Golf Travel Is Back

Just when you thought the last shovels of dirt were being thrown on the golf travel industry, along comes some great news about international golf tourism.

In a recent speech addressing the members of Thailand’s Golf In A Kingdom destination marketing program, Peter Walton, chief executive of the International Association of Golf Tourism Operators (IAGTO), said golf is one of the few international tourism sectors continuing to grow despite global economic uncertainty.

He said international golf tourism was expected to exceed 50 million travelers in 2011, and perhaps reach 55 million, which is equivalent to the level in 2007 before the global financial crisis.

“Golf tourism bounces back more quickly than other sectors,” he added. “In established markets, one in three golfers plan to travel in the next 12 months. That is a lot more than in other sectors like skiing. We also know that golfers spend 120 percent more per person per day when staying in a resort than other travelers.”

Regarding U.S. golf travel, Walton cited that while only 12 percent of the U.S. population plays golf, golfers were responsible for 27 percent of U.S. travel expenditures.

Walton highlighted Spain, the U.S. and Thailand as currently three popular international golf destinations, with Turkey and Portugal among countries that are rapidly increasing golf tourism sectors.

The IAGTO, with 1700 members in 94 countries, is a powerful voice in the golf travel industry. It claims that its members are responsible for 80 percent of golf packages sold worldwide.

Homestead (Cascades) Golf Course

The Cascades Golf Course (ranked #94 in the world) is part of the Homestead resort located in the Allegheny Mountains in southwest Virginia. I'm not quite sure how I let a public course in the same time zone I live in be one of the last courses played to complete my quest. Probably because the course is hard to get to, located three hours east of Charleston, WV, three hours west of Richmond, VA and four hours southwest of Washington, D.C.

Once you get off the interstate highway and onto local roads the real flavor of this part of Virginia comes to the fore. It is an unusual sight, for a Yankee at least, to pass a Robert E. Lee High School on the road up to the Homestead.

During the early part of the 20th century the Homestead was the place to see and be seen. J.P. Morgan was a frequent guest and had a financial stake in the resort. Between 1914 and 1929 it was a magnet for American Presidents, particularly those whose first and last names start with the same letter. During this period Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Woodrow Wilson all stayed at The Homestead. Not to be left out, Ronald Reagan also visited the resort in the '70s. More than half of all American Presidents have visited the Homestead, so it is long on history for sure and shows it off nicely, particularly in the Presidents Lounge.

Homestead has three golf courses: The Old Course (1892), The Lower Cascades (1963) and The Cascades (1923). It is The Cascades course that is ranked in the top 100. The course was designed by William Flynn, who also designed Cherry Hills, Shinnecock Hills (with others) and The Country Club at Brookline. Sam Snead was an assistant pro at the Homestead at age 19 and also served as head pro for many, many years. In many ways, the Homestead is a golfing shrine to Sam Snead, who was one of the greatest golfers of all time, having won 7 majors and 82 tournaments overall. For the avid golf fan, this alone is reason to visit this peaceful mountain resort.

The Cascades course is short, tree lined, narrow, hilly and has small greens. If you play well off uneven lies, then The Cascades is for you. The entire course can neatly be summarized by describing the second hole, which is indicative of the style of golf on the Cascades course. Named "The Dip," you hit your tee shot through a chute of trees up a large hill which slopes from left to right.

Your second shot is to a small green set in a hollow partially hidden behind a hill. While this hole is a long one, at 432 yards, the course plays 6,667 yards from the tips to a par of 70. Short does not equate to easy, as the course has a slope rating of 137.

The second hole at Cascades, "The Dip"

The third hole, "Shelf," is a 289 yard uphill par four that plays through a chute of trees to a small, elevated green.

The third hole's elevated green, "Shelf"

The fourth hole, "Carry On," is a testing 210 yard par three that plays down the mountain to a small green. My round at the Cascades was marred by a continual attack of gnats. I haven't been attacked this badly by the American version of midges since my round at Royal Dornoch about five years ago. It's tough to hit a ball with 100 gnats flying around your head; or to putt while one flies into your ear or eye; but these are minor inconveniences to suffer, being in such a beautiful setting.

