I would call it "P.B. & T. C.C." The Pacific Bandon & Trails Country Club, designed by the collaborative efforts of Doak,Urbina,Crenshaw,Coore and McLay Kidd.

It's not the best 18 holes from Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails, it's the best of each first hole, second hole, third hole, etc.

I've now played the three courses at Bandon Dunes four times. On my most recent trip with 11 colleagues, friends and distant relatives (bros from different mos), we came up with this list of the ideal 18. From the black tees it's a par 69, plays 6,396 yards and has the three most difficult holes--the fifth at Bandon Dunes (pictured), the seventh at Pacific and the ninth at Trails--which makes for a tough front nine.

Hole: Course - yardage - par - (hole handicap at that course). Comment.

No. 1: Pacific Dunes - 370 - 4 - (9). I don't love any of the starting holes, but we agreed Pacific is the best from the back tees.

No. 2: Bandon Trails - 214 - 3 - (17). The card says it's the 17th handicap hole. This is NOT the second-easiest hole at Bandon Trails. It's an early gut check, with most swings stopping short of a full follow-through and leaving you a difficult sidehill lie in the sand.

No. 3: Bandon Trails - 549 - 5 - (3). Reach it in two? Pee in a cup.

No. 4: Pacific Dunes - 463 - 4 - (3). I'm calling it the best hole on the property.

No. 5: Bandon Dunes - 428 - 4 - (1). Pull your long, accurate clubs for your tee shot and approach. You don't have those? Me either. Time for the hit-and-hope.

No. 6: Pacific Dunes - 316 - 4 - (13). I always hit the fairway. In fear of flopping sod with a textbook chunk, my sand wedge catches the ball in the forehead sending it screaming over the elevated green. In other words, I suck.

No. 7: Pacific Dunes - 464 - 4 - (1). The hardest hole on one of the best public courses in the country. 'Nuff said. Make a birdie here and consider retiring from the game and going out on top, a la Elway (not Favre).

No. 8: Bandon Trails - 321 - 4 - (11). Going for the green off the tee? Wait. I press the bet.

No. 9: Bandon Trails - 567 - 5 - (1). Reach it in two? Pee in a cup.

FRONT-NINE RECAP: 3,692 yards; par 37.

No. 10: Pacific Dunes - 206 - 3 - (14). It's long and usually plays into the wind. A hole like this puts a spike in rescue-club sales.

No. 11: Pacific Dunes - 148 - 3 - (18). If Doak was OK with going back-to-back par 3s to start the back nine, so are we.

No. 12: Bandon Dunes - 199 - 3 - (18). Back-to-back-to-back? That pot bunker in front of the green is a better catcher than Johnny Bench.

No. 13: Pacific Dunes - 444 - 4 - (2). Am I on Candid Camera? This is not a par 4. If the fourth hole at Pacific is the best on the property, then this is the second-best, and the second-hardest.

No. 14: Bandon Dunes - 359 - 4 - (16). The 14th at the Trails gets a lot of attention, but I'm not a fan. The 14th at Bandon won the majority vote and would be a nice relief after the 13th at Pacific (and before the home stretch).

No. 15: Bandon Trails - 406 - 4 - (8). Hit it a long way off the tee, just not in the fairway bunker. Use one more club on your approach, but don't be above the hole or par is impossible.

No. 16: Bandon Dunes - 363 - 4 - (10). Many a man claims to have driven the green here. I've never seen one. Don't miss the view down the coast as you walk to the 17th tee.

No. 17: Bandon Trails - 180 - 3 - (16). Trust it. What is "it"? Your alignment, your club selection, your swing and the little man they call courage who's sitting on your shoulder with a pair of pompons.

No. 18: Bandon Trails - 399 - 4 - (6). It plays more like 499, and I've yet to finish it in less than 6. I'm always yelling, "FORE on the porch!"

BACK-NINE RECAP: 2,704 yards; par 32.

TOTALS: 6,396 yards; par 69.

