[Mac Plumart]

I am planning my next international golf trip...a year or two down the road.  My question to you all is, where should I go?

Internationally, I've been to Scotland and Ireland/N. Ireland.

In Scotland, I played Muirfield, The Old Course, Renaissance, Old Musselburgh, Jubilee, Crail Balcomie, North Berwick, and Askernish.

In Ireland/N. Ireland, I played Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Ardglass, and County Louth (Baltray).

Both trips were amazing...and I am keen on getting back overseas. 

Off the top of my head, I want to see some heathland courses in England with Sunningdale (old) being the first on my list.  But I also want to see some Australian sand belt courses, with Royal Melbourne being the biggest draw for me.  And the wrinkle in my planning is that I was so bowled over by Royal County Down, I'm wondering if I need to get back to Ireland and see Lahinch...and maybe RCD again.

Given that I live in Atlanta, GA and knowing what I've already seen overseas, where would you suggest I make my next international golf trip to?  And for interesting discussion, why?

[BHoover]

All else being equal, I'd be making my first trip to Australia if I were you. Ireland and Scotland are great, but if going to Oz is an option, then I think it's an easy decision. There are numerous great courses and hidden gems, a great golfing culture and plenty of GCAers to meet and hang with. Plus it's a chance to visit some great cities, including Melbourne and Sydney, and you can go during our winter and experience their summer.

[Tom_Doak]

Wait til September, buy the first volume of The Confidential Guide, and plan out your trip to England accordingly.

Australia or New Zealand are a good alternate choice, if you want to go in the winter months instead.  But there is not as great a variety of golf anywhere as there is in England.

[Bill_McBride]

If you don't want to go to Australia a great trip is the links courses including Rye, Littlestone, Royal Cinque Ports, Royal St Geirges and Princes.  You can stay in one location and play them all.   You can play the heather belt courses south of London arrival and last days.  Most all are handy to Heathrow, a direct flight from ATL. 

[Peter Pallotta]

Mac - my preternatural love for the English countryside, and for inland English courses, and for stone cottages hard up against narrow lanes and wildflowers mixing together wildly in wide, unruly swaths of delicate colour, and for cider and hearty cheeses and pipes after dinner, keeps growing year after year after year. I'm beginning to believe in past lives, because that's the only thing that can explain why an Italian-Canadian urbanite who's never left North America can feel so utterly attached to and enamoured by what is undoubtedly the most beautiful setting for golf in the entire world! Also, there is London, and Walton Heath, and nine hole and the cathedral at Canterbury, and the Cotswolds, and Sean Arble's tours of tier two courses. Also, off Tom's point: the 'average English course' is better than the vast majority of golf courses anywhere, or so it seems to me/my past life.  But sure, go ahead -- if you want to admit to yourself and others that you are merely a belt notcher intent on playing only the greatest of the greats, sure, go ahead and book your ticket to the the Australian sand belt. Please do -- my England doesn't need belt notchers like you anyway!!  

Enjoy, Mac - as I know you will

Peter

[John Mayhugh]

Another vote for England.  I've hardly exhausted possibilities in Ireland, Scotland, Australia, or the Continent, but England continues to be the place I keep wanting to return to.  Plenty of variety (links/heathland/parkland/downland), and the quality of the second and probably third tier courses is unmatched.  As long as you're not obsessed with only playing famous courses (and you don't seem to be), then England is the place to go.

Living in Atlanta, you can leave at night and be playing somewhere the next afternoon.  Flying Delta, you could probably even get in a round the day you head home.  It's a quick enough trip that you can go for only three or four days of golf if needed.

Oh, and London isn't exactly boring.

[Pete Lavallee]

Here was our itinerary for our England trip a few years ago; we didn't visit Kent concentrating on the London region and the southwest were my wife's relatives reside:

Woking
The Addington
West Sussex
Isle of Purbeck
St Enodoc
Saunton East & West.
Drinks @Burnham & Borrow, timing didn't work out
Lunch @ Stoke Park instead
Royal Ashdown Forest

Fantastic golf, very welcoming, just don't change your shoes in the car park or wear shorts with short socks!

The only  downside is that outside play usually begins after 10:00, so time for 36 or two courses is limited.

Be sure to bring a dog with you, you'll fit right in!

[Greg Tallman]

Direct flight to Cabo... Just under 4 hours

Ocean Course
Diamanté
Chileno Bay
Quivira
Tigers course at Diamante

[John Kavanaugh]

Considering that you are single, buff and wealthy, not to mention reasonably handsome...I would head to Japan.  The reasons are obvious to even a casual observer.

[Scott Warren]

England.

Play Swinley, Sunningdale and Walton Heath so you have seen the best heathland golf - they are he best for a reason, but make sure you make time for the likes of Huntercombe, West Sussex, New Zealand, Woking, The Addington.

If you stay in London within walking distance of Waterloo station you can do them all easily by train (of the above only Huntercombe is accessed by a different station, Paddington) and enjoy London by night.

