LPGA #8

OldDominionGolf.com: Sweet Music in Maryland

TravelGolf.com photographer Jeff Janas pulled into the parking lot at Maryland's Whiskey Creek Golf Club and promptly gave it his highest rating: "Look at this place-it's incredible. It's my favorite golf course already, and I haven't even played it." After playing the course, senior writer Jeffrey A. Rendall couldn't argue the point. Located near the little town of Ijamsville, about 35 minutes north and west of Washington D.C., Whiskey Creek is two-time U.S. Open Champion Ernie Els' first foray into the golf course design profession. Apparently, he's got a knack for this kind of work. "Seeing as Whiskey Creek's just reaching its first anniversary, you'd expect to see clumpy rough, bare spots in fairways and weak looking saplings bordering the holes," Rendall writes. "Not so." In fact, Rendall says it's obvious a great deal of thought went into creating the conditions for the opening, and how much work's been done in the time since.

TravelGolf.com: Set in the Dublin Mountains

Related Links • This Week at TravelGolf.com (May 28-June 3) • Archives: This Week at TravelGolf.com

In his debut review for TravelGolf.com, staff writer Ken Johnstone visits Powerscourt Golf Club, located in the picturesque little Irish village of Enniskerry, only some 12 miles south of the capital Dublin, and about a half hour drive from the main city hotels. "The course itself is strongly tipped to become one of the finest parkland tracks in the whole of Ireland, and has been designed and built to strict USPGA specifications, with fine sculpted fairways and tiered greens, that will test the ability of the finest of golfers," Johnstone writes. The fine new Irish course, only open for play since April 1996, obviously has major championships in its sights for the future, as it is landscaped to produce almost perfect natural spectator galleries around the whole course.

GolfCalifornia.com: A Fun Layout in Roseville

Staff writer Jeffrey Weidel had just the answer for my ailing golf game this week, a trip to the Diamond Oaks Golf Course near Sacramento. "This is one of those ego-massaging golf courses, a track that typically makes the average golfer want to return for another visit," Weidel says. "The chance of putting up low numbers is always a possibility." Say no more. My game can use all the moral support it can get. This established municipal layout has grown prettier over the past three decades, and Weidel says business is always brisk. Recent upgrades include better golf carts and an enclosed cart barn, plus the driving range has taken on a minor facelift. "Considering the course's classic layout and the fact any level golfer can enjoy some type of success, Diamond Oaks has always been a bargain," writes Weidel.

TravelGolf.com: Tour Edge Wood-Iron

In our featured product review this week, senior writer Kiel Christianson offers a look at the Tour Edge Wood-Iron, one of the newest non-classifiable clubs around. If you're looking for a club that offers the control and flexibility of an iron with the launching power of a wood, this could be the answer. Christianson says the Any Lie Wood-Iron promotes a more upright swing and descending blow, thanks to its somewhat shorter overall length and more upright lie angle. "Those whom we surveyed who used the club in various circumstances (and who weren't too jarred by the club's nontraditional look) agreed that the Wood-Iron would be a valuable weapon in the fight against high scores," writes Christianson.

From the Rough

In case you missed last week's report, be sure to catch OntarioGolf.com staff writer Andrew Penner's review of the Trickle Creek Golf Resort, which opened in the quaint little town of Kimberly (British Columbia) back in 1993. A tumbling trek through pines and rugged alpine land, the course features many elevation gains and losses. Many of the holes dive with the fall lines and cruise along rocky creeks, reaching greens perched onto shelves or tucked eloquently under pines. Whether you're a local mountaineer or out-of-town "flatlander," Penner says the course is a joy to play.

As always, if you disagree with our reviewers on a certain course or just want to sound off about the latest from the PGA Tour, be sure to visit the TravelGolf.com forum, a series of message boards where visitors can write about everything from the Myrtle Beach golf scene to new equipment. There's also a free classifieds section where golfers can advertise that old set of clubs they've been meaning to sell for years. And if you haven't checked it out already, be sure to visit the new TravelGolf.com Pro Shop, a joint venture with The Golf Warehouse. With all of this at TravelGolf.com, there's no need to go anywhere else on the Web.