This Week at TravelGolf.com: Oct. 16, 2008

More golf destinations need to follow Myrtle Beach's lead on rounds for kids

Once you have kids, your perspective on golf travel changes quicker than Sarah Palin can spin a down-home expression about the good folks struggling on main street.

You'll also quickly realize just how many clueless dolts there are who cry about babies being on planes much louder than the actual babies cry.

Traveling with kids is tough no matter what their age, and it's time for more golf vacation destinations to make it easier once you get there. You're not a bad parent if you want to play golf and take your kids to an amusement park on the same trip, just a regular working one.

Talk to regular golfers and you'll be struck by how many of them need the golf vacation to double as an all-purpose family trip.

That's why more golf hotspots should mimic Myrtle Beach's attitude toward junior golfers. Nine of the best signature golf courses in Myrtle Beach - places like Myrtle Beach National King's North and Willbrook Plantation - came together to offer free golf to kids accompanied by an adult without any of the usual restrictions.

In other words, there's none of that after 3 p.m. or on the fourth Sunday of every month garbage. It's every day, any time of the day during the fall and winter season.

This does more to grow the game than all those slickly produced 1950s-esque TV ads from the United States Golf Association. It's also real family values, actually spending time with your kids rather than just talking about it as a nebulous concept during election years.

In fact, if the USGA really wants to do good, it should pressure any golf course that hosts a USGA tournament - including new U.S. Open darling Chambers Bay - to let kids play free too.

Otherwise, you're as bad as plane passengers who stare daggers at a baby's back.

As always, TravelGolf.com welcomes your comments.

On Campus: In Austin on football Saturday, everything but the golf's weird

People who live in Austin, Texas think it's cooler than New York and Los Angeles put together, one Houston resident said. The city's golf courses are a decidedly more humble bunch, however. And they make a perfect complement to a football weekend. As the Missouri Tigers come to town, don't miss Barton Creek Resort & Spa's Fazio Canyons, Foothills, Crenshaw Cliffside and Palmer Lakeside courses, or Falconhead.

Also: Austin's top golf courses

Erin Hills' Bob Lang: The little guy who beat billionaires in the U.S. Open race

Bob Lang is the owner of Erin Hills Golf Course, a course on Wisconsin farmland that's considered a lock to host a future U.S. Open (most likely in 2017). You know, in exactly the spot that The Donald, Herb Kohler and other billionaire golf course schemers are dying to be.

Blog: Erin Hills a better destination than Chambers Bay

As economy struggles, golf must make the cut: BadGolfer.com offers steps to help the PGA Tour avoid a bailout

As the entire globe faces an unprecedented financial crisis, the world of sports is already feeling the crunch. The NBA is cutting jobs and tightening its belt. And other leagues, including the PGA Tour, need to find a few ways to save money as the economic noose tightens. BadGolfer.com's got a few suggestions for Tim Finchem.

Also: McCain leads key golf demographic