The downhill par three third hole

The ninth hole, "The Take Off," is a wicked-hard 448 yard par four that features a tee shot hit down to a valley, followed by a second shot that plays blind to a small green set at the bottom of a hill. The front of the green has a little swale in it, making bump and run shots to the green tricky to judge. You can get some sense of how dense the trees are on the Cascades by looking at the trees behind this green and the next.

The par four ninth green

The tenth was my personal favorite hole called "Slippery Hollow," and you have no sense of how treacherous the hole is while standing on the tee. The smart play is to hit as far left as possible because a well struck drive on this 377 yard hole will bound all the way down the hill if you hit it on the correct line. The entire landing area shoots balls from the left to the right and if you are anywhere right of center you will have a hanging lie like you've never seen before in your life.

The green on the 10th hole, "Slippery Hollow"

Although a short hole, like a lot of what makes The Cascades course a challenge, it tests your ability to hit a precise shot to a small green off an uneven (often severely sloping) lie. I hit what I thought was a good drive down the middle but the ball ended up kicking down to the right. The lie I had was as severe as any I've ever experienced, with the ball sharply below my feet and sloping away from me.

The eleventh, "Lucky Strike," is a testing par three of 207 yards. It has a baby green size for such a long hole.

The par three 11th green

The course has a non-traditional finish, ending with pars of 3-5-5-3. The seventeenth, "Hemlocks," is a 522 yard dogleg left with a stream bordering the right side of the fairway and short right of the green. You can also get a sense of the majestic mountains in this part of Virginia looking at this picture. Since the Homestead is at an elevation of about 2,000 feet it also tends not to get the oppressive heat and humidity other parts of the South get in the summer.

The par three seventeenth with the beautiful mountain backdrop

The Cascades course is located about a 10 minute drive from the main resort. The old clubhouse predates the course and was the home of the Rubino family. It is quaint and picturesque and serves a fabulous trout sandwich for lunch. The Cascades is like an American version of the Gleneagles resort in Scotland. It features a ton of outdoor activites including falconry, fishing, shooting, tennis, archery, horseback riding, etc. Homestead is quite family friendly. When I was there the kids were swarming almost as badly as the gnats.

The Cascades course elegant clubhouse, whose picture adorns the scorecard

I suspect it is ranked in the top out of respect to Sam Snead more than anything else. The Homestead is a very nice, well run resort with charming Southern hospitality. Their formal dining room requires a jacket and has a charming gentility you expect in the South. I would like to return again and play in the autumn with the leaves turning colors; it must be fabulous.

My Journey Draws Near Its End

When the earthquake hit Japan and the meltdown struck the Fukujima reactor, I had to re-route my flight from New Zealand away from Japan, back directly to the U.S. Because of the late change, I had to suffer the indignity of riding in the back of the bus and sat next to a woman on the long flight back to LAX. It's never a good sign when the first thing the person next to you says (in broken English) is, "I'm sorry I'm so fat". She did the whole routine, including the seat belt extender, and lopped over onto me for the next 12 hours. No doubt this is just some kind of karmic payback for all the unkind things I have written about heavy people on airplanes over the years. As fate would have it, she's an operatic performer. A Samoan soprano, in fact. She was accompanying me back to the States to see me through until the end of my quest.

As I teed it up at The Cascades, I got a text message from her informing me that the opera has begun and they are in the first act, and she's getting ready to sing. Only two more courses left to play!

Post Script

I also played the Old Course while at the Homestead. This delightful course plays 6,227 yards from the tips but has some really fun and interesting holes. I especially liked the par five fourth hole, which features a blind tee shot and two islands of fairway separated by rough. It slopes right to left from tee to green and has a small elevated green. If you think 473 yards isn't a demanding length for a par five, play this beauty and think again. The course has a mixed, but great pedigree. It was designed or changed by Donald Ross, William Flynn and Rees Jones and has dramatic vistas of the mountain valley. I recommend playing it if you go to the Homestead.

Bubba Watson & Co. Rules!

First there was New Kids on the Block in the 80s. Their inexplicable success spawned a flood of "boy bands" including the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, O-Town, and 98 Degrees. But musical tastes changed and the boy band phenomenon faded.

