Graeme Smith has a neat idea: he has developed a website called Senior Golf Exchange that allows people age 50+ to exchange homes for golf vacations. For a membership fee, you can list your home, and search for others you’d like to visit. 

The snow this winter is really getting to me. In spite of dire warnings of global warming, we’ve had record snow and cold here in Michigan. In fact, it turns out that the cold this past season completely wiped out the 100 year temperate increase average. Sorry Al. It turns our you really are chicken little (although I appreciate your having invented the internet).

If you’re one of those who can afford to get away for a week (or even a few days) in warmer climes, my friends over at Golf Instruction Courses dot Com have written a good report on snowbird golf in Florida. You can get the free pdf here.

They’re from Michigan, so you know they’re good people.

As the snow continues to pound down on Michigan tonight, I am further resolved to escape next week to warmer climes. I think I can get from Ann Arbor to Knoxville, Tennessee in about seven hours—that’s a good day’s drive. Can someone recommend a couple of good public courses in the area?

Australia is building what purports to be the world’s longest course—it’s laid out along a highway, and the holes are spaced out over 853 miles.

The world’s longest golf course - a mean 853 miles - is among outback tourism projects given a funding boost by the Australian government to help drought-hit communities.

The Nullarbor Links project involves building one hole at 18 participating roadhouses and tiny townships along the remote Eyre Highway between Western and South Australia.

The course will cross the Nullarbor Plain, where golfers are unlikely to end up in the woods, because the name is Latin for “no trees”.

It will begin at the gold-mining town of Kalgoorlie and end in another time zone, at Ceduna in South Australia.

Travelling non-stop at the speed limit, it would take motorists 13 hours to get from one end to the other. But the idea is to persuade travellers to take a break at the highway’s roadhouses and tiny settlements, where they can tee-off to an “outback fairway”, and “green”.

This is brilliant! And its something that I think the State of Michigan should do. The Michigan highway department should pick eighteen of their roadside stops and build a single hole on each one. People then would be encouraged to drive all around the state to play the Michigan 18. It would be unusual, and would be great for tourism.

Another idea: Each hole would have a vending machine where you could buy a “stamp” that you could stick into a Michigan 18 scorecard “passport.”

I wasn’t trying to cause trouble, but in unpacking my carry-on backpack after my recent trip to San Diego, I discovered my large Leatherman tool in a side pocket. The tool has a four inch blade, pliers, wire cutters and a bunch of screwdrivers. I generally the tool in my backpack in my car along with other stuff for emergencies. I thought I had emptied the pack completely before repacking for the flight, but obviously forgot the side pocket

It passed through airport security both on both ends of the trip—in Detroit and San Diego.

That’s a scary thought.