The first time I went to Bandon I was sure I had the answer to the question, "Rank the three courses." I've been saying: Pacific, Bandon and then Trails but always claimed it was a close call. Only now, after this trip, do I have the right answer. The best course is the one you're playing at that moment. In doing the exercise we did above, you could easily have voted three ways on 14 of the 18 holes on each course. It was hard to leave out the fourth, 11th, and the 15th at Bandon Dunes. We could've easily voted for the 11th, 13th and the 16th at Trails. The 17th at all three courses is the closest we came to a three way tie.

We used seven holes from both Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails, only four holes from Bandon Dunes. There are five par 3s and two par 5s. On paper, the front nine will play a lot tougher and longer than the back nine, but with four par 3s, some short and tricky par 4s and no par 5s, the back nine might be the harder nine to break par (it's more likely you'll break a club).

--Matty G.

Bandon Dunes is the combination of three wishes from a genie, a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and Natalie Gulbis in need of a playing partner all rolled into one perfectly pure golf destination. And it's only getting better.

Last week I flew from New York to Dallas, Dallas to Portland, and Portland to Eugene. From there I rented a car and drove two hours to Bandon Dunes. I left early in the day, arrived late at night and I did it all with a perma-smile, knowing that this was a pilgrimage with plenty of payoff. I met up with 11 other, we'll say, fellow golf enthusiasts. In four days we played two rounds on each course--Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails.

I stayed a night at the new hotel just off the eighteenth green at Bandon Dunes before I moved into a four-man cottage in the "Grove." The new hotel has rooms with all you need (bed, bathroom, wireless and a flatscreen TV) but nothing tops the cottages. I had a martini (they filled the olives with blue cheese) on the back deck of the brand new clubhouse and pro shop behind the first tee of Pacific Dunes. And then Jeff Brinegar, the new head pro at Bandon Trails, took me on a tour of Old Macdonald, the fourth course being built by Jim Urbina and Tom Doak.

The quick back-story: Mike Keiser, who owns Bandon, loves the National Golf Links on Long Island. C.B. Macdonald designed the National. Macdonald is widely considered the grandfather of American golf, founded the USGA and won the first U.S. Amateur golf tournament. Keiser hired Doak (who designed Pacific Dunes) and his partner, Urbina, to create a course as if they were Macdonald.

Old Macdonald will be east of Pacific Dunes and you'll get to the small clubhouse by driving past the current practice facility. There are portions of the new course that are still just gravel and tall dry grass. But the 12 holes that are located in the open bowl of the course, and can be seen by the four corners of the property, look like they're playable. They're not, but they'll start playing preview rounds in the fall.

Pacific Dunes and Bandon Dunes feel similar to me. They're both rolling links style courses with a few holes along the coast, both have some holes that play into the wind and some play down wind. Bandon Trails is inland and cut through trees so it feels different. Old Macdonald, which will look like and play like the Old Course at St. Andrews, will also feel and look different than Bandon and Pacific Dunes. It will play roughly 7,100 yards. It might be a par 71 or a par 73. According to Brinegar, the sixth, fifteenth and seventeenth will be par 5s. The second, fifth, eighth and twelfth will be par 3s. The fifth hole has a green that is 18,000 square feet, and that's not even the biggest green on the course--the eighth hole has a green that is 20,000 square feet.

The big greens and the wind-swept open course with very little protection is only some of the similarities to the Old Course. There's a bunker on the sixth hole that looks a lot like the "Hell Bunker" on the fourteenth hole at St. Andrews. The eleventh hole at Old Macdonald is a lot like the "Road Hole" seventeenth at St. Andrews (a pot bunker in front of the green with trouble down the right side of the fairway).

So Keiser has tapped into some proven success to complete this project. He's using the same designers that he used for Pacific Dunes (this will be Urbina's first official co-design with Doak). Ken Nice, who grew in Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails, is currently growing in Old Macdonald and has experience with the turf and weather conditions. When they put in the irrigation system for Pacific Dunes in 2001, they did so with the knowledge that in the future they're would be a fourth course, so the water lines were already in place. It's no wonder why it looks so good so fast.

