Scotland will always be golf’s spiritual home but when you travel around Ireland, golf clubs on your back, it’s hard to shake the feeling that somehow you’ve come home. Full disclosure: I’m a proud Scot, one who has travelled the world in search enriching experiences in golf. I have been fortunate to explore…
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It’s early on a crisp spring morning and I’m sweeping my eyes across Mount Juliet golf course taking it all in – it’s hard to imagine a more tranquil, elegant place to spend time. From the moment you drive through the gates of this sprawling estate, there is a sense of idyllic seclusion…
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In 2023, Italy will host its first Ryder Cup. The Marco Simone Golf Club, just outside Rome, is staging the biennial contest between Europe and the United States, and while most fans will base themselves in the Eternal City for the contest, those looking to lengthen their trip would do well to consider…
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Hidden away on the County Wicklow coast, just south of beautiful Brittas Bay, you’ll find a links course like no other. The European Club is a one-off, a place where the rules of how to design and run a golf club haven’t applied since Pat Ruddy, the effervescent owner and designer, circled over…
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Rosslare Golf Links is bathed in sunshine as we walk up the final hole of a round that will live long in the memory. It was Walt Whitman who wrote, ‘keep your face always toward the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you.’ That was certainly how our day on this charming,…
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For golfers the world over, Royal Dornoch Golf Club represents a unique call to adventure. It’s a pilgrimage which requires commitment, dedication and patience. After all this golfing outpost, tucked away in a stunning corner of the Scottish Highlands, sits 50 miles north of Loch Ness and just eight degrees below in the Arctic…
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In my head the atmospheric Old Course was going to be lit up by autumnal sunshine, showing off the home of golf in all its picture postcard perfection. In reality, the stoating rain that had threatened to derail my morning round at the Crail Golfing Society, had followed us up the Fife coast.…
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It’s no surprise to find the Scots have more than 100 words for rain – several sprang immediately to mind as I arrived at Crail Golfing Society, the seventh oldest club on the planet. It was a dreich morning, the darkest and dankest of starts to an autumnal day at the easternmost point…
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As I stand on the first tee at Western Gailes Golf Club, it suddenly dawns on me how lucky I am. Not just lucky in the sense that I’m about to play one of Scotland’s finest links courses, but lucky because there’s barely a breath of wind on the Ayrshire coast, this late…
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There’s barely a cloud in the sky over Prestwick Golf Club as we turn off Links Road and into one of the game’s great cathedrals. The morning sunshine bathes the famous stone clubhouse in a golden glow and the white flags on the 14th and 18th greens, for once, hang limp in the…
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It would be understandable if Dundonald Links felt just a little threatened by Ayrshire’s embarrassment of golfing riches. After all it sits within minutes of storied Open venues such as Royal Troon and Prestwick Golf Club. Another, Turnberry, is 30 minutes down the coast. Wonderful Western Gailes is within a wedge. Barassie, Glasgow…
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A day or two at The Machrie Hotel is all it takes to understand why so many who visit Islay leave a piece of their heart behind. The idyllic isolation from the everyday would, on its own, be the perfect tonic to the bustle of modern life. But when you combine that with…
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There’s a rare sense of stillness and tranquillity as you walk Woodhall Spa’s iconic Hotchkin Course. This secluded, unassuming corner of Lincolnshire may be home to one of the best inland golf courses on the planet but there’s no fuss or fanfare here. The contrary is true, in fact. From the moment you…
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There’s no escaping that the Bracken Course at Woodhall Spa Golf Club is, like many other fabulous venues the world over, will always exist in the shadow of its more celebrated big brother. The New and The Old Course, St Andrews. The Cashen Course and The Old, Ballybunion. The Castle Course and The…
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As I walk towards the 18th green at Royal St George’s Golf Club, through the funnel of Open Championship grandstands either side of me, I allow myself a moment to take it all in. The magnificent lunar landscape of linksland here is exactly as I remember it. The vast dunes, verdant fairways and…
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A par-3 opener: 200 yards, into the wind, eight bunkers around the green, Walter Hagen looking on. Ok, so I made that last bit up – sort of – but we’ll come back to Mr Hagen shortly. Southport & Ainsdale Golf Club is one of the jewels among the treasure trove of links…
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Mythical Ballybunion in south-west Ireland is one of the world's great links courses. The Wandering Golfers travelled to County Kerry and discovered a place that would leave a lasting imprint and a golf course that was the stuff of dreams…
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Royal Portrush has the honour of being the only club outside mainland Britain to host the Open Championship. The Wandering Golfers went to Antrim to play it a matter of weeks before the 2019 edition came to town…
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Augusta National Golf Club is, unquestionably, unique. The vibrant natural beauty, the stunningly manicured fairways and greens, the magic and the mystique of Magnolia Lane. A tradition unlike any other, as the saying goes. And yet if you look just beneath the surface, it’s clear that deep within its DNA, the ancestry of…
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If Scotland is the home of golf, Ireland the luxury holiday villa you can’t wait to go back to, what of England? Scotland and Ireland are quite rightly lauded as mythical golf destinations the world over – St Andrews, Ballybunion, Royal Dornoch, Lahinch – the names trip off the tongue. But a new…
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