. They like it because it can handle lower quality of water, like desalinized, brackish or even sea water that blows onto the golf course. Aesthetically, it also ...

When I lived in Myrtle Beach, my favorite weekend was probably July 4th weekend. Friends were in town, the bars were packed, and on the night of the 4th, going out to the beach at night was a pretty wild scene. With all the explosions lighting up the sky for miles both up and down the beach, I felt like I was in the last scene of Glory when the Union troops were storming the Confederate Fort under intense cannon fire. If you’re in Myrtle Beach for the 4th of July weekend, for golf or just hanging on the ...

Just about anyone who has toured the links of Scotland has a soft spot for Turnberry. I have my own little soft spot, as it was the first ever U.K. links I ever played, back in the fall of 2006. I especially enjoyed the little pitch ‘n putt course outside the hotel, which also has an 18-hole putting course on the front lawn. Surely there’s some wagering going on after dinner nightly here… Part of Turnberry’s appeal is in the links land itself, including seaside holes around the lighthouse, like the tee shot on the 10th. I’m also a big fan ...