Keiser walked the course with Urbina two days before I was there. In addition to monitoring the progress, he's testing out various flags at Old Macdonald to see which one is pleasing to his eye. By the end of the year you should be able to book a tee time to try 10 holes for yourself. You'll play 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 3, 4 and 5. There will be limited spots per day and the fee is still being discussed.

They broke ground on Old Macdonald in February. They've stopped building the last six holes until spring of 2009, but the plan is still set to open all 18 holes in July of 2010. "We're right on schedule," says Brinegar. "Mr. Keiser wanted a beautiful but robust golf course that pays tribute to Macdonald--this is it."

--Matty G.

In the next two weeks I'll be blogging more about my trip to Bandon Dunes, one of my annual buddies trips to the Baywood Pro-Am in Arcata, Calif., a Nicklaus Signature Course in my hometown of Santa Rosa, Calif. and Ambush No. 8 in St. George, Utah.

Another month and another Ambush. I've received and read through 1,200 submissions so far. The September Ambush story about the Baroo Cup is now on-line and so is their Ambush video.

Johnny Cash has been everywhere man, but I've Ambushed in Sea Island, Scottsdale, Destin and Orlando, Florida. I stayed at Pinehurst, Wild Dunes in South Carolina and Garland in Michigan so far. I'm going to shadow one of the three itineraries listed below and will write a story about their annual event in the November issue of Golf Digest.

Share your thoughts in the comments box below.

From Phil Terranova of Green Lake, Wisc.: The "GREEN LAKE CUP" is Big Green vs. Little Green (actual lakes in the area). Background: We're coming up on our 4th annual Green Lake Cup, which is a modified Ryder Cup formatted tournament with 24 players. I started this tournament because my family grew up vacationing in Green Lake and as a kid, I would watch my Dad go off with his buddies and play golf, and then come back and talk for hours about their rounds. This is what really got me hooked on the game. I wanted to recreate these experiences with my friends. Not only has it become a great tournament, it has turned many of my friends into golf junkies. The Green Lake Cup is what every player gears up for during the short playing season in Wisconsin and is often the topic of discussion whenever there is a gathering amongst friends (the wives and girlfriends hate it!). Even weddings are planned around it. Format and History: Day one is a two-man best-ball on the wide open Links course of Lawsonia. Day two is a two-man scramble on the traditional layout of Mascoutin. And day three is the singles matches on the dreaded tree-lined Woodlands course of Lawsonia. Once you play in the tournament and you're either put on Big Green or Little Green--you're on that team for life. Each year new captains are selected by vote from each team, and they're responsible for selecting the pairings the night before each match. The golf is taken pretty seriously, to the extent that the opposing teams don't talk to each other during play. After golf we head back to the home base and everyone loosens up and has a few drinks and then slowly the players will start to separate for deliberations with their captain to discuss the next days pairings and who they think would match up well. The captains then head to a closed room where they select the match-ups, which are later revealed to the rest of the players. We order different colored shirts every year for each day and team. It's pretty sweet when golfers at the course we're on start seeing these guys with the same outfits and they start asking what tournament is being played that day. Then they watch the players on the range and quickly realize that we're nothing special to watch. We have indexes ranging from two through 30. Last year the captain of Little Green three-putted the 18th hole on the final day to lose the match and the chance to retain the cup. The players would absolutely go nuts if we were ambushed and it would be a great memory to put in the tournament history books.

