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Golfdigest.com's New Travel Planner

Saturday, October 30, 2010 Comments
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Have you seen our new Travel Planner? Click here.

Members of the web staff have taken the time to organize a collection of our travel content by state.

For example, click on California and get a recent story I wrote about golf in San Diego. You also get a list of a few places to play and a link to star-ratings and each course's contact info. You also get a "Travel Guide," with links to a variety of recent Long Drives (Los Angeles to Monterey) and any other Away Games we've produced within the last few years (Santa Barbara and La Quinta).

Click on "View More" under "Multimedia" for "A Golfer's Guide to San Francisco," a slideshow of Pebble Beach, or a "virtual guide" of Harding Park, the site of the 2009 Presidents Cup.

We're a long way from replacing your travel agent or trip report from a trusted friend, but this is a big step in making it easier for you to narrow in on where to stay, play and eat when you're on the move.

Thoughts? (There's always room for improvement.)

--Matty G.

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Tuesday's Travel Tips

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 Comments
I get a lot of e-mails from . . . let’s call them “efficient” PR personnel.

Starting this week, I’ll take a selection of the best deals and post them every Tuesday.


What’s more spectacular than the North Shore of Kauai? 

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That’s Taylor, my surf instructor! (You might say shameless, I chose spectacular.) Click here to read more about Taylor Kaluahine-Reid.

Can we agree the Na Pali Coast is spectacular?

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The last time I played the Prince, ranked No. 12 on Golf Digest’s list of America's 100 Greatest Public, the views were better than the condition of the course, but it sounds like they’re taking steps to change that. As a result, if you just happen to find yourself on the island of Kauai anytime soon (I’m jealous), you’ll benefit from a break on the $200 green fee. 

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According to this link (click here), they’re working on the greens and bunkers at the Prince course on the North Shore of Kauai, so you can play it right now for $100.

This is just one of the deals I’m featuring this week . . .

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Trip Report: Tucson Day 2

Saturday, October 23, 2010 Comments
It has been difficult to pull free from the web of comforts at the Dove Mountain Ritz this week, but on Thursday afternoon I went off property to play the Sonoran Course at the Omni Tucson National, about twenty minutes down the road.

With the yellow paint and tall palm trees, there’s a retro mobbish Florida feel to the Omni's facade:

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The Sonoran is a Tom Lehman renovation (2005). I paid $65, which included a cart and range balls. The starter told me that only members can walk the course and some of them do it in three and a half hours. Only members can walk? Much like no fivesomes when there’s an empty tee sheet, I’m labeling the rule that only members can walk: stupid.

I was paired with a twosome of local golf buddies, Jerry Senzig and Richard Harmon (“like Butch,” but no relation). As much as I enjoyed the golf, my playing partners made the day. 

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Trip Report: Tucson Day 1

Thursday, October 21, 2010 Comments
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I’m working my way through Tucson this week, reporting an upcoming Away Game.

The first course on the itinerary was the Ritz at Dove Mountain, which offers 27 holes designed by Jack Nicklaus.

The day gave me a sprawling cactus forest, crazy critters, big cats, wild dogs, a colorful sunset, a full moon and dinner on the classy back patio while watching baseball on a flatscreen, which was hanging over a raging fire -- so far, so outrageously good.

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Trip Report: Just Back From Bandon Dunes

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 Comments
When word gets out that any member of the staff is going to Bandon Dunes, the rest of us scurry for any available space in their travel bags. No one ever fits, so we all walk to the big windows, push our faces to the glass and give them a watery wave goodbye. We drip with tears and envy.

Geoff Russell, editor of Golf World, just came back from Bandon Dunes. It was Russell's first look at Old Mac and I asked him if he would write a trip report.

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Matt:

I just got back from a buddies trip to Bandon Dunes. Me and three old college golf teammates (we’re almost 50 now), four days, eight rounds, each course twice. It was our fourth trip there together. We also went in 2000, 2002 and 2005. I wanted to share a few thoughts...

