I promise you. There can’t be a better place to take a golf vacation this summer than to go to Northern Michigan. The weather is cool, breezy and beautiful. The courses are world class, and thanks to the state’s decade long recession, the prices are cheap. Even better: summer days are long; I have finished many a round at 9:30 at night with light to spare.

Michigan has 800+ public golf courses—ten of which are in the Golf Digest Top 100 public courses. Arcadia Bluffs, Tullymore and Forest Dunes crack the top 20.

You can play Tullymore in season for as little as $70. That’s a bargain.

You can find information on Michigan golf at the official website: Michigan.Org Or try another US golf holiday.

CLUB GLOVE Rolling Duffle 2 Regular

Club Glove has made a name for itself with its high quality golf bag travel covers. I have one and think it’s great. So in recent years, they’ve branched out into other pieces of luggage, such as this Club Glove Rolling Duffle.

Duffle bags are for me infinitely more useful than suitcases, which I consider relics from the days when men actually wore suits. With wash and wear, and wrinkle free sports clothes, I can fit a lot more gear into a duffle bag and not worry about how they’ll look.

The Club Glove Duffle has some terrific features, such as wheels, and an extendable handle. And it comes with two mesh travel organizers that help fulfill the old Boy Scout maxim about packing “bags within bags.”

I need some advice from you, dear readers, on which of the Disney World courses I should play when we go to visit in early summer. My initial reaction from the literature is that the Lake Buena Vista course looks like it might be the most fun, as it runs through some of the resort. But ....

Let me know if you’ve got an opinion.

A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee

by Tom Coyne

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: A thoroughly pleasant travelogue.

Tom Coyne has to be either the luckiest man in the world, the most self indulgent or the most audacious.

After spending two years chasing the quixotic dream of becoming a Tour pro (detailed in Paper Tiger), Coyne takes off on another mad golfing fantasy—this time to walk the perimeter of Ireland, playing every golf course along the way. By journey’s end, Coyne spent sixteen weeks walking more than 600 miles and playing fifty-six different courses for a total 990 holes. If an addict can be said to have overdosed on golf, it’s Coyne. He played more golf in those four months than most weekend hackers will play in a decade.

In the final analysis, I vote for audacious, for it takes a sort of mad genius to even conceive of such a plan. It’s the golf equivalent of Hillary’s Everest expedition, of Roosevelt’s trip down the River of Doubt, or Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki. It’s a publicity stunt worthy of PT Barnum.

And it makes for a fine read. A Course Called Ireland is a light hearted excursion, full of humorous moments and keen observations of both golf and life in Ireland.

Fortunately, Coyne avoids the temptation to tell the reader about every one of those thousand holes. There’s nothing more boring than the guy at the bar telling you about every hole—every shot—of his last round. Instead, offers highlights, describing the courses in general, and perhaps one or two noteworthy holes. Coyne actually is quite good at this, easily evoking images of the wind (and rain) swept Irish links.

I want to go to Ireland to play tomorrow. The Irish Tourist board owes Coyne some money for his book length travel advertisement.

Ironically, it’s not the golf that I’ll remember the most. Instead, it’s the trip itself that I found most fascinating. Coyne writes about the roads, the towns, the pubs, the food, the bread-and-breakfastes, shops, dogs, sheep and mostly, the people. Ireland is apparently a rapidly changing society,with remnants of the 18th century living alongside elements of the 21st. There are also bits about family ties to Ireland, and previous visits with his father.

Coyne’s accounts of the details of his long walk are fun. I laughed at his gamy Keen shoes (I have the same pair of Keen hiking boots shown in the photo), his backpacking, (as an Eagle Scout, I have done my fair share of backpacking), and the various hiking issues he faced —blisters, sore muscles, chafing bits and so on.

Coyne also gets a good deal of mileage out of the various companions who joined him for parts of his trip, and of their different approaches to his epic journey. I’ve heard it said that you really get ot know a fellow when you travel together on a golf trip. In Coyne’s case, the extreme nature of his travels revealed character very quickly.

For several legs of the trip, Coyne was joined by his wife Allyson. She’s an interesting character, always on the periphery of the story, but only making brief appearances. I fouind myself wondering, though: What kind of a woman puts up with this sort of foolishness? First he spends two years chasing the PGA Tour dream, and then he takes off for Ireland. I don’t know many wives who would put up with that.

I have just two complaints about the book. The first is that it’s a little too long. At several points, it became tedious (and I can only imagine how it was for him): another road, another links course. Coyne always managed to bring it back wiht a humorous anectdote, but I think a little less would have been more.

Second, the photos of the trip in the middle of the book are horribly reproduced—something I’ve seen in several books lately. If a publisher is going to offer photos, it should take care to ensure that they’re worth viewing. Otherwise, leave them out of the volume.

Recommended.

Danny Choo, an American expatriate in Japan, has a nice illustrated article on golf in Japan. Most golfers there apparently confine their obsession to ranges, since a golf membership can run as much as $700,000.

try Golf Odyssey for free

Golf Odyssey is a different sort of golf newsletter because the editors and writers conduct undercover inspections at the golf courses and resorts they review. They don’t accept advertising, free vacations or other compensation, so their reviews are honest to a fault.

The goal is to help you get the most out of your travel dollar. The Platinum Places list is a good example. It’s a list you can actually use, broken down into unique categories to make it helpful in planning golf vacations.

Some Category examples:

• The Best U.S. Bangs for the Buck (other than Myrtle Beach)
• The Best Destinations for Same-Day Golf and Skiing
• The Best New Courses to Put on Your Travel List
• The Best Resorts with On-site Golf and Gambling
• The Best Golf Resorts for Additional, Non-Golf Activities
• The Best Golf Resorts for Playing 36 Holes (or more) a Day
• The Most Disappointing Golf Course in the United States
• The Best Lodging Alternatives at Pebble Beach
• The Best Bargain Destination in the United Kingdom
• The Best Private Course You Can Play in Florida

Try Golf Odyssey for free

For most of us, the mere mention of French golf brings forth the image of Jean Van De Velde surrendering the lead in a spectacular way at the 1999 British Open Championship.

It turns out that golf is France is a growing sport, with a large number of quality, public courses. In an article in The Global Post, William Echikson writes of the blossoming of The One True Sport in the land of Napoleon.

Although the British exported their game to this southwestern tip of France more than a century ago, the game has only gained traction here in the past few years. Now France is turning the elite, exclusive pastime into democratic pursuit. French golf courses are financially stable, the number of golfers is growing, and most of the best layouts are open to the public and charge reasonable green fees.

Echikson also writes that the French Golf Association has been instrumental in increasing interest in golf:

The French Federation of Golf modernized: Instead of requiring country club membership to become a “licensed” golfer, it permits green-fees-paying public course affectionados to sign up — on the internet and for only 10 euros (about $13). A license permits holders to participate in tournaments and training sessions throughout the country. Today, the Federation has more than 400,000 members and the quality of play is fast improving. Throughout France, from April through October, clubs put on high-level Grand Prix events to encourage talented young golfers to improve.

I don’t know if France will ever produce a stable of golfers in the way that, say South Africa has, but it just might. The article also makes me think that there just might be a French golf travel industry in the offing.

The article is worth a read.