From Jim McCormack of Hingham, Mass.: My friends and I have been playing in a three-day golf tournament for the past 19 years that we affectionately call the Cuda Classic. This year is our 20th anniversary. The tournament is named after its founder Robert "Cuda" Barrett. Dick Kehoe has taken over the responsibilities of organizing the weekend for the rest of us. The first 18 years we played at the Mt. Washington Resort, last year, due to construction, we played at the Balsams, and this year we're playing at Mt. Snow in Vermont. We play four-man teams in a 36-hole match. We also have a low gross winner (wins the green jacket) and a low net winner (wins the red jacket). We used to have 44 players, but it has been cut back to 28 these past few years. Some memorable events from this weekend include: joining a wedding and going through the reception line with spikes on, a hole in one, and many a late night in the Cave (Mt Washington Resort bar).  The group consists of guys who have known each other for almost 30 years. The average age of the group is probably 42. If you can join us this August I can promise you wont go home without a few good laughs, most likely as a result of having beers with Minna and Dickie.

From Mark Vitale of Placitas, New Mexico: Sam Jones and his brother-in-law, Bruce Fleming, along with their wives, went to St. George, Utah. While there, Sam and Bruce played golf and decided this was a wonderful place to come and have a golf vacation. Thus, they started the annual Roadrunner Golf Association St. George Invitational Golf Tournament. Over the years the number of invitees grew from four to forty, which is what it will be in 2008--the 18th annual. The tournament lasts five days. The program is 25-plus pages and includes the event details for each day, pairings, assignments for each player, a record of each players past scores, last year's results, entry forms for each day, the payoffs for this year's events and golf wisdoms scattered throughout. The invitation is based strictly on the players that are out to have a good time regardless of how they play. The first day is a get together banquet dinner at the Best Western Abby Inn with entertainment provided by the members of our group (our own version of Carnac and a special song). Events for the four days of golf include two-man teams, four-man teams, 54 hole individual, 90 hole age group, and Las Vegas scramble. In addition, we have a number of individual events including long drive, birdies, pars in a row, par 3 totals and par 5 totals, special teams, fairways hit, and last man standing. All of the events are done by flights. Each evening the handicaps are adjusted and pairings are adjusted. We also have a special assessment in the extremely unlikely event that a player makes a hole-in-one, an eagle or an albatross. The tournament doesn't come off without a lot of effort. Starting a year ahead, Sam makes all the hotel, course and tee time reservations. The last few years we've added an evening massage (we are all getting old!). A month before the tournament, the official program is assembled and printed with a theme for that year's event. Hope to see you there.

If I don't see you this year--there's always next year. Thanks again for your submissions.

--Matty G.

Bill Jones, Chairman and CEO of Sea Island, located off the coast of Georgia and rated the No. 1 golf resort in the country, according to Golf Digest, will assemble his employees in a ballroom this week to talk about the future.

The most recent past has been tough. Last week a memo went out to 2,100 employees that said: "As a result of several business factors, operational changes and job reductions will be taking place."

The job reductions are close to 300 employees, or 15 to 20 percent of the work force, from the CFO to the part-time seasonal staff who are only brought in to work for the summer.

The operational changes that will be most apparent to the guest or golfer are at two of the resort's restaurants and one of its three golf courses. The 100 Hudson restaurant at the Cloister will no longer be serving dinner. Big George's, also at the Cloister, will no longer be serving breakfast. And from the middle of December to the end of February, the Retreat course (redesigned by Davis Love and his brother, Mark in 2001), will shut down for the coldest months of the year. Don't worry, if that results in more rounds for your group at Seaside, you won't be missing anything.

The business factors that led to the changes aren't unlike what many companies and individuals are experiencing with the current economic storm. "We have less business at the hotel than we'd like, but our real-estate sales, that's what's down," says Merry Tipton, VP of Corporate Communications for Sea Island. "We were trying to equate this to something in our past. The only thing that comes close to this situation for us was the depression."

In the early 1930s, when Bill Jones' grandfather was in charge, Sea Island was forced to print its own money to pay its employees, which local businesses honored until the depression was over.

More than 75 years later, the resort charges $650 to $5,000 per night for a room during peak seasons. "The rates will stay the same," says Susan Kelly, VP of Sales and Marketing. "But we were overstaffed."