1) For my time and money, Bandon Dunes is the greatest pure golf experience in the world. Period. Four outstanding golf courses (probably all U.S. top-20 caliber) in excellent shape (Bandon Trails seemed a little ragged in spots, but Old Mac, the newest course and the one we would have expected to be spotty, was outstanding, including the greens). Walking only. Knowledgeable caddies who direct traffic well. Four-hour pace of play (our starting times were 7:40 and 1 p.m. each day, and we were in the bar adding up our scorecards by 5:15 every evening). Great accommodations (we stayed in the lodge, the original structure, which I love because you can walk downstairs to breakfast each morning). Excellent food (we ate in the pub and the main lodge once each for dinner, two nights in the new restaurant at Pacific Dunes, which was tremendous, and lunch one day at Bandon Trails, my favorite of the restaurants, because of the sliders, fish tacos and crispy shoestring french fries). Solid service: from the golf pros, to the wait staff, to the shuttle bus drivers, to the front desk, everyone was friendly, helpful, cheerful and knew their jobs. (The airlines broke my driver, which I didn’t discover until I was unpacking my clubs in the Bandon Trails parking lot 15 minutes before our first starting time. When I went into the shop to buy a new one -- what was that going to cost me? I wondered frightfully --  the pro said, “We don’t really sell drivers. But we have lots of demos. What do you need?”
 
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Catching Up With Ben Crane In The Now (San Diego)

Friday, October 15, 2010 Comments
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"Ben Crane is one of the funniest guys I know," says Tommy Limbaugh, of 4U Management.

Spoken like a true agent. Crane's agent, actually. But in this case, Limbaugh should be taken seriously. 

Earlier today a spoof video was sent to me via Twitter; @jpceasyas123 wrote, "Please blast this out to all your followers. Ben Crane's workout. Hilarious."

He can't be talking about the Ben Crane of the PGA Tour . . . 

Then I watched the video. It was Ben Crane (pictured above) of the PGA Tour, and the video exceeded the hype.

This afternoon (Oct. 15) I caught up with Crane, who's on vacation in San Diego.

Click here for the video and comments from Crane about why he made it, who made it with, and if we should expect any more.

--Matty G.


(Photograph by Getty Images.)

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Quick Q&A With A Beverage Cart Girl: April Davis

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 Comments
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I'll give you a full tour of the Snead course at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, VA., on Friday, but for now, meet the beverage cart girl.

Name: April Davis
Age: 34
From: Virginia Beach, VA.
Status: Single. "For now."

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Sea Island: Sold! (Again. Sort Of.) For $212.4 Million

Monday, October 11, 2010 Comments

After a six-hour chess match, both players reached across the board and shook on a draw.

But wait, the sale isn't official--yet--it still needs two sets of approvals, which means this will drag out until Nov. 4.

This according to the Atlanta-Journal Consitution:

The two competing investor groups looking to buy Georgia’s iconic Sea Island resort spent most of Monday battling each other in a bankruptcy auction before coming together on a joint bid to buy the tony coastal retreat.

At nearly 10 p.m., Monday, a coalition of Oaktree Capital Management, Avenue Capital Group, Starwood Capital and Anschutz Entertainment announced a joint bid to acquire the beleaguered Sea Island Co.-- including its luxurious Cloister and Lodge hotels and four golf courses -- for $212.4 million.

Click here for the rest of the story.

--Matty G.
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Tweeting About Tom Watson And The Greenbrier

Monday, October 11, 2010 Comments
I'm playing in the Tom Watson Fall Golf Classic, which is a small pro-am at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.V. 

Or, so I thought. The pro in the group in front of me:

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Kenny frickin' Perry! And he's playing from the blue tees!

Now, my team has a pro, but he's NOT Kenny Perry, he doesn't have 14 wins on tour, and he doesn't have more than $31 million in career earnings. Thankfully this thing is handicapped. And to give my pro some credit, he rolled in five birdies to help the gross ball.

Today we played the Greenbrier course (this is the 388-yard second):

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The Greenbrier, designed by Seth Raynor (1927) and redesigned by Jack Nicklaus (1977) in preparation for the 1979 Ryder Cup matches, is the only course ever to be used for the both the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup (1994). I'm a big fan, especially considering it's the second best course on property.

