Another Memorial Day’s come and gone with most people blissfully barbecuing away with little clue about what the long weekend’s really about. Golf should step up as an industry and remind everyone. Veterans should play for free at any course of their choosing over Memorial Day weekend. What better way to show appreciation for the men and women who’ve served than giving up one of your precious weekend tee times? Some courses have already embraced the idea. The Legacy Golf Courses at Cragun’s in Minnesota have been letting veterans play for free on Memorial Day weekend for years. But this should be ... full post »

If you get past all the blue-haired ladies camped out at the slot machines and slowing traffic on The Strip to a crawl, there might just be a little sizzle left in Las Vegas. The new Wynn Las Vegas casino and Casears have joined trendsetter Mandalay Beach in offering topless pools. Besides reaching back to Vegas’ more carefree days, the option is turning into a pricless marketing and money making niche. Mandalay Bay rents out the cabanas above the pool to high rollers for $500 on the weekends. Play Wynn’s new Tom Fazio or rent a cabana overlooking the topless pool? Same ... full post »

Leave it to TravelGolf.com’s resident curmudgeon Tim McDonald to diss golf’s new space-age technology. Just because McDonald’s been playing in the same pair of backwards Florida swampland overalls for the last 40 years doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t want a few updated tools. And McDonald completely misses the point (as usual). The new equipment’s not about improving your score. What golfer with half a brain worries about improving his score? Improving your score! So passe. It’s all about gaining a little edge in the status department. McDonald must think the guys driving around in Hummers are doing it for ... full post »

Well, it’s true as my boss Mark Nessmith points out that I haven’t actually gotten around to taking my ordered golf lesson yet, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been getting guidance the chiropractor hucksters would swoon over. Just the other day, Randy Panton, the longtime pro at Creston Golf Club in the Kootneys region of British Columbia, gave me an impromptu middle-of-the-round sand game lesson. With one slight tweak of my pinkie position and a three degree angle adjustment of my club face, Panton revolutionized this horrific hacker’s wedge shot. Unfortunately for Panton, he didn’t get to see the fruits of ... full post »

Forget the lessons from the chiropractor quack worthy golf instructors. On at least one course I’ve found an easy solution to my problems. The next time I play Furry Creek, a scenic marvel of a thrilling golf amusement ride on the road between Vancouver and Whistler, I’m simply hiring our own Brandon Tucker. Brandon’s feats of ball moving skill will never be more valuable than at Furry Creek. This is a course with enough blind shots around bends and up over ravines into valleys below that you’ll feel like you’re Stevie Wonder playing golf. There’s even a mirror you have to look ... full post »

Chateau Whistler Golf Club, a Robert Trent Jones II design just a walk away from the charming village of Whistler, offers some of the most incredible mountain views in Canada. Chances are better than 50-50 that you’ll even get to see a few black bears going about their business as you swing away. But that’s not the most remarkable thing about Chateau Whistler. The most remarkable thing is how they welcome bad golfers, hopeless hackers and dubious duffers. Led by Director of Golf Rod Cochrane, the staff at Chateau Whistler sets an incredible tone of just having fun for all golfers. This ... full post »

Whistler in May provides a most unique opportunity. Where else but in this resort community two hours from Vancouver could you ski and golf in the same day? And not in some tricked up manner where you’re freezing as you line up your putt or sloshing through barely there snow on the slopes. No, this is the real deal, the best of both worlds. Here’s how it works. You ride up a nearby mountain where there’s plenty of snow left, ski away and make it your afternoon tee time down below closer to village. Where it’s only about 70 degrees and the ... full post »

Now, I’m no Doug Carey, airport freak. Call me crazy, but the least amount of time I can spend in the airport the better. Like most frequent travelers, it’s all about getting in and getting out as quickly as possible. I don’t want a fancy shop or a gourmet meal in the airport. I just want my flights on time and my bags actually following me from location to location. Under that philosophy, the Vancouver airport just may be the best airport for golfers ever. On two recent trips into and out of the airport, my golf bag came out of the ... full post »

Being a Midwesterner by birth and a East Coaster by choice most of my life, I always regarded that “But it’s a dry heat” line desert dwellers throw out there as holding as much truth as “Tastes Great, Less Filling” or a campaign promise. Only after a recent trip to the Phoenix-Scottsdale area, I can report it’s actually valid. Or at least semi valid. Swinging the clubs in 92 degree Phoenix weather isn’t nearly as stifling as it sounds to us Northerners. Now, 120 degrees in July is another matter completely. But 92 in Arizona, not that bad. Almost comfortable. This from ... full post »