Between 1998 and 2008, Sea Island spent $500 million on new buildings, golf courses and renovations. In 2006, prior to the reopening of the Cloister, spa and beach club, there was a significant increase in employees.

Another change on July 7, was that Jones resigned from the board of Synovous, one of several financial partners of the resort. "He just felt like he needed to spend time on his business, and we could probably serve him better without his being an insider," said Richard Anthony, Synovous chairman and CEO, in an article on Ledger-Enquirer.com, a newspaper based in Columbus, Ga.

I Ambushed a buddies trip at the Lodge for the April issue of Golf Digest. I wrote an Away Game about Sea Island in the May issue. On the Golf Channel I called the Seaside course, redesigned by Tom Fazio in 1999, one of the top 10 public courses I've played so far as the travel editor. And, most recently on this blog, I named it the best place to take a buddies trip, especially if you cut costs by going during a shoulder season. In other words -- I'm a fan and was concerned that someone who goes to Sea Island now, or in the future that Bill Jones will be discussing with his staff, might have a much different experience than I did.

Sea Island insists the guest and golfer will be unaffected. "We needed to come to grips with what we should've done awhile ago," says Tipton. "We're going to be much better in the long run."

For the good of the game, I hope she's right.

--Matty G.

And the winner is. . .

They call it the Mid-Michigan Golf Invitational. I Ambushed them for the October issue of Golf Digest. Len D'Angelo, a fairly new member to the 16-year tradition, sent in the itinerary, which included: "In 2007, a 230-pound friend, who shall remain nameless, was paid $50 to wear a ladies' size small, pink sleeveless Polo for 18 holes. To this day that image in my mind brings tears to my eyes (and not all tears of laughter!). That performance probably summarizes our annual outing: For one long weekend, as long as the wives, known as the "scheduling department," clear it, we forget about our worries and our strife, we let it all hang out and relish the fact we'll be made fun of for years to come. And should something terrible happen, God forbid, you'll be remembered forever, at least once a year, as a fun-loving goof. Of course, then there 's also the hundreds of homemade Jell-O shots, the complaining about handicaps and Pat postponing his wedding to make the MMGI. I could go on and on. I'm relatively new to this thing, but I can tell you, this is one heck of a group of guys who are every bit deserving of being honored in your magazine."

Len was right. They were quite a crew. They went to Garland Resort in Michigan, an hour and a half from Traverse City. Michigan has seven of the top 40 on Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Greatest Public Courses, but none of them are at Garland. This was a place, however, good enough for ABC-TV golf commentator and ESPN Radio talk-show host Mike Tirico and his friends, who happened to be at Garland the same time as the MMGI. And this was a place with good-enough accommodations, plenty of space for general guy-bonding havoc. There's room to remember fallen friends and to brag about kid's accomplishments. There was an occasional call to the wives back home, countless drinks, and, oh by the way--some golf.

You can read about their trip and watch the Ambush video when they appear in the magazine and on the website respectively, the first week of September.

I also wanted to pass on a hand-written letter I received this week from Bill Cooper of Port St. Joe, Fla.:

"Greetings, lurking Ambushers. Matt, after reading your article in the August issue about the San Diego dudes who took on Pinehurst, I was virtually powerless to keep from writing you. I realize that you won't do a Pinehurst excursion twice but thought you might be interested in our story.

In August, we, too, will descend like a plague upon the hallowed grounds of Pinehurst. This will be the 35th anniversary of our group's genesis, and we wanted to celebrate appropriately. We discovered each other when we were all steely-eyed jet pilots in the Air Force (ours) and stationed at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, in the early 1970s. We began playing golf as a foursome in 1973 and are still going semi-strong. During that time, however, life was not all fairways and greens. Ever vigilant as we were, we can now proudly divulge that the skies over south Georgia were never threatened by Communist aggressors during our watch.