That is, until Ben Crane, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, & Hunter Mahan formed the "Golf Boys". Check out their newly released video for their soon-to-be-#1 song, "Oh Oh Oh":



How awesome is that? These guys must be truly cool cats to appear in such a hilarious video. Bubba might have choked away the Deutsche Bank Championship last week, but he is still a winner in my book!

My Top 5 U.S. Trophy Courses

Drum roll, Please.

Check out my top 5 envy-inducing U.S. trophy courses.

Jack's Point Golf

As a first time visitor to the South Island I am in awe. The breathtaking mountain range near Queenstown, part of the Southern Alps, is known as the "Remarkables" and it is obvious how they got their name after seeing them. The flight path into Queenstown is either exhilirating or hair raising depending upon your perspective. With the possible exception of landing at the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong, I don't believe I have ever been so close to a mountain in an airplane. The approach is right through an opening in the mountains and it feels like you can reach out and touch them.

Queenstown at night seen from the air

Queenstown was settled in the 1860's as a goldmining camp and is still a very small "city" of 10,400 people. It is the adventure capital of New Zealand and bungee jumping was popularized here; it is known as a haven for outdoor sports. New Zealand has one of the toughest emigration laws in the world. The place is so damn beautiful and idyllic that if they had an open door policy they would quickly be overrun with people.

Jack's Point Golf Course is set in a valley between the Remarkable Mountains and Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. The course was designed in 2008 by Kiwi John Darby who studied golf and landscape architecture at Harvard. After seeing what he designed here, I would say he graduated magna cum laude. Darby's design philosophy is an interesting one, "look hard, play easy." Jack’s Point was named in honor of “Maori Jack” Tewa who first discovered gold in this region and made a dramatic rescue of a passenger of an overturned ferry off this point of the lake.

Jack's Point is easily ranked as one of the top 25 courses I have ever played. Like my experience at Sand Hills, playing at Jack's Point permanently changes your perspective. The place raises the spirit, elevates your mood and leaves your yearning to come back for more.

The course begins with a conventional enough par four running parallel to the Remarkables. From the fairway to the top of the nearby mountain peak, it rises precipitously, to over 6,000 feet.

The Remarkables taken from the 4th fairway shows how steeply they rise

The remaining holes and overall experience at Jack’s Point are anything but conventional. Holes two through five play sharply uphill and take you out of the valley floor. Like at Gullane in Scotland, the opening holes here rise quickly and sharply. The real drama begins on the 376-yard par four fourth, which offers the first glimpse of the lake.

The fourth fairway aligns with a grass airstrip used by a local skydiving company and our group played Jack's Point while they were diving. When the small propeller plane climbed off the meadow and just cleared the mountain top, it was hard to concentrate on hitting a golf shot. When the divers jumped out of the plane, we didn’t hear or see them; the next audible sound was of the skydivers free falling. The unusual sound was easy to pick up because the golf course, like all of Queenstown, is isolated and eerily quiet.

The local skydiving plane taking off above Jack's Point

The sound of a body slicing through the air in free fall, is unique. After what seemed like an eternity, a series of color parachutes opened above us in rapid succession. The sensation is both mesmerizing and frightening, and I can assure you it is impossible to putt a golf ball when you hear bodies in free fall above you. Like skiers on a slope doing run after run, as soon as the skydivers landed on the ground, the plane came back and they began another jump. The multi-color parachutes present a unique vista against the backdrop of the near vertical rock faces. (Look closely at the picture below and see one red parachute against the middle of the mountain and one just above the tip of the peak. The little white speck behind that top diver is another diver still in free fall, yet to pull his chute). Golfers must muster up all the focus they can to continue their game in this environment.

The skydivers with parachutes opening between the Remarkables and Jack's Point

The fifth is a demanding 511-yard uphill par five and ends the onslaught of the initial uphill holes. The hole sweeps up the hill in a dogleg from left to right. The fifth is also your full-fledged introduction to the "Wild Irishman," a plant native to New Zealand. Like a crazy uncle, you take pains to avoid them; they grow around the fifth green, and the whole course, as a hazard. Locally called matagouri, they are a thorny bush somewhat like gorse, with small leathery leaves that grow up to 6 ½ feet tall.

View from the fifth hole of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown

The 5th green is at the apex of the hill and offers the most dramatic view of Lake Wakatipu. The panoramic view from this spot features Cecil Peak across the lake and Queenstown situated at its southern end. The magnetic vista is hard to take your eyes off of, but the golfer needs to push ahead, as the best is yet to come.

