We start a jolly good
new series today with Mark Rowlinson. It is found under Best of Golf under the section Best of Non-Golf and it is non-golf travel suggestions for England and Wales.
The first entry is of London, because as Mark says, ‘all things start there!’ We will post a new region each month with regions being covered as below:
1. London
2. South East
3. South West
4. Central England
5. Eastern England
6. North West
7. North East
8. Wales
The genesis of this new series according to Mark is,
‘I seem to have acquired a small number of American golfing friends who come over here to play seriously good golf courses. They consult me for extra-golfing activities - castles, orchestras, ecology, art galleries, industrial archeology, and so on. I'd love to share that with GCA enthusiasts who might enjoy combining a golfing visit to Woodhall Spa with the experience of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby or a round at Royal Worlington combined with Payne's Rights of Man at Thetford (not to mention a few US military aircraft at Mildenhall and Lakenheath, or Evensong at King's. Cambridge).’ One of the original originals of GolfClubAtlas.com, his posts, articles and books are always spot on and whenever I travel to the UK, I take one of his region specific books with me. Whatever he says, goes: his eye for golf is unmatched. Yet, we all have come to know this classical singer as the epitome of a Renaissance man. His tastes and interests in culture are far flung, which is why his writing is always so engaging. No other GCAer (including the ever dapper Tom Paul) has donned a tuxedo more than this Brit based outside of Manchester since GolfClubAtlas.com started. Never flustered, he is our version of James Bond playing chemin de fer!
Since Mark made his first post fifteen years ago, one thing is certain: we are all fifteen years older. Compressed discs, swollen knees, tight lower backs: these new realities make this series timely. The days of 15 courses in 10 days are over, at least for me. To wit, my girlfriend and I leave shortly for Scotland and we are there for eight days and just four rounds of golf. Hiking and Edinburgh are center stage. I only wish Mark was doing one on Scotland but he – ever modest - says he is most comfortable confining his guides to England and Wales.
So away we go with London: enjoy installment 1 of this 8 part series! North-West England is next up, sometime in November.
Best,