Now, as we sneak up on our dotage, we are scattered to the compass points, though not all of them. One of us lives in Texas, one in Arkansas, one in Georgia and one in Florida. We still manage to get together several times every year, at least once characterized by a mega-uber-golfathon. We have assaulted your Scotlands, your Hilton Heads, your Sawgrasses and your Whistling Straits (last year), but mostly have gathered close to our homes so that the police, who occasionally found the need to question us, were often known unto us. This year, Pinehurst will fall victim to our onslaught.

We have every good and perfect intention of holding several bottles of young scotch in abeyance, taking hostage a vat, or three, of wine, playing multiple rounds of butt-ugly competitive golf, tell lies (which we have now almost come to believe ourselves) of how skilled, courageous and steely-nerved we were as hot-shot pilots, and revel in the hospitable confines of the Pine Crest Inn as we celebrate 35 years of fulfilling friendships and fall asleep at 9:30 p.m., drooling on our respective golf shirts. Matt, why don't you take a week off and come with us? No Ambush; just exquisite camaraderie as we age anything but gracefully.

Best wishes,

Bill Cooper

Bill, Bob, Ed and Denny,
Thank you for keeping Georgia safe all those years, and thank you for the letter. Congratulations on 35 successful years of buddies trips--Pinehurst is a worthy destination for celebration. Don't dare try to top the land-speed record set by cigar-smoking Tim O'Neill (18.5 seconds) as he rode a cruiser (bike) around the loop in front of the Manor Inn--especially if the pavement is wet from over-ambitious sprinklers. It gets dark and slick out there, and a lit cigar is no headlamp.

Look for the five finalists for next month's Ambush, which will be posted on my blog next week. You might be next.

--Matty G.

Before we get started, I have a few unanswered questions: Why does one airline or one flight attendant insist that you turn off your iPod before takeoff and landing, and some say it's OK to keep listening? Why does security take your nail-clippers and bottled water from your bag but business class on American Airlines gives you metal knives and forks? Why do we have floating devices under our seat on the plane instead of parachutes?

Want to know where to go, or a trip-tip before you get there? Submit through the Travel Trouble section of our website. If I don't know the answer, I'll go to someone who does.

Paulo Costa Jr. of Sao Paulo, Brazil: I'm 57 years old and I'm planning a two-week vacation (last half of September) in New York City to visit my daughter. One of the weeks I would like to travel within the state and play three or four courses. I'm a 27 handicap and being a single, I think I'll have some trouble. When I've tried to schedule some tee times it seems to me that all the sites start with at least two to four players. What should I do? And could you give me some guidelines to which three or four courses would fit my limited skill level?

Paulo,

I've lived in New York City since 1995. September and October are two of my favorite months of the year. My friends and I have had various levels of success playing public golf on the outskirts of Manhattan. Here are some thoughts:

Bethpage State Park has five courses and is 32 minutes from Manhattan. The Black will host the U.S. Open next year. They won't let you play it, and you shouldn't play it if you're a 27 handicap. I'm a 7 handicap and I shouldn't play it, but I do. It always delivers me my lunch--a humble sandwich. The Red and the Green courses both get 4.5 stars in Golf Digest's Places to Play, but with your skill level I'd suggest sticking to the Blue and the Yellow--both 4 stars. Since you will be coming from out of state, they tell you to dial 516-249-0700, then press "0" and say you need to register. After you've registered, then you can book a single tee time two days in advance. (Green fee is $36. Phone: 516-249-4040.)

Spilt Rock, three stars, is 19 minutes from the city. There's also the Pelham Bay Course on property, but most agree it's not as good as Split Rock. A single can only make a reservation the day before. (Green fee is $39. Phone: 718-885-1258.)

Garrison Golf Club, four stars, offers great views of the Hudson River. It can be tight so throw in an extra sleeve of balls in your bag (or a small bucket), but it's worth the drive and the time. A single can call one week in advance to book a tee time. (Green fee is $90. Phone: 845.424.4747.)

Charles Cantin of Montreal: What courses would you suggest in the Southern Pines area (excluding the Pinehurst resort)? I'm planning a trip with my buddies from Canada for October.