View of Lake Wakatipu from the sixth hole

The 149-yard par three seventh hole can be compared to Pebble Beach's hole of the same number in both style and scenery. The small green sits almost 90 feet below the golfer and your tee shot appears to defy gravity for a few seconds above the water, with an astounding view in all directions. The hole was sited here because the prevailing wind is off the lake directly at you so it can make club selection a challenge. The setting of the course between the crystal clear waters of Lake Wakatipu and the dramatic craggy Remarkable mountains creates a vista comparable with many of the great ones in golf; think Royal County Down's ninth hole in the antipodes, and you've got it.

The amazing downhill par three 7th hole at Jack's Point

The fifteenth hole at Jack's Point is both unexpected and unconventional. The walk from the fourteenth green to the fifteenth tee is up a small incline. When you reach the crest of the hill, there is a handmade rough-hewn stone wall, the first on the course. A peek over the top of the wall reveals a 383-yard uphill par four gem. The tee box is built above a high meadow and the golfer must hit a forced carry over it, to a long fairway set at an angle to the tee box. I remember back to the first time I played North Berwick and was awestruck over the placement of the stone walls. The fifteenth rekindles that kind of wondrous feeling.

The par four 15th as seen from the tee box

The stone wall frames an elevated fairway and is part of a sheep paddock. If your drive doesn't carry the stone wall and ends up in the paddock, you may be able to find your ball, as the area is still grazed. Our friends at Brora would be proud to see sheep back in vogue on golf courses again.

The world-class 15th hole as seen from the fairway looking at the uphill green

The fifteenth is a classic risk-reward hole that dares the golfer to take an aggressive line left, with a severe penalty for missing. The approach shot to the well bunkered green plays a couple of clubs longer because the green sits about 30 feet above the fairway. Darby didn't quite achieve his stated goal here since fifteen is a "look hard, play hard" hole, although everything about it is just brilliant.

When this hole was originally designed by Darby he wasn't happy with the way it came out. The original green was down lower. He sat on a nearby rock all day as the crew shaped the hole and came up with idea of the rock wall and elevating the green to a higher position. It is now arguably the best hole on the course. Don't be surprised to find yourself hitting two balls off the tee even if your first drive is perfectly in play. The hole is that much fun. When I mentioned this to Darby, he said he does the same thing when playing the course!

The 15th hole looking back from the fairway shows the imaginative use of the stone walls

The sixteenth takes you most of the way down the hill in one long 463-yard par four. It is a glorious driving hole and lets you take a no-holds-barred swing given the width of the fairway. The course plays a demanding 6,691 yards from the blue tees and 7,088 from the tips.

The 18th green at Jack's Point at sunset

Jack's Point is sui generis. A buzzing plane, skydivers with colorful parachutes, a sheeps paddock, dramatic mountains and a perfect lake combine to create a unique setting for golf. It offers the perfect storm of distractions no matter where you turn, in an environment so pure and unspoiled it is hard for the senses to absorb it all. Even without the extras, the golf course itself is interesting, challenging and fun. All the fortissimo superlatives I have spouted about Jack's Point are not in the least big exaggerated, the place is revivifying!

As the southernmost course I have ever played, Jack's Point is also one of the most unique. After completing his studies at Harvard under the tutelage of Geoffrey Cornish, Darby apprenticed with both Gary Player and Arnold Palmer's design firms. In my view he is the most under-rated architect designing course today. I have a feeling we will be hearing more about John Darby.

The taxi driver who took us from the airport to Jack's Point was an Englishman who moved here thirty years ago. He came over and spent the first couple of years mustering sheep on horseback. People often ask me what I'm going to do when I'm done playing the top 100 courses in the world. I think I've got it: I'm going to drop out of the rat race, move to Queenstown and do the same damn thing. For many weeks after my trip to New Zealand my wife and boss would ask me frequently whether I was listening, "Did you hear what I just said?" Fact is, I didn't. I would just sit there with a dumb grin on my face looking right through them. Mentally, I was up on that sheep meadow in Queenstown, 14,950 kilometers away. Such is the appeal of this place, that it still has a grip on me.