We can't play Old White this week, which is where Stuart Appleby shot 59 earlier this year to win the Greenbrier Classic, because, not surprisingly, it has been closed for a modern-tour-player-update. The par will remain 70, but they're adding close to 200 yards, which will make it 7,218 yards from the tour tees.

The new greens have just been reseeded and Old White might not reopen for public play until after next year's Greenbrier Classic, depending on the severity of the winter and the spring.

Here's a shot of the 162-yard 18th of Old White (the green is the big area that looks like a fairway bunker):

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After golf (my team is currently middle of the pack), we had lunch and went to Old White's first tee for a clinic, hosted by the host of the tournament, Tom Watson: 

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I tweeted throughout the clinic. If you're not already following me, here's a link to @WheresMattyG. 

Here are a few of my tweets:

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Here's a picture of Ginny Boskey (I screwed it up her last name in the tweet above--SORRY GINNY!) and her husband, Ira, 86, posing with Watson after the clinic:

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The Boskeys, an absolutely adorable couple, have been coming to the Greenbrier for 51 years and they've been married for almost 62 years. Ginny called Watson, "Tom" because she told him, "I have children older than you are." And Ira pointed out that they've been married longer than Watson, 61, has been alive. 

After I interviewed the Boskeys about why they love the Greenbrier (reporting for an upcoming travel story in Golf Digest), I asked them to give me their key to a long and successful marriage. Ginny just smiled and walked away; Ira told me, "That's a whole separate story." And then he walked away too. 

And that must be the answer: When the kitchen of communication gets hot, know when to walk away. 

--Matty G.

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Giving Praise To Places That Offer Deals

Monday, October 11, 2010 Comments
As you know by now, I believe golf resorts and courses need to roll back their prices to the year 2000. I don't say it as much as Nicklaus says we should roll back the ball, but I'm getting there. 

If we agree Pebble is the No. 1 public course in the country (I don't, but that's a separate discussion), and they went back to a $325 green fee, that forces everyone else back to being in the ballpark of reality. If I see one more French Lick try to charge $350 for a round of golf, I'm going to start writing about buddies bowling trips. 

No course has enjoyed more of my attention for being the perfect combination of too expensive and too hard than the Ocean Course at Kiawah, so when I received the following e-mail, the least I could do was post it. (The Ryder Cup theme is a stretch, and you'll be shocked to hear they would prefer groups of 16, but that's not the point; the point is: it's an offer to "save" money--they're moving in the right direction.)

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With the roars of the crowds still echoing through Celtic Manor, and as the winning team celebrates its victory, another Ryder Cup is in the record books. The thrill doesn’t have to end there. Kiawah Island Golf Resort, off the coast of beautiful and historic Charleston, South Carolina, is offering golfers a chance to relive the exhilaration of playing for their team with their 20th Anniversary Ryder Cup package commemorating the anniversary of its historic Ryder Cup.
 
“Twenty years ago on the shores of Kiawah Island, the golf world was captivated by one of the most dramatic Ryder Cup championships in history. This year, golfers can relive the glory on the same epic venue, The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort,” said Brian Gerard, Kiawah’s Director of Golf. “For less than $1,000 each, groups can play three of our courses, ending on The Ocean Course, in a complete Ryder Cup experience - playing the same format, sharing the camaraderie and competition on the same venue that produced some of the Ryder Cup’s most lasting memories.”
 
Ideally, groups of 16 would participate in this package (separated into teams of eight). However, the resort’s golf professionals will work with each group, regardless of their size, to provide the best experience.
 
The packages, which start at less than $1,000 per person, will receive:

-Three nights accommodations (Villas or Private Homes)
-Three rounds of championship golf, of which one round will be played on The Ocean Course
-A one hour opening/closing reception with complimentary beer and wine
-Breakfast each morning
-Each player will receive: One team hat and golf shirt (red or blue)
-Trophy for the winning team
-On-island transportation
-All taxes and service charges included (with the exclusion of the caddy gratuity on The Ocean Course)

This offer is valid during the calendar year 2011 (20 years after Kiawah’s 1991 Ryder Cup) and is subject to availability. Offer is unavailable over holidays and during the summer (June 1 through August 31, 2011).



--Matty G.

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