Charles, I was just there and Ambushed a few guys at Pinehurst. If you're excluding the Pinehurst resort, top of my list is Pine Needles. But I asked a few colleagues who know more about the area than I do.

Senior Writer of Golf Digest, Jaime Diaz, suggests: "If they're good players with some length, they could go for more challenging courses like National Golf Club, Mid-South and Talamore, but wouldn't recommend them otherwise. The best non-Pinehurst course is probably Pine Needles. The friendliest and also very authentic Sandhills style are Whispering Pines, Mid Pines, Southern Pines CC. Tobacco Road is completely different and a course that should be experienced, as is The Pit. Little River is a resort on the upswing with very nice accommodations. There are some sleepers that lack first-rate amenities but provide some very good golf, like Hyland Hills, Foxfire, Woodlake (Maples course). If I had to pick five for variety and experience, they would be Pine Needles, Mid Pines, Tobacco Road, Southern Pines CC and National Golf Club."

Senior Editor of Golf World, Bill Fields, suggests: "Mid Pines, Pine Needles, Southern Pines Golf Club and Whispering Pines."

Whit Matthews of Philadelphia, Pa.: We're considering a trip to Birmingham, Ala. in November. We have three full days on the ground and were considering playing 36 holes each day at the following three courses, all on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail:  Oxmoor Valley, Oxmoor Ridge and Ross Bridge. What do you think? I think it would be tough to play our two rounds each day at different courses as the sun sets at around 5 p.m. that time of year. Any thoughts on where we should stay or dine out while we're in the area? Or another course we should throw in the mix?

My first official trip to the "Trail" is in the near future so I asked Senior Editor of Golf Digest, Mike Stachura:

"With only a few exceptions, the best public golf in Alabama is on the Trail, especially in the Birmingham area. (There's some very good private stuff, of course, and the best non-Trail public is in the Mobile area.)

Eats (Low Brow): Jim N Nick's BarBQ in Homewood, very near Oxmoor, if I
recall. The legendary Barbecue place is the grittier Dreamland, although it's been dressed up I believe. Hamburger Heaven is good, as is Davenport's Pizza Palace.

Eats (Higher Brow): Highlands Bar & Grill, Ocean, Surin West. One good online spot to check is bhamdining.com."

Steve Goeliner of Cincinnati, Ohio: I would like to plan a trip to the 2009 Presidents Cup (Harding Park Golf Club in San Francisco), but cannot find a company that offers packages.

Steve, I did a quick Google search typing in "Presidents Cup Golf Packages" and there are several points of entry. (Try this link.) I also asked a colleague, Blair Leburn, who worked with some booking agents in the past. He said to call Premier Travel. "They handle Ryder Cup and some other U.S. based golf events. Ask for Ann Mabry."

Chris Schutz of Tuxedo Park, NY: I'm looking to do a Northern England/Scotland trip next year to play Open Championship rota courses. Definitely would like to play Hoylake, Lytham and Birkdale, but would like some advice on the next leg of the trip. Not looking for more than five nights/six days, so is it best to head north into Scotland (Muirfield, St. Andrew's, Kingsbarns, Carnoustie) or should I go across the Irish Sea into Ireland (European Club, K-Club, Portmarnock, County Down)? Any thoughts or better ideas are welcome.

Chris, I like your style. There's no mess-around in your focus for good golf. Choosing between the courses you list in Scotland and the courses you list in Ireland is like trying to choose between one million dollars and 500,000 pounds. Not sure there is a wrong answer. I've played Birkdale, St. Andrews, Carnoustie, European Club, K-Club, Portmarnock and County Down. I've walked Hoylake, Lytham and Muirfield and I've heard great things about Kingsbarns. I've been on two golf specific travel trips to both Ireland and Scotland. If pressed, I'll say I find the hospitality, the food, the roads, the late night fun and the female "scenery" to be better in Ireland than Scotland but I think the courses you list in Scotland are better than the ones you've listed in Ireland. (I hope that helps.)

--Matty G.