Wide World of Golf

As a kid, I couldn’t wait for Saturdays to watch ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” featuring Jim McKay. “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports,” he would say. “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat…”

I was reminded of that show recently when I began reading Ian Cross’ Adventure Golf. Complete with great photographs, Adventure Golf examines the game from fairways to fun days on and around the world’s most remarkable golf courses. This is a wonderful armchair travelogue filled with rich descriptions of marvelous courses in Scotland, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and Southern California.

The book is truly engaging. Not only does it recommend several courses to play in each country, but it also gives a brief history of golf there, lists costs, tells when to go and what to bring, provides a summary of golfing regions, and suggests other interesting activities. You’ll find a “seven-day vacation break” and a “five-day executive stress buster.” You’ll also appreciate the excellent variety and quality of the photos.

Each chapter includes a summary of a few high-end courses, like Scotland’s Royal Dornoch Golf Club, a seaside links course in the lower Highlands town of Dornoch. Said to be the world’s northernmost golf course for world championship golf, it was constructed in the dunes in 1877 by Tom Morris.

After each course summary, there’s an accompanying author’s note titled: “Ian’s Opinion.” Of Dornoch, he writes: “The remote location and stunning scenery is a real draw, particularly on a clear and sunny day. There are plenty of riveted bunkers, and unless your bunker shots are up to scratch, expect to spend a lot of your game inside them.”

Other courses highlighted in the Scotland chapter include Gleneagles King’s Course, St. Andrews Old Course, and the Lundin Ladies Golf Club. The latter is the oldest freestanding ladies golf course in the world. Though gentlemen visitors are welcome to use the course, they may feel intimidated, as women rule the roost here. This is one of the few courses where the gents’ tees are in front of the ladies’, and men are not allowed to enter the clubhouse.

On Safari
The chapter on South Africa is rich with descriptions about the quality of the courses. One unique aspect is the ultimate adventure: golf and safari. You can find world-class game reserves adjacent to first-class golf courses. The best game reserve to visit is Kruger National Park, featuring lions, rhinos, buffaloes, elephants and leopards. The beauty of golfing in South Africa is the cost; often it’s less than 25 percent of what you’d expect to pay in the U.S. for courses of similar quality. Awaiting you are tracks like the Gary Player Course in Sun City, and Soweto Country Club in Johannesburg.

The chapter on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was of particular interest since I have golfed in Saudi Arabia—on an 18-hole sand course! Though this is a desert country, what’s remarkable about UAE is the variety of courses. Here, you can find lush green parklands with water features, all-sand courses where you carry your own piece of Astroturf and putt on “browns” instead of greens, and fully floodlit courses for play into the cooler nights to avoid the sweltering summer heat. A country that’s a mere 300 miles wide and 240 miles long, the UAE offers more than a dozen courses, mainly in the Dubai area. One of the more famous is Emirates Golf Club, which has hosted the Dubai Desert Classic since 1989.

Golf in Japan
If you played a different course every day, it would take six years to play all the golf courses in Japan. This country, made up of more than 3,000 islands along the Pacific Ring of Fire, offers spectacular settings for golf venues. The first course in Japan was carved on a hilltop in Kobe city in 1901 by British businessmen and originally consisted of a mere four holes. Cross reports that more than 17 million of the world’s 50 million golfers have raised their clubs at more than 2,000 golf courses in Japan.

A note to golfers: Watch out for the two-green configuration, which is unique to Japan. Also, many golf course Web sites are in Japanese only. The Web site www.golf-in-japan.com is an excellent resource, in English, and contains details of all Japan’s major courses, how to get there, prices, and online booking information.

One course especially worth mentioning is the Fuji Course at Kawana, which is known as the Pebble Beach of Japan. Its accompanying hotel was a favorite of Hollywood; John Wayne stayed here, and it was the setting of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio’s honeymoon. It was also used as a base by invading Australian troops during World War II.

Golf Coast
And speaking of Hollywood and Southern California, this is the last stop on Ian Cross’ worldwide golf tour. Here, there are more than 400 golf courses on the so-called “Golf Coast” of America, basically from Los Angeles to San Diego. You will find two types of golf courses here: superb and outstanding. One that garners a great deal of attention is Rancho Park in Los Angeles, which records up to 140,000 rounds of golf each year. This public course is open 365 days a year, and claims to be the busiest in the world, with tee times happening every six minutes. You can’t reserve a tee time in advance, but some willingly wait up to four hours to get on the course (not this golfer!).

The Sandpiper Golf Club, just north of Santa Barbara, has unjustly been dubbed the “poor man’s Pebble Beach,” even though green fees can be as high as $130. Several holes on the back nine are right on the Pacific Ocean, and the sunsets here are phenomenal.

This brief summary doesn’t do justice to Ian Cross’ golfing version of the “Wide World of Sports.” At press time, Adventure Golf was available on www.amazon.com for $23.80. It’s worth the investment.

Rick Stedman is an avid RVer, golfer and writer who lives in Yakima, Washington. He can be reached at rick.stedman@charter.net