And that's without venturing to the Kent links or up to the midlands.

The opportunity for day trips is endless - John Lyon proved that a Londoner can even do Prestwick as a day trip by train!

[William_G]

dude, like you need to ask, LOL

[mike_beene]

I would consider doing a St Andrews only trip and immersing myself in the Old Course

[Sean_A]

Wait til September, buy the first volume of The Confidential Guide, and plan out your trip to England accordingly.

Australia or New Zealand are a good alternate choice, if you want to go in the winter months instead.  But there is not as great a variety of golf anywhere as there is in England.

Or, for a modest fee you could give me a shout and I will organize a trip to your hert's desire  .

Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

Wait til September, buy the first volume of The Confidential Guide, and plan out your trip to England accordingly.

Australia or New Zealand are a good alternate choice, if you want to go in the winter months instead.  But there is not as great a variety of golf anywhere as there is in England.

Or, for a modest fee you could give me a shout and I will organize a trip to your hert's desire  .

Ciao

Even you couldn't come up with a can't-miss golf trip that just covered Hertfortdshire, Sean

[Thomas Dai]

Aussie (and NZ) this time, back to GB&I next time. That's how I'd plan it, £$£$ assuming, but then again I'd be trying to link it in with the next Lions Tour to NZ!

atb

[Scott Warren]

Agree Brian, having seen what he has, an England trip should focus on inland golf.

Heathland golf may well be my favourite type.

And if you combined Painswick with Kington and Huntercombe you could also have a couple of nights in the West Country, swing through Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon while you're at it... lovely!

[Adam Lawrence]

Agree Brian, having seen what he has, an England trip should focus on inland golf.

Heathland golf may well be my favourite type.

And if you combined Painswick with Kington and Huntercombe you could also have a couple of nights in the West Country, swing through Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon while you're at it... lovely!

I might even buy you lunch if you come to Oxford, Mac!

[James Bennett]

Mac

go around the world.  LA to Auckland to Melbourne to Hong Kong to London and back to Atlanta.

with a few side flights included. 



James B

[Matt MacIver]

I too have been (loosely) planning a trip and southwest England keeps coming to the top so it's good to see Tom's book readying for release.  I'm thinking I'll make my way to the coast first thing and head north and inland as far as a few of Sean's lesser known gems, then back towards London for a few days in the heathlands. Given my limited UK travel I think this would give me the most depth and breadth. 

Good luck planning Mac, for me it's almost as fun as the trip!

[Jud_T]

Mac,

Likewise England and Australia are the two glaring holes in my golfing resume.  Somehow England is higher on my list. Rye, The Sacred Nine, Westward Ho!, Brancaster etc. all have a great allure for me, not to mention the other big names and Sean's hidden gems.  Additionally, not only does it take a full day each way to and from down under and the jet lag is even more severe, I'd want to wait till Mike DeVries' course on King Island is finished and had a full season of grow in as by all accounts it'll be a must play.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Go right back to County Down and play it til you know the place, the club, and the course. Life's too valuable to run around ticking boxes.

[Brent Hutto]

If you're up for 24 hours of travel time, twice, then Australia would be a grand adventure. I personally can't afford the expense or time of a long enough trip Down Under to make flying 10,000+ miles each way worth it. For me that would mean a month-long excursion maybe.

Which leads me to second or third or tenth the England suggestion. My advice for a first England visit would be to fly in and out of London, spend at least 4-5 days pitched up at the Number One in Deal and use that as a base for quite a few rounds at the southeast coast courses. Then on the way to and/or from London make a side trip or two to some of the Heathlands and inland gems.

[Brent Hutto]

Go right back to County Down and play it til you know the place, the club, and the course. Life's too valuable to run around ticking boxes.

There you go again, Mark. Pitching ideas that make me think "I Want To Be There". What a dream week that would be, lost balls and all.

[Jud_T]

Of course a quick trip with 36 each at Lahinch and Ballybunion Old wouldn't be too shabby either.  Best work on a low draw first though...

[Brent Hutto]

Go right back to County Down and play it til you know the place, the club, and the course. Life's too valuable to run around ticking boxes.

One extreme is cramming 36 holes a day but this is the other extreme. It certainly doesn't appeal to me. Going around certain courses more than once absolutely - rushing around no way - but one course or club for, say, an entire week or 10 days of a trip? I would need more stimulation and my desire to see new and other great things would get the better of me.

Ten days would be pressing the matter for me. A week would be great under certain circumstances. It would have to be a very interesting course with a lot of variety to the holes. And I'd hope the weather/wind changed somewhat from day to day. Also, more than about three days in a row with the holes cut in the same locations on the greens would be a bummer.

My own ideal would be maybe 6-8 rounds at that course (mostly 36-hole days but spread over a week or so) with side trips for a round or two each at a couple of other courses within easy travel distance.

There's a certain state of mind that comes from immersion in playing the same 18 holes twice a day for multiple days. It is its own form of "stimulation" for me that can't be done by spending the same amount of timing playing